This course is designed for students who have never previously studied Japanese. The course will introduce the overall structure of Japanese, basic vocabulary, the two syllabaries of the phonetic system, and some characters (Kanji). The course will also introduce the notion of “cultural appropriateness for expressions,” and will provide practice and evaluations for all four necessary skills—speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Students will be required to practice with the materials that are on the course website at the college. 

A course directed by the history thesis advisor,  culminating in one or more pieces of historical writing which may be submitted to the Department for a degree with Honors. Open to seniors whose thesis proposal has been approved by the department.
Spring Semester. The Department

How to handle overenrollment: null

This Thesis Research course is available for History Department Thesis Writers whose thesis advisor has recommended a third thesis credit, and culminates in one or more pieces of historical writing which may be submitted to the Department for a degree with Honors.

Open to seniors upon permission of the thesis advisor. Fall semester or Spring semester. Taught by the thesis writer's department faculty thesis advisor.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Independent reading course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Research seminars require independent research, including the framing of a research question, and the identification and analysis of relevant primary and secondary sources. History majors must write a 20-25 page, evidence-based paper.

(Offered as HIST 470 and ASLC 470) The rise of Shanghai as a cosmopolitan modern city in the nineteenth century and the vicissitude of its fortune in the twentieth century closely paralleled China’s modern history–in fact, many of China’s most important modern transformations first took place in the metropolis. Shanghai was the largest treaty port with the first foreign concessions in China, and thus emerged as the primary conduit for western ideas and culture.

Following World War II, the term "reparations" took on new meaning in the global order.  Rather than referring to damages paid by states to other states (by defeated to victorious powers), the term came to mean damages paid by states to groups of individuals wronged within their own polities.  This seminar will explore a variety of reparations programs, both those implemented and those demanded.

Independent reading course. A full course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: n/a

(Offered as HIST 370 and ASLC 370) Japan, the only non-Western colonial empire to emerge during the second half of the nineteenth century, shaped itself and East Asia through imperialism. This course engages that history by paying attention to shifts in scholarly approaches to empire. We will consider, for example, how theories of imperialism and post-colonialism apply to Japan and East Asia.

(Offered as ASLC 354 and HIST 354.) What does it mean to talk of “Asia,” if the term itself is largely the product of modern imperialism and its attendant discursive formations? This seminar adopts Kuan-Hsing Chen’s framework of “Asia as Method” to combine post-colonial studies, critical area studies, and the emerging field of “Asian studies in Asia” to grapple with the intellectual history of East Asia from the late-nineteenth century onwards.