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The Center for Asian Studies would like to welcome back students for the Fall 2019 semester.

We are now settled into our new location in the CASE Building, Suite E330, so come on by and say hello! We have several events in the works for the semester, so check back here or on our events page where we will post updates as soon as we have them. If you're still looking for a class, check out these Asia-related courses: 

ASIA 4500 URBAN ASIA:
TRADITION, MODERNITY, CHALLENGES T/TH 2:00-3:15 
Globally, there are now more people living in cities than in rural areas, and we need understand the dynamics of that change. In this class we focus on urban Asia as we look at changes over time, the challenges of urban life, and the representation cities through fields such as history, geography, film and literature, and anthropology.
J. Colleen Berry, colleen.berry@Colorado.EDU​

ARAB 3330/HUMN 3093 
The Arabic Novel 
Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) Majlis Section (ASIA 4001) T/TH 8:00AM-9:15AM
CLAC Meeting Time: Every other Tuesday beginning Sept. 3rd, 12:00-2:00PM
This extra session is associated with a parent course (The Arabic Novel: ARAB3330/HUMN3093). Students with at least two years of Arabic language study (or perhaps one year, depending on our enrollment) are invited to meet bi-weekly in an additional two-hour section (a majlis) to read texts and watch film clips in Arabic. If you are looking for a good opportunity to practice your Arabic in a low-stakes environment, please join! We will talk about the schedule during our first majlis meeting on Sept. 3rd.
Prof. Levi Thompson, thomas.l.thompson@colorado.edu

HIND-3441: Screening India: A History of Bollywood Cinema T/TH 3:30-4:45
This course provides a critical overview of one of the world's largest and most beloved film industries, the popular Hindi cinema produced in Bombay (Mumbai) and consumed around the world under the label "Bollywood". HIND 3441 also has a CLAC component. This is a one-credit co-seminar with Hindi/Urdu reading and viewing excerpts. Students should have completed one year of Hindi or have the equivalent level of proficiency, but we will work as a team so that one should not feel intimidated by the foreign-language component of the co-seminar.

INDO 1010 (5) Beginning Indonesian 1 MWF 1:00-1:50
Provides a thorough introduction to the modern Indonesian language, emphasizing speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. This course is proficiency-based. Activities aim to place the student in the context of the native-speaking environment from the very beginning. Students will be provided opportunities to participate in local Southeast Asian cultural events. Students with previous experience with Indonesian or Malay should contact the instructor for placement.

ANTH 4525 Global Islams T/TH 9:30-10:45
Current popular, official and academic representations of Islam in the US frequently circulate two fundamentally opposite attributes of the religion and its associated culture: either Islam is provincial and hyper-traditional, or it is threateningly global and transnational. Both perceptions rest on the notion of Islam as singular, and as originating in and synonymous with the Middle East. Through an analysis of the history of Islamic trade and migration to Southeast Asia, the early historical conceptions of a global Islam, European colonialism, questions of nationalism, and contemporary conceptions of the ummah, we will study the relationship between globalization and Islamic identity in the 21st century. 

JPNS 2811 Heroes and the Supernatural: Word and Image in Old Japan
T/TH 5:00-6:15 
Students will explore the highlights of medieval and early-modern Japanese illustrated fiction and narrative painting (13th through 17th centuries), including pictorial tales of monsters, samurai, fantastic journeys to other worlds, anthropomorphic animals, and amorous plants, as well as some of the 18th and 19th-century precursors of contemporary Japanese comics. Most if not all class sessions will be devoted to lectures, discussions, and extensive viewing of slides. No prerequisites.

JPNS 3311  Japanese Colonial and Transnational Literature MW 3:00-4:15
Explores the development of Japanese and colonial identities in literature produced in and about Japan's colonies during the first half of the 20th century. We will read works written during and about the Japanese empire by Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Okinawan and Taiwanese writers looking at the different representations of empire. Taught in English.

RLST 2202 Islam MWF 2–2:50
Introduces students to topics that are central to the academic study of Islam. Surveys foundational concepts and texts, core practices and historical narratives, intellectual, spiritual and literary traditions, and social institutions.

RLST 3200 Hinduism  T/TH 3:30-4:45
This course addresses the practices of magic and yoga and religious asceticism in the context of kings and power in Hinduism in India from ancient times through the modern period. How do spiritual practices in India change social roles and expectations? And how do religion, magic and mysticism talk about the attainment of both happiness and enlightenment? This course will examine this in the context of the ways that spiritual practices in the quest for happiness have contributed to subverting dominant orders of power.
Charting a historical overview from ancient India’s secret texts, the Upanisads, through practices of mysticism, spirituality and magic in medieval India, up through the kinds of exceptional yoga practitioners and mystics in the modern period, this class addresses how people used the religious practices of Hinduism to attain happiness on the one hand, and to assert political power on the other. We will also look at figures who use religion and mystical experience to overturn, upset social and political powers, such as the medieval mystic poet Mirabai, the outcaste social critique from the 15th century Kabir and Gandhi for the modern period, as well as classical teachings from India including the epic Rāmāyaṇa and the Yoga Sutras.

Have a great semester!