This course approaches Asia from a transnational perspective to enhance our understanding of the complexities involved in Asia’s contemporary transformations. By departing from traditional nation-state-oriented analyses, this class explores how Asia shapes and is shaped by trans-Pacific politics, war and colonial legacies, global capitalism, labor migration, international norms of citizenship, urban development, and flows of ideas and popular culture. By closely examining Asia’s transnational interconnectedness, we question the prevalent notion of Asia and regional studies and highlight the contradictions and challenges Asia faces in its political, economic, social, and cultural spheres. This critical approach is expected to offer a deeper investigation of Asia in and of itself while critiquing dominant assumptions and frameworks found in existing approaches to Asia.
This course approaches Asia from a transnational perspective to enhance our understanding of the complexities involved in Asia’s contemporary transformations. By departing from traditional nation-state-oriented analyses, this class explores how Asia shapes and is shaped by trans-Pacific politics, war and colonial legacies, global capitalism, labor migration, international norms of citizenship, urban development, and flows of ideas and popular culture. By closely examining Asia’s transnational interconnectedness, we question the prevalent notion of Asia and regional studies and highlight the contradictions and challenges Asia faces in its political, economic, social, and cultural spheres. This critical approach is expected to offer a deeper investigation of Asia in and of itself while critiquing dominant assumptions and frameworks found in existing approaches to Asia.
