TPC-MIDDLE PERIOD-CHINESE HIST
TPC-MIDDLE PERIOD-CHINESE:MING
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Instructor:
Robert P Hymes
CULPA: 8 Info - 4 points
SCI/TECH-LATE IMPER/MOD CHINA
The aim of this graduate course is to provide a broad introduction to science, medicine and technology in late imperial and modern China, and their relationship to the world. The course examines how the understanding and politics of technology, body, the natural world, and medicine undergo drastic reconfiguration from the late imperial period to the modern period. To understand this shift, we will consider questions of technology and imperialism, global circuits and knowledge transfer, the formulation of the modern episteme of “science,” the popularization and wonder of science, as well as commerce, politics and changing regimes of corporeality, in both the imperial and modern periods while placing close attention to the global context and transnational connections. In addition to getting a sense of the existing historiography on Chinese science, we will also be closely examining primary documents, pertinent theoretical writings, and comparative historiography. A central goal of the course is to explore different methodological approaches including history of science, translation studies, material culture, and global history. Reading ability in Classical Chinese and modern Chinese and facility in critical theory are all required.
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Instructor:
Eugenia Lean
CULPA: 17 Info - 4 points
CHINESE MEDIA CULTURES
What is media and mediation? How do aesthetics, techniques and technologies of media shape perception, experience, and politics in our societies? And how have various forms of media and mediation been conceptualized and practiced in the Chinese-language environment? This graduate seminar examines critical issues in historical and contemporary Chinese media cultures, and guides students in a broad survey of primary texts, theoretical readings, and research methods that place Chinese media cultures in historical, comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. We discuss a variety of media forms, including paintings and graphic arts, photography and cinema, soundscapes and the built environment, and television and digital media. The class covers a time span from mid-19 th century to the present, and makes use of the rich holdings at the Starr East Asian Library for historical research and media archaeology.
Open to MA and PhD students. Advanced undergraduates need to have instructor's approval.
Language prerequisites: intermediate or advanced Chinese; rare exceptions upon instructor’s approval.
SEMINAR IN WESTERN ZHOU HISTORY
SEM IN WESTERN ZHOU HISTO
Techniques of Governance and Institutional Perimeters: This course discusses the method of governance and political-legal institutions of one of the best-documented Bronze-Age states in world history: Western Zhou (1045-771 BCE). By clarifying the essential features of the Zhou institutions and bringing to light the workings of its government, the course provides key to understanding the long duration or China as both a political state and a civilization.
