Asia: Pre-History to Present

Division: Asia--Pre-History to the Present

Early Modern South Asia

Graduate students preparing a field in the history of South Asia 1200-1800 will be expected to gain a broad familiarity with the history of the Sultanate and Mughal period in addition to the histories of various regional dynasties. The social, cultural, and political history of the period is emphasized and includes state formation and the emergence and transformation of caste and ethnic identity, religious traditions, warrior and peasant cultures, trading networks, and intellectual traditions.

Students will create a specialized course of study in consultation with the professor. Proficiency in one South Asian language and/or Persian is required for students who wish to pursue a primary specialization in this field. Students who select this as a secondary field need not have knowledge of a South Asian language.

Required course work for a first field in this area includes completing HSTAS 502 and 590 and two supervised directed readings in coordination with the HSTRY 596-7 paper. One will focus on reading primary sources in the original languages.

For those selecting Early Modern South Asia as a second field, HSTAS 502 is required. Two additional directed readings will also be required, one connected to the applicant’s regional/linguistic focus and the other in Historiography.

For those selecting Modern South Asia as a third or fourth field, HSTAS 502 is required. Depending on research and training needs, a directed reading (HSTRY 600) will also be supervised by Prof. Dhavan.

Proficiency in one South Asian language and/or Persian is required for students who wish to pursue a primary specialization in this field. Students who select this as a secondary field need not have knowledge of a South Asian language.

Division: Comparative History (Historiography & Comparative Gender)

Students preparing a field in Historiography will study the impact of modern historical theories and methodologies on our understanding of early modern South Asian history including nationalist, feminist, marxist, and subaltern modes of analysis. The course of study in the field will also explore oral traditions, mythological concepts of time, memory and history in textual sources and art from the early modern period.

A field in Comparative Gender in South Asia from 1200-1800 will examine the construction of gender in early modern South Asia and its specific interactions with caste, social class, and ethnicity. Readings will focus on the construction of gender in courtly, warrior, ascetic, and mystical traditions in the early modern period as well as the considerable body of theoretical and methodological debates about the history of gender put forward by modern scholars.

Division: Asia--Pre-History to the Present

Students preparing this field will consider China in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including social, cultural, gender, urban history.

Division: Comparative History (Comparative Gender & Comparative Ethnicity & Nationalism)

Students preparing a field in Comparative Gender will consider the transformation and reconstruction of gender boundaries and identities through political, social, and cultural discourses and practices. Students preparing a field in Comparative Ethnicity and Nationalism will study China from an empire to a nation state, and formation/transformation of regional, ethnic, gender, and class identities in the process, as well as Chinese nationalism and revolutions and their relations to imperialism and colonialism.

Division: Asia--Pre-History to the Present

Professor Giebel offers fields covering the material and human history of Viet Nam from the beginnings to the present. Students focusing on the period before 1800 will emphasize local cultures and early kingdoms through the study of religion, architecture, art, archaeology, economics, ecology, and textual studies (literature, laws, chronicles, and oral traditions). Students working in the modern period will focus on the social, political, cultural and economic changes in Viet Nam from 1800 to the present. Emphasizes the growth of staes, imperialism, nationalism, the transformations of modernity, independence and the challenges of gendered, ethnic, and religious identities in the post-colonial world.

Division: Asia: Pre-history to Present

Students may work with Professor Jun in modern Korean history. The field examines the social,
political, and cultural history of Korea from the late nineteenth century to the present. Students
will develop a broad understanding of key historiographical questions related to the emergence
of Korean nationalism, Japanese colonization, colonial state and society, decolonization, and
the divergent trajectories of North and South Korea. Students will also be encouraged to
deepen their expertise in a thematic subfield relevant for their teaching and/or research.

Required course for first and second fields: HSTAS 581 and two supervised directed readings.

Students who select modern Korean history as third or fourth fields are encouraged to take
HSTAS 581, though they may opt instead for a supervised directed reading depending on their
research and training needs.

Korean-language proficiency is required for students who pursue a primary specialization in
modern Korean history.

Division: Asia, Pre-History to Present

A description of Professor Metzler's graduate fields is not yet available.

Division: Asia--Pre-History to the Present

Graduate students taking a field in Late Imperial Chinese History will develop a general knowledge of the Ming and Qing periods (1368-1912), the development of relevant historiography, particularly in English, and specialized expertise in one or more subfields. The field will cover both China and Inner Asia. A reading list will be determined in consultation with the instructor.  Students for whom Late Imperial China is their primary field will be expected to command at least literary and modern Chinese in order to develop research proficiency. Students taking this as a secondary field are not required to know Chinese.

Division: Asia--Pre-History to the Present

This field is constructed with an emphasis on island Southeast Asia and the Philippines from 1521 to the present.

Division: United States History

Asian American socio-cultural histories, with an emphasis on Filipino Americans and Filipino overseas workers

Division: Comparative History (Historiography, Comparative Ethnicity & Nationalism, and Comparative Colonialisms)

A field in Comparative Historiography will include Nationalist and postcolonial conceptions of history, deconstruction, critical theory especially as these relate to the politics of translation, religion, and media technologies. A field in Comparative Colonialisms will carry a focus on United States and Spanish imperialism in Asia and the Pacific. The field in Comparative Nationalism and Ethnicity focuses on the historical and technological conditions for the rise of nationhood, as well as the role of mass media, translation and the languages of power in nationalist discourses.

Division: Asia--Pre-History to the Present

Modern South Asia

Required course work for a first field in Modern South Asia includes completing HSTAS 503 and 504 as well as two supervised directed readings in coordination with the HSTRY 596-7 paper.

For those selecting Modern South Asia as a second field, HSTAS 503 and 504 are required. Depending on the previous preparation of the applicant, an additional directed reading may also be recommended.

For those selecting Modern South Asia as a third or fourth field, HSTAS 503 or 504 are recommended. Depending on research and training needs, a directed reading (HSTRY 600) may be substituted for one of these classes.

Proficiency in one South Asian language is required for students who wish to pursue a primary specialization in this field.