Date                Reading & Course Assignments

8/27 Class Introduction

9/3 Edward Said: "Orientalism: 25 Years Later"

Start reading: The Mahabharata

9/5 Watch at home: "Asian Women as Perpetual Prostitutes" 

Part 1: "Yellow Slavery"

Part 2: "Asian Invasion"

Part 3: "White Sexual Imperialism"

Ramirez: "History of Fetishizing Asian Women"

    Continue reading: The Mahabharata

9/10 Film (watch in class): "The Story of India: Pt 2"  

                           Continue reading: The Mahabharata

9/12 Early Hindu Vedas:  "Hymn to Creation" and "Purusha"

                            Continue reading: The Mahabharata

9/17 NO CLASS: Advising Day

9/24 Late Hindu Vedas: Katha Upanishad

                            Continue reading: The Mahabharata

9/19 4:45pm: Musical Yellowface: Orientalist Soundscapes and American Music" A Mid Autumn    Festival talk and music performance event with Professor Krystan Moon and Microtone DJ

9/26 Popular Hindu Texts: The Bhagavad Gita (Teachings 1-5)

                           Continue reading: The Mahabharata

ESSAY 1 DUE

10/1           Start Reading: In the Time of Others

Student Presentation topics due

10/2 4:45pm, "Asian American History as U.S. History." Lecture by Madeline Hsu, UMD- College Park (room to be announced)

10/3 Discussion of The Mahabharata 

"The Genocide the U.S. Can’t Remember, But Bangladesh Can’t Forget" by L Boissoneault

Continue  Reading: In the Time of Others

10/10           Guest speaker Sahar Shafqat, Associate Dean of Faculty and Professor of Political Science : "Hindu Nationalism"

Podcast: "India, Modi, and the rise of Hindu Nationalism" 

Suggested: "Religious Nationalism and India's Future"

                                 Continue Reading: In the Time of Others

10/15 Guest speaker, Nadeem Zaman, lecturer in English and author of In the Time of Others

"The Genocide the U.S. Can’t Remember, But Bangladesh Can’t Forget" by L Boissoneault

                                 Finish Reading: In the Time of Others

10/17 Buddhism in India (cont.): 

"Parable of Mustard Seed"

   "Angulimala Sutta"

                Start Reading: Monkey

10/22 Buddhism in East Asia

Mahayana Texts: The Heart Sutra             

Continue Reading: Monkey

10/24           Buddhism in East Asia

Mahayana Texts: The Heart Sutra             

Continue Reading: Monkey

  Student Presentations

10/23 4:45pm, Glendening Annex, Talk by Visiting Artist Amelie Wang

  `

10/29 Discussion of Film: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring

Watch before class: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring

Continue Reading: Monkey

  Student Presentations

10/31 Guest Speaker, Brad Park, Professor of Philosophy Discussion of Monkey    

                  Finish Reading: Monkey

11/5          The Heart Sutra 

Discussion of Film: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring

Watch before class: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring

11/7         Chinese Confuciaism

          Fingerette: Confucianism: The Secular as Sacred

      Student Presentations

11/12 Guest Lecture, Charlie Musgrove, Professor of history and head of Asian Studies

Discussion of movie To Live 

                                 Watch Movie before class: To Live

        Student Presentations

11/14 Taoism in China:

       Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (Ch 1-2)

Chuang Tzu's Basic Writings (Ch 6)

Student Presentations

11/17 Essay 2 Due   

11/19 Student Presentations

11/21 Guest Lecture: Ho Nguyen, Professor Emeritus of Economics: "Asia in the 21st Century"

11/26 Student Presentations

11/28 No Class: Thanksgiving Break

ESSAY 3 DUE

12/3 Student Presetations

12/5 Final Class