Courses

Fall 2009

For South Asia courses offered through the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies (MESAS), please see the webpage for MESAS or contact Nick Fabian at rfabian@emory.edu

Tibetan 101 (TBT 101)
Hours: MTh 6:15pm-8:00pm
Instructor: Tsepak Rigzin
Location: Drepung Loseling Monastery, 1781 Dresden Drive NE, Atlanta, GA, 30319

This course is an introduction to spoken and literary Tibetan for students with little or no prior exposure to the language. The emphasis in the first semester will be on oral expression and comprehension, as well as on learning to accurately read and write the most common Tibetan script (dbu can). Students will also be introduced to aspects of Tibetan culture that impact social interaction, such as the use of honorific speech and particular gestures and body language. Classroom activities will include skits, dialogues, games, and songs to remind us that learning a foreign language is fun!

This regular 4-credit hour course will be taught two evenings a week at Emory’s affiliate institution, Drepung Loseling Monastery (www.drepung.org). The instructor will be Tsepak Rigzin, one of Atlanta’s most respected Tibetan scholars and translators. The main textbook will be Colloquial Tibetan: A Textbook of the Lhasa Dialect by Tsetan Chonjore. For questions about this course offering, please contact Emory University’s Tibetan Language Coordinator, Prof. Sara L. McClintock, at slmccli@emory.edu.

MUS 206WR: Musical Transformations of Asia
Lee, Tu, 2:00-4:30 p.m., MAX: 25
TPL

Content: This is an introductory course to the musical cultures of South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. The course examines Asian music, theater, dance, and rituals in the broad historical, social, and political contexts of India and China. Specifically, students will explore musical traditions that exemplify South Asian and Chinese philosophy and aesthetics to understand the significance of music in shaping social identities. Students will also learn to play the Central Javanese gamelan, West Javanese gamelan, and Korean percussion.

Texts: There is no required text for this course. Articles, book chapters, and sound recordings will be assigned throughout the course and made available in the library.

Particulars: No prerequisites. Cross-listed with ASIA 206. Assessment for this course is based on writing projects, tests, written assignments, class presentations, performance, and a final project.

REL 212-000: Asian Religious Traditions
Tara Doyle, TT 1:00-2:15 pm, Max: 22, TPL ("theory practice learning)

Content: This “theory-practice-learning” (TPL) class is an introduction to a number of prominent texts and associated religious practices found in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions of South Asia. Texts include Vedic hymns, selections from the Upanishads, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, the Devi-mahatmya, Ashvaghosa’s Buddha-carita, the Satipatthana Sutta, and Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara. Students also witness important rituals and/or festivals at the Hindu Temple of Atlanta and the Thai Temple, practice Hindu yoga and Buddhist meditation, and observe classical Indian dance and Tibetan thangka painting. All these will be studied within historical and contemporary contexts, revealing both the continuity and innovativeness of these two religions.
Texts:
• Eck, Darsan
• Feuerstein, Shambhala Guide to Yoga
• Rosenberg, Breath by Breath
• Thich Nhat Hanh, Heart of Understanding
• Two readers of articles, chapters, etc.
Assessment: Class participation (10%), four 2-page reflection papers (20%), and four essays (70%).
Pre-requisites: none

REL 302-000: Religions in Colonial India
Paul Courtright, TT 1:00-2:15 pm, Max: 30

Content: The course will examine the transformations of religion during the British colonial period, 1800-1947. This century and a half witnessed important continuities in India’s religious traditions, the emergence of “new religions,” inter-religious encounters, and the complex interplay between religious traditions and nationalist aspirations. The course will focus on Hindu, Jain, Muslim, Sikh, and Christian traditions, broadly defined. Readings will be drawn from primary sources, historical analyses, and visual media.
Texts:
• Course packet of primary sources.
• Raymond Williams, Introduction to Swaminarayan Hinduism
• Lawrence A. Babb, The Absent Lord
• David J. Smith, Hinduism and Modernity
• Sunil Khilnani, The Idea of India
• Nikky Guninder Kaur Singh, The Birth of the Khalsa
Assessment: TBA
Pre-requisites: none

REL 310-000: Modern Buddhism: Religious Identity in Asia & America
Tara Doyle, TT 4:00-5:15 pm, Max: 18

Content: During the last two centuries, many Buddhist communities have been stimulated to forge new religious identities, movements, and organizations in response to rapidly changing, often culturally traumatic, socio-political conditions. This course will investigate some of the ways people from Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam, and Tibet have responded to these changes, in their home countries and/or here in the USA. Particular areas of focus will be: the impact of colonialism and orientalist constructions of knowledge on Buddhist communities; Buddhist revival movements and their relationship to nationalist and/or communal struggles; re-workings of the “past” to explain and/or legitimate new religious/cultural forms; the influence of western-style social activism and feminism on Buddhist reform movements; and the ways in which various Asian immigrant and refugee communities have dealt with the dilemma of simultaneously maintaining and adapting their Buddhist traditions while living in the United States. An integral component of this course will be fieldtrips to local Buddhist temples and meditation centers.
Texts:
• Bond, Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka
• Gunesekera, Reef
• Sangharakshita, Ambedkar and Buddhism
• Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step
• and a reader of articles.
Assessment: Class participation (10%), 3 Essays (60%), Site visits and presentations (30%).
Pre-requisites: TBA

REL 334-000: Dance and Embodied Knowledge in the Indian Context
Joyce Flueckiger/Sasikala Penumarthi, MWF 10:40-11:30 am, (same as DANC 385-000), Max: 18 (REL 12/ DANC 6), TPL ("theory practice learning)

Content: This is an interdisciplinary course in religion, dance, and South Asian studies. The course will provide a context in which to experience and analyze the nature of embodied knowledge and the creative power of performance, particularly in the Indian context.
The focus of this class is to explore ways in which the body knows and participates in ritual and religious knowledge. We will pay particular attention to differences in the ways in which the body and dance are perceived in myth, sculpture/image, aesthetic theories, and dance itself. One class period (Fridays) will be spent learning basic movements of Kuchipudi classical dance under the instruction of master dancer, choreographer, and teacher Sasikala Penumarthi. The other two class periods will frame dance movement with discussions of Indian aesthetic theories, Hindu mythology (Kuchipudi dance choreography draws from Hindu mythological tradition), and western performance theories. We will consider "how and what performance creates" in practice, rather than just theory. No dance experience is necessary, but full participation is required.
Texts: may include:
• Rasa: Performing the Divine in India (Schwartz 2005)
• Janet O'Shea, At Home in the World: Bharata Natyam on the Global State (2007)
• Selections from the Natyasastra [foundational dance manual of Indian classical dance practice & theory]
• a course packet of articles on Hindu mythology, performance, & dance theory
Assessment: Four short response papers, mid-term and final exams, attendance at two out-of-class performances of Indian dance, and class participation (including dance classes).
Pre-requisites: none

REL353R-000: Mystical Thought and Practice: Non-Duality and Altered Consciousness
John D. Dunne, TT 4:00-5:15 pm, Max: 18

Content: In many spiritual traditions, practitioners seek a type of transformation that involves a radical transformation in the way the one experiences the world. The key to that transformation is recognizing—and realizing—that one’s current experiences are, moment by moment, caught up in a type of illusion. More specifically, that illusion makes it seem as if one is looking out at a world which is separate from oneself, such that Self and World are completely separated in a divide known as duality. These traditions thus seek to move beyond that illusory duality by cultivating a radically non-dual experience in which the distinction between Self and World disappears. Sometimes that non-dual experience is expressed in language involving a notion of the divine, sometimes other language is used. Techniques for developing the non-dual experience also range widely, from paradoxical language to yogic techniques of body and breath manipulation. In this course, we will explore the notion of non-duality and the cultivation of non-dual experience through various traditions, including Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. We will also examine the more recent resurgence of non-dual philosophies and practices, such as those found in the writings of Ken Wilber, and seek to understand how they relate to more traditional forms.
Texts: TBA
Assessment: TBA
Pre-requisites: TBA

REL 358R-000: Religion and Healing: Religious Literacy/Healthcare
Joyce Flueckiger, Tues 2:30-5:30 pm, (Same as GH 590R/SR 698), Max: 21 (REL 7/GH 7/SR 7)

Content: The goal of this interdisciplinary course is to introduce terminologies, analytic frameworks, and resources for cultural and religious literacy to students interested in the intersection of religion, health and healing - including those training to be in health-related fields. Studying this intersection through the framework of the academic study of religion will help students to recognize cues for where religion "matters" and how it functions in health contexts of the individual, family, and community, and to develop a critical empathy, a way of thinking, which identifies and takes religion seriously. We will be learning many specifics of particular religious traditions, but the emphasis will be on learning to recognize where and how religion plays itself out in contexts of healing/health. Topics will include, among others: indigenous categories of illness and health; sources of religious authority affecting health/healing/health policy decision-making; impact of gender on healing/health; religious frameworks and rituals at beginning and end of life. We will also read three full-length ethnographies based in particular religious/cultural communities.
Students will pursue their own interests through a research project, based either on fieldwork in Atlanta or on secondary materials.
This interdisciplinary offering was developed as part of the Religion & Health Collaborative. It will be an undergraduate course in the College and also listed in Public Health and School of Theology. Each discipline will contribute unique perspectives to the study.
Texts: Possible Texts:
• Selections from Linda Barnes and Susan Sered, eds., Religion and Healing in America
• William LaFleur, Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan
• Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
• Joyce Flueckiger, In Amma's Healing Room: Gender & Vernacular Islam in South India
• Reading packet
Assessment: Requirements: Class participation and in-class exercises. Weekly one-page responses to readings. 12-15 page research paper and oral presentation.
Pre-requisites: none

REL 365-000: Buddhist Philosophy
Lobsang Negi, Thurs 2:30-5:15 pm, Max: 25
Content: TBA
Texts: TBA
Assessment: TBA
Pre-requisites: TBA

POLS 385: South Asian Politics Since 1945
Creekmore, TT 11:30-12:45 pm, MAX: 20
[same as HIS 385 (MAX: 10) & MESA 370 (Max: 5)]

Content: This course analyzes the political and economic developments in South Asia, particularly in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, over the past 50 years from a historical, political institutional, and policy perspective. Possessing 20 percent of the world's population, this region will play an increasingly important role in international affairs in the future.

Texts:
Sidhwa, Cracking India
Mistry, Fine Balance
Hosseini, Thousand Splendid Suns
Brown, Essays South Asia in Transition
Oberst, Government and Politics in South Asia (2008 Edition)

Assessment: TBA

Pre-Requisites: NA

Anthropology 150 CULTURES OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
MWF 1:00PM
Fall 2009
Professor Michael G. Peletz

This course offers anthropological perspectives on Southeast Asia, a region that includes the nation-states of Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Because this world area has long been known for the relatively “high status of women” and a good deal of pluralism with respect to gender and sexuality, we will be looking at the dynamics of gender and sexuality -- including the vicissitudes of heteronormativity, same-sex relations, and transgender practices -- in some depth. Readings and discussions, which will follow a rough historical trajectory, will also address various aspects of colonialism, race, religion (especially Islam), nationalism, and governmentality, and selected theoretical debates bearing on the ways in which these and other phenomena are keyed to Southeast Asians’ experiences, understandings, and representations of modernity.

Prerequisites: Anthropology 202 is highly recommended. This course is not recommended for 1st-year students.

Evaluations will be based on: (a) class participation; (b) a map quiz; (c) a midterm; (d) a take-home essay assignment (of approx. 15-18 pages); and (e) a final exam.

Readings for the Course will most likely include the following books:

Reid, Anthony, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680, Vol. I: The Lands Below the Winds. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.

Orwell, George, Burmese Days: A Novel. San Diego: Harcourt, 1934 (1962).

Peletz, Michael G. Gender Pluralism: Southeast Asia Since Early Modern Times. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Davies, Sharyn Graham, Challenging Gender Norms: Five Genders among the Bugis in
Indonesia. Wadsworth, 2007.

Hefner, Robert W. Making Modern Muslims: The Politics of Islamic Education in Southeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2009.

Bishop, Ryan and Lillian Robinson, Night Market: Sexual Cultures and the Thai Economic Miracle. Routledge, 1998.

Skidmore, Monique, Karaoke Fascism: Burma and the Politics of Fear. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.