This course is a postgraduate research seminar dealing with issues, methods, and possibilities of research in the interdisciplinary fields of East Asian studies. Students will gain familiarity with the existing scholarship and literature in the relevant fields. Topics may (but are not restricted to) include: historiography, history of knowledge production, gender, culture, religion, and literature.
For the class offered in 2024-25 academic year, all students are required to write several research papers for this course.
Assessment: 100% coursework
Remarks: This is a compulsory course for all PhD and MPhil students of the Institute.
This course is devoted to the critical reading on existing works on East Asian culture. Students will learn to critique existing scholarship and literature in the relevant fields. Topics and approaches may (but are not restricted to) include: historiography, anthropology, sociology, history of knowledge production, gender, culture, religion, and literature.
Assessment: 100% coursework
Remarks: This is an elective course for all PhD and MPhil students of the Institute.
This course is a postgraduate research seminar dealing with issues, methods, and possibilities of interdisciplinary research in the fields of East Asian Medicine, Science, Technology, and Society. Students will gain familiarity with the existing scholarship and literature in the relevant fields. All students are required to write a research paper for this course, based on original research and/or fieldwork.
Assessment: 100% coursework
Remarks: This is an elective course for all PhD and MPhil students of the Institute.
This course is a postgraduate research seminar course dealing with issues, methods, and possibilities of research in Inter-Asian Studies. Students will gain familiarity with the existing scholarship and literature in the relevant topics.
Assessment: 100% coursework
Remarks: This is an elective course for all PhD and MPhil students of the Institute.
This course is a postgraduate research seminar course dealing with issues, methods, and possibilities of research in religion and society in Asia. Students will gain familiarity with the existing scholarship and literature in the relevant topics.
Assessment: 100% coursework
Remarks: This is an elective course for all PhD and MPhil students of the Institute.
This course is a postgraduate research seminar course looking at issues, methods, and possibilities of research on modern and contemporary China in Asian context. Students will gain familiarity with the existing scholarship and literature in the relevant topics.
Assessment: 100% coursework
Remarks: This is an elective course for all PhD and MPhil students of the Institute.
This course introduces theoretical perspectives, debates, and challenges in socio-cultural anthropology, with a special focus on Asia as a loosely defined area including transnational Asia and the Asian diaspora. The course gives students a thorough grounding in the discipline of anthropology, both in terms of its ethnographic diversity and its theoretical development as a global field of scholarship within the humanities and social sciences. Particularly attention is given to new developments and theoretical debates emerging out of recent anthropological research. The course is designed to prepare students for research work in anthropology, but is also suitable as an introduction to the subject for students who intend to proceed with other careers. Prior knowledge of anthropology is not essential.
Assessment: 100% coursework
Remarks: This is an elective course for all PhD and MPhil students of the Institute.
This seminar introduces students to ethnographic research methodologies in anthropology and other human sciences, combining a critical assessment of ethnographic methodologies with a close reading of ethnographic materials focusing on Asian contexts and beyond. Topics discussed include: participant observation, writing fieldnotes, doing interviews, managing multiple field-sites, power and voice in national and transnational contexts, mass culture and media competition for interpretive authority, doing research in the digital age, ethical dilemmas and practical strategies in a time of transition. The seminar takes students through the process of identifying relevant issues, designing ethnographic research projects, and writing critically informed ethnographic accounts that address larger issues in contemporary societies. The idea is to prepare students for the manifold challenges involved in doing ethnographic research at an age of increasingly entangled intersections between private negotiations and public dialogues in law, state policy, science, and the media.
Assessment: 75% coursework and 25% class participation