History 593RR - S-Race,Religion,&Nation/E.Asia

Junior Writing Seminar: As their nations struggled to find their places in a new world order dominated by Western nations, East Asians saw the variety, visibility, and impacts of religion explode in their everyday lives. We need only think of the bulletproof Chinese Boxers who defied the Qing Dynasty and the entire Western world in 1900 or the hyper-patriotic, militaristic Emperor-worship cultivated by State Shinto in Japan. From European Jesuits in China to American Protestants in Japan to Japanese Buddhists in Korea to the place of religion in racial and national identity formation and state-building, religion has been a very big deal in modern East Asia over the past five centuries. To understand these developments, we will read from history monographs, academic journal articles, diaries, newspapers, and magazines that illustrate East Asian religious heterogeneity and its intellectual, socio-cultural, and political repercussions.

Open to Seniors and Juniors in History, Middle East and Judaic majors only. Fulfills the junior year writing requirement for History majors.