2024-2025 Graduate Courses

The below schedule is subject to change. Please revisit this page periodically for updates. 

EAS students: Course enrolment begins on July 8, 2024.

Non-EAS students: Course enrolment for EAS graduate courses begins on July 8, 2024. Non-EAS students should enroll after seeking the professor’s permission by submitting a filled-in Add/Drop form to the EAS Department. 

 

2024 - 2025 Courses

Fall

  • EAS1151HF Chinese Poetry I 
    Graham Sanders – RL 14228  – Thursdays 1 – 3 pm
  • EAS1430HF Hong Kong Cinema and Adaptation 
    Chris Song – RL 14228 – Tuesdays 5 – 7 pm
  • EAS1475HF Contemporary Cultural Theories 
    Michelle Cho – RL 14228 – Wednesdays – 2 – 4 pm
  • EAS1542HF Manchu Language and History 
    Nathan Vedal – RL 14228 – Thursdays 11 – 1 pm
  • EAS2020HF Critical Approaches to East Asia
    Yue Meng – RL 14228  – Tuesdays 10 am -12 pm
  • COL5101HF Diasporic Cities: Itinerant Narratives Of Metropoles By Travellers And Expatriates
    Atsuko Sakaki – BT 319 - Tuesdays 10am -12pm
  • COL5132HF One Philosopher, One Artist
    Eric Cazdyn – BT 319, Wednesdays 11 - 1pm

Winter

  • EAS1336HS Memory, Trauma, History
    Lisa Yoneyama – RL 14228 – Thursdays 2 – 4 pm
  • EAS1412HS Special Topics in Archaeology of Ancient China 
    Chen Shen - ROM CC603 – Mondays 3 – 5 pm
  • EAS1531HS Ocean Media: Islanding, Space, Modernity 
    Erin Huang - RL 14228 – Mondays 1 – 3 pm

 

Course Descriptions

The aim in this course is to teach you how to approach and contextualize primary Chinese poetic texts from the pre-Qin through Southern Dynasties, how to read commentaries on those texts, and how to translate the texts into English, using a wide variety of bibliographical materials to aid you in the process.

 “Memory” has been deployed as one of the central concepts in the human and social sciences for the analyses of problems of power and knowledge, representation, subjectivities and social identities. Concept of memory has also been regarded as a useful tool for questioning the teleological and developmental sense of time that underlies the colonial-modern temporality and historical consciousness. This course will offer several key texts that have been central to the discussions on philosophy of history, violence, trauma, and the politics of remembering and forgetting. We will also read several recent monographs related to Asia that, through examining various cultural production, including, the visual media, historical narrative, testimonies, law, social space, etc., critically explore the workings of power and memory in the production of nationalism, diasporic identities, loss, vengeance, revolutionary consciousness, and subalternity.

This course explores topics in the Archaeology of Ancient China.

Adaptations are interesting sites where transcultural dynamics unfold through character portrayal, story arcs, and space-time settings in many films throughout the history of Hong Kong cinema. This course introduces students to the rich variety of literary genres upon which Hong Kong’s film adaptations are based and the ways in which Hong Kong literary works are also inspired by various films. With a selection of source texts and film adaptations from Hong Kong screens since the early twentieth century, the course aspires to deepen students’ understanding of the interaction between literature and film where the issue of cultural identity has been negotiated in the evolving social and historical context in Hong Kong.

In The Creation of the World or Globalization (2002), Jean Luc Nancy notes the distinction between two seemingly synonymous terms: globalisation (globalization) and mondialisation (world-making). For Nancy, they are opposing concepts/forces: he deems the former a process of world un-making, as globalization entails the violent imposition of uniformity through economic and techno-logics of late capital. This critique of globalization was not yet mainstream in 2002, but has since taken on the semblance of liberal common sense, particularly in light of emerging reactionary populisms from the US to the UK to Japan and beyond. While the pathologies of economic globalization are omnipresent, the resort to hostile localisms culturalizes and thus disguises the actual political and institutional causes of planetary devastation, social disparity, and dispossession. This misrecognition ultimately shores up the logic of capital and its attendant ideological armatures, including nationalism and developmentalist scales of cultural comparison.

This seminar explores the oceanic imaginary of space and the spatial technologies of islanding in the modern world—including the emergence of mega-ports, artificial islands, and the creation of political and economic zones of exception and military bases, with an emphasis on East and Southeast Asia. Posing islanding in the verb form, the readings deconstruct “island” as a natural geographic setting and probe its role in mediating the relations between individual and totality, insularity and world, mainland and periphery, land and sea, etc. We explore different mediations of oceanic imaginary and work toward theories of resistance.

This course explores the history of Manchu rule in China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing (1644–1912), through an introduction to the Manchu language. In addition to acquiring basic Manchu reading skills, you will be exposed to a wide range of historical approaches to the study of Manchu social, literary, and political culture, as well as ethnicity in late imperial China.

This course serves as a practicum for graduate-level research in East Asian Studies, focusing on various critical approaches and methodological models relevant to contemporary issues in East Asian humanities research. In addition to introducing key topics, the course aims to enhance students' ability to formulate questions and engage in critical thinking. Students are expected to: 1) grasp the core issues and arguments presented by authors, 2) understand how scholars challenge conventional concepts and contribute to new knowledge frontiers, and 3) question, analyse, and interpretate assigned texts.  To facilitate this, a set of guiding questions is provided to students weekly. In return, students are encouraged to contribute one written passage per class session, summarizing an author's main argument, posing a question about the reading, or offering a creative interpretation of a primary source assigned for the week. Analytical (critical) reading of scholarly and intellectual works, as well as close examination of primary sources, are the main focus areas of this training and exercise. Other requirements and assignments include critical review essays, close-reading write-ups about primary sources, final research essay, as well as participation and presentation.

Limited Spots

Limited spots in the courses below may be available to EAS students, but students must seek the permission of the professor to enrol and a form must be submitted by the end of August for Fall courses and the end of October for Winter courses. Please fill out a Request for Reading and/or Research Course form and see the room locations on the A&S Timetable.

 

Full Year

EAS1101YY Classical Chinese I
Graham Sanders – Thursdays 9 - 11 am

Fall

EAS1102HF Classical Chinese II
Nathan Vedal– Thursdays 9 - 11 am

EAS1300HF Special Topics in Japanese Studies
Thomas Keirstead – Mondays 11 - 1 pm

Winter

EAS1411HS Art and Archeology of Early China
Chen Shen – Mondays 6 - 8 pm

EAS1419HS Chinese Cultural Studies Seminar: May Fourth 
Yurou Zhong – Wednesdays 2 - 4 pm

Courses Offered by Other Departments

Please see the course offerings on the departments’ websites below that may be of interest, paying special attention to courses taught by faculty members from cognate departments who have EAS graduate status.

Language Courses

Graduate students enrol in the graduate course code, but meet with the undergraduate class. To request enrolment, please fill in the PDF iconLanguage Course Enrolment Form For Graduate Students and read the appropriate instructions on the Chinese, Korean or Japanese language pages. For graduate students, language courses are graded on a CR/NCR basis, with 70% needed to receive a Credit. Please see the A&S timetable for meeting times.

  • EAS1301Y (EAS120Y1Y) Mod. Std. Japanese I
  • EAS1321HS (EAS121H1S) Japanese I – Prior Background
  • EAS1302Y (EAS220Y1Y) Mod. Std. Japanese II
  • EAS1322HS (EAS221H1S) Japanese II – Prior Background
  • EAS1303Y (EAS320Y1Y) Mod. Std. Japanese III
  • EAS1305H (EAS461H1) Mod. Std. Japanese IVb
  • EAS1304H (EAS460H1) Mod. Std. Japanese IVa
  • EAS1621YY (EAS110Y1Y) Mod. Std. Korean I
  • EAS1622YY (EAS210Y1Y) Mod. Std. Korean II
  • EAS1631YY (EAS211Y1Y) Accelerated Mod. Korean I & II
  • EAS1632HS (EAS212H1S) Accelerated Mod. Korean II
  • EAS1623YY (EAS310Y1Y) Mod. Std. Korean III
  • EAS1801YY (EAS100Y1Y) Mod. Std. Chinese I
  • EAS1811YY (EAS101Y1Y) Mod. Std. Chinese I – Prior Background
  • EAS1802YY (EAS200Y1Y) Mod. Std. Chinese II
  • EAS1803YY (EAS300Y1Y) Mod. Std. Chinese III
  • EAS1814H (EAS401H1) Mod. Std. Chinese IVa
  • EAS1815H (EAS402H1) Mod. Std. Chinese IVb