The courses listed below are provided by the JHU Public Course Search. This listing provides a snapshot of immediately available courses and may not be complete.
Course registration information can be found on the Student Information Services (SIS) website.
Everyday, we all have encounters with animals: the mosquito that bites our arm, the rat that runs in front of us on the sidewalk, the dog that greets us upon our return home. These interactions are quotidian, but rarely reflected in the histories that we read. In this class, we will bring the animal back into the narratives that we tell by considering history from a multispecies perspective. Taking the examples of China and Japan, we will see how animals, both real and metaphoric, played a critical role in the political, economic, religious, and social lives of our historical, human, actors. We will see how the inclusion of animals in history bolsters and challenges history as it has been written and gain a deeper understanding of how our current mores regarding animals came to be. Our class will begin with a discussion of Japan and China in the 17th century and end with contemporary controversies surrounding Japanese whaling and shark fin soup. Throughout the course we will consider the ethical and philosophical ramifications of our inquiries like the agency of non-human animals. Designed for upper-level undergraduate students interested in the history of East Asia, prior knowledge of the region will be useful but is not required.
The history of China from the 16th to the late 19th centuries.
What did Chinese local society look like under the Qing Empire, and how did it change over the early modern era?
In 2001, Jim O’Neill, the Chief Economist at Goldman Sachs, coined the acronym BRIC to identify the four large emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India and China. These economies had an amazing run for the next decade, and emerged as the biggest and fastest growing emerging markets. However, since 2014 there has been some divergence in the BRICs’ economic performance. In this course, we look at the economic experiences of the BRIC countries for the past several decades. We discuss the reasons that contributed to their exceptional growth rates, with particular emphasis on their transformation into market economies, and the reasons for their eventual divergence. We also analyze some of the challenges that these countries continue to face in their development process.
In 2001, Jim O’Neill, the Chief Economist at Goldman Sachs, coined the acronym BRIC to identify the four large emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India and China. These economies had an amazing run for the next decade, and emerged as the biggest and fastest growing emerging markets. However, since 2014 there has been some divergence in the BRICs’ economic performance. In this course, we look at the economic experiences of the BRIC countries for the past several decades. We discuss the reasons that contributed to their exceptional growth rates, with particular emphasis on their transformation into market economies, and the reasons for their eventual divergence. We also analyze some of the challenges that these countries continue to face in their development process.
This course is designed to help students better understand the politics of China. Lectures will focus on the tools of governance that China has employed to navigate its transition from plan to market, provide public goods and services to its citizens, and to maintain social control over a rapidly changing society. The course will draw heavily from texts covering a range of subjects including China's political economy, social and cultural developments, regime dynamics, and historical legacies. Students interested in authoritarian resilience, governance, post-communist transition, and domestic will find this course particularly instructive.
Changing technologies, economic and market conditions challenge the international system of rules governing trade and make it more susceptible to the possibility of trade wars. This course will take an interdisciplinary approach toward understanding current trade wars and the world trading system. You will learn what international trade policy is about, why it becomes politicized, how trade policies are formulated in the U.S., the European Union and East Asian countries, especially China, and how current trade policies are governed by international agreements and laws (i.e., the WTO). Along the way, the course will explore current trade trends and how they affect consumers, workers, firms, and industries globally, as well as whether trade wars boost the fortunes of countries/regions that remain outside the fray, have shaped and changed relationships among world’s big and small trade partners, aided or damaged bilateral, multilateral trade agreements, or the relevance of the WTO.
An introduction for students unfamiliar with the Korean language but interested in Korean culture / literature. Students will read a variety of translated texts, especially of works written in the 20th and early 21st centuries by authors including Kim Tong-in, Hwang Sun-wŏn, Pak Wansŏ, Hwang Sŏk-yŏng and Han Kang; there will also be classes on traditional sijo poetry. Students will become familiar with Korean literary genres and formal features, and develop a broad understanding of the historical and sociocultural context of Korean literature.
This survey course examines the foreign influence on China’s political changes between the nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The topics include Chinese Christians and anti-dynastic revolutions, Japanese imperialism and Chinese nationalism, Chinese overseas and federalist movements, as well as global connections of Chinese communist movements between 1921 and 1949.
Introduction to Critical Diaspora Studies will explore the transnational, relational, and comparative approach to racism, migration, and colonialism at the heart of this major. It will introduce students to cutting-edge literature in the major’s four tracks: Migration and Borders; Global Indigeneities; Empires, Wars, and Carceralities; and Solidarities, Social Movements, and Citizenship. Topics covered will include diasporic and indigenous cultures and politics from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, as well as the United States. Students should expect to learn the value of interdisciplinary and transnational approaches to questions of social belonging, activism, justice, and politics. This course will also be useful to students in all humanities and social science majors who are interested in questions of racism, migration, and colonialism. This course may entail travel over fall break.
The global political and security landscape of the 21st century will be shaped by the rivalry between two superpowers -- China and the U.S. For the foreseeable future, the geographic focus of that contest will be Southeast Asia and the surrounding maritime space, particularly the South China Sea. Southeast Asia is a complex, highly differentiated region of ten-plus nations, each with its own unique history and relationship with China. This course will introduce Southeast Asia as a key region -- geographically, economically, and strategically -- often overlooked by policymakers and scholars. It will also focus on the craft of national security strategy as the best tool for understanding the multi-sided competition, already well underway involving China, the U.S., and the Southeast Asian states.
Ever since the Chinese Empire fell in 1911, Chinese have tried to think of themselves as modern and to build a modern Chinese state. Among the Western concepts that Chinese appropriated to define and comprehend themselves were the notions of ethnicity, culture, nationality, and race. We will try to answer the following questions: What was the allure of arcane and elusive Western categories on culture, ethnicity, and race for Chinese scientists in the 20th century, and how did these categories come to underpin the rule of the Chinese state over its enormous population since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949? How have the Chinese state’s policies on nationality and ethnicity shaped the minds of American China scholars as they study ethnicity and nationality in China?
On 13 October 2022, a middle-aged upper-middle class Chinese man staged a public political protest on an elevated road in Beijing. Peng Lifa, or “Bridge Man,” as he has become known in allusion to Tank Man from the Tiananmen demonstrations in 1989, demanded elections and reforms. How have urban Chinese been able to be so content or even happy despite their lack of political freedom? The class readings will introduce you to different kinds of activists who have confronted the authoritarian state since the late 1990s, among them human rights lawyers, reporters, environmental activists, feminists, religious activists, and labor activists. We will ask whether freedom, an obviously Western notion, is useful as an analytical category to think about China. Does freedom translate across the West/non-West divide?
The East Asian Studies Senior Honors Thesis Seminar is a workshop for EAS majors writing an honors thesis. It is a year-long course with meetings scheduled in both the fall and spring semesters. Please note that in order to qualify for honors in the major, the thesis must receive a final grade of A- or better. Students will receive credit for the seminar regardless of whether their thesis qualifies for honors.
This course is designed for students who were raised in an environment in which Chinese is spoken by parents or guardians at home and for those who are familiar with the language and possess native-like abilities in comprehension and speaking. The course therefore focuses on reading and writing (including the correct use of grammar). Cross-listed with East Asian Studies
This course is designed primarily for students who have no prior exposure to Chinese. The objective of the course is to help students build a solid foundation of the four basic skills---listening, speaking, reading, and writing in an interactive and communicative learning environment. The emphasis is on correct pronunciation, accurate tones and mastery of basic grammatical structures. Note: Students with existing demonstrable skills in spoken Chinese should take AS.373.111-112. No Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory. Cross-listed with East Asian Studies
This course is designed primarily for students who have no prior exposure to Chinese. The objective of the course is to help students build a solid foundation of the four basic skills---listening, speaking, reading, and writing in an interactive and communicative learning environment. The emphasis is on correct pronunciation, accurate tones and mastery of basic grammatical structures. Note: Students with existing demonstrable skills in spoken Chinese should take AS.373.111-112. No Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory. Cross-listed with East Asian Studies
This course is designed for students who finished AS.373.112 with C+ and above (or equivalent). Students in this course possess native-like abilities in comprehension and speaking. The course focuses on reading and writing. Cross-listed with East Asian Studies
Consolidation of the foundation that students have laid in their first year of study and continued drill and practice in the spoken language, with continued expansion of reading and writing vocabulary and sentence patterns. Students will work with both simplified and traditional characters. Note: Students who have native-like abilities in comprehension and speaking should take AS.373.211-212. Cross-listed with East Asian Studies
Consolidation of the foundation that students have laid in their first year of study and continued drill and practice in the spoken language, with continued expansion of reading and writing vocabulary and sentence patterns. Students will work with both simplified and traditional characters. Note: Students who have native-like abilities in comprehension and speaking should take AS.373.211-212. Cross-listed with East Asian Studies
This course is designed for those who have already taken AS.373.212 or equivalent. Students need to have native-level fluency in speaking and understanding Chinese. The course focuses on reading and writing. In addition to the textbooks, downloaded articles on current affairs may also be introduced on a regular basis. Cross-listed with East Asian Studies
This two-semester course consolidates and further expands students' knowledge of grammar and vocabulary and further develops reading ability through work with textbook material and selected modern essays and short stories. Class discussions will be in Chinese insofar as feasible and written assignments will be given. Cross-listed with East Asian Studies
This course is designed for students who finished AS.373.316 with a C+ or above (or equivalent). Readings in modern Chinese prose, including outstanding examples of literature, newspaper articles, etc. Students are supposed to be able to understand most of the readings with the aid of a dictionary, so that class discussion is not focused primarily on detailed explanation of grammar. Discussion, to be conducted in Chinese, will concentrate on the cultural significance of the readings' content. Cross-listed with East Asian Studies
Fifth Year Chinese is designed for students who finished fourth year regular or third year heritage Chinese course at JHU or its equivalent and wish to achieve a higher advanced proficiency level in Chinese. The goal of the course is to help students further develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills cohesively and to enhance students’ understanding of Chinese culture and society through language learning.
This course is designed for students who have no background or previous knowledge in Japanese. The course consists of lectures on Tuesday/Thursday and conversation classes on Monday/Wednesdays/Fridays. The goal of the course is the simultaneous progression of four skills (speaking, listening, writing, and reading) as well as familiarity with aspects of Japanese culture. By the end of the year, students will have basic speaking and listening comprehension skills, a solid grasp of basic grammar items, reading and writing skills, and a recognition and production of approximately 150 kanji in context. Knowledge of grammar will be expanded significantly in AS.378.215. No Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory.
This course is designed for students who have no background or previous knowledge in Japanese. The course consists of lectures on Tuesday/Thursday and conversation classes on Monday/Wednesdays/Fridays. The goal of the course is the simultaneous progression of four skills (speaking, listening, writing, and reading) as well as familiarity with aspects of Japanese culture. By the end of the year, students will have basic speaking and listening comprehension skills, a solid grasp of basic grammar items, reading and writing skills, and a recognition and production of approximately 150 kanji in context. Knowledge of grammar will be expanded significantly in AS.378.215. No Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory.
Training in spoken and written language, increasing their knowledge of more complex patterns. At completion, students will have a working knowledge of about 250 Kanji. Recommended Course Background: AS.378.115 and AS.378.116 or equivalent.
Training in spoken and written language, increasing their knowledge of more complex patterns. At completion, students will have a working knowledge of about 250 Kanji. Recommended Course Background: AS.378.115 and AS.378.116 or equivalent.
Emphasis shifts toward reading, while development of oral-aural skills also continues apace. The course presents graded readings in expository prose and requires students to expand their knowledge of Kanji, grammar, and both spoken and written vocabulary. Cross-listed with East Asian Studies
By using four skills in participatory activities (reading, writing, presentation, and discussion), students will develop reading skills in modern Japanese and deepen and enhance their knowledge on Kanji and Japanese culture. Recommended Course Background: AS.378.315 and AS.378.316 or equivalent.
Introduces the Korean alphabet, hangeul. Covers basic elements of the Korean language, high-frequency words and phrases, including cultural aspects. Focuses on oral fluency reaching Limited Proficiency where one can handle simple daily conversations. No Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory. Cross-listed with East Asian Studies
Aims for improving oral proficiency and confident control of grammar with vocabulary building and correct spelling intended. Reading materials of Korean people, places, and societies will enhance cultural understanding and awareness. Project due on Korean cities. Existing demonstrable skills in spoken Korean preferred.
Emphasizes reading literacy in classic and modern Korean prose, from easy essays to difficult short stories. Vocabulary refinement and native-like grasp of grammar explored. Project due on Korean culture. Cross-listed with East Asian Studies
This course is designed for those who have finished AS 380.302 or beyond advanced mid level of competency in Korean in four skills. By dealing with various topics on authentic materials including news, articles on websites, short stories, this course aims to help students enhance not only linguistics knowledge and skills, but also current issues in Korea. It is expected that, by the end of the term, students will be able to discuss a variety of topics and express opinions fluently in both spoken and written language.
| Course # (Section) | Title | Day/Times | Instructor | Location | Term | Course Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS.100.329 (01) | Animals in Chinese and Japanese History | TTh 3:00PM - 4:15PM | Sampias, Wesley Jordan | Fall 2025 | Everyday, we all have encounters with animals: the mosquito that bites our arm, the rat that runs in front of us on the sidewalk, the dog that greets us upon our return home. These interactions are quotidian, but rarely reflected in the histories that we read. In this class, we will bring the animal back into the narratives that we tell by considering history from a multispecies perspective. Taking the examples of China and Japan, we will see how animals, both real and metaphoric, played a critical role in the political, economic, religious, and social lives of our historical, human, actors. We will see how the inclusion of animals in history bolsters and challenges history as it has been written and gain a deeper understanding of how our current mores regarding animals came to be. Our class will begin with a discussion of Japan and China in the 17th century and end with contemporary controversies surrounding Japanese whaling and shark fin soup. Throughout the course we will consider the ethical and philosophical ramifications of our inquiries like the agency of non-human animals. Designed for upper-level undergraduate students interested in the history of East Asia, prior knowledge of the region will be useful but is not required. | |
| AS.100.347 (01) | Early Modern China | TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM | Rowe, William T | Fall 2025 | The history of China from the 16th to the late 19th centuries. | |
| AS.100.422 (01) | Society & Social Change in 18th Century China | W 1:30PM - 4:00PM | Rowe, William T | Fall 2025 | What did Chinese local society look like under the Qing Empire, and how did it change over the early modern era? | |
| AS.180.214 (01) | The Economic Experience of the BRIC Countries | TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM | Dasgupta, Somasree | Hodson 303 | Fall 2025 | In 2001, Jim O’Neill, the Chief Economist at Goldman Sachs, coined the acronym BRIC to identify the four large emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India and China. These economies had an amazing run for the next decade, and emerged as the biggest and fastest growing emerging markets. However, since 2014 there has been some divergence in the BRICs’ economic performance. In this course, we look at the economic experiences of the BRIC countries for the past several decades. We discuss the reasons that contributed to their exceptional growth rates, with particular emphasis on their transformation into market economies, and the reasons for their eventual divergence. We also analyze some of the challenges that these countries continue to face in their development process. |
| AS.180.214 (02) | The Economic Experience of the BRIC Countries | TTh 3:00PM - 4:15PM | Dasgupta, Somasree | Hodson 303 | Fall 2025 | In 2001, Jim O’Neill, the Chief Economist at Goldman Sachs, coined the acronym BRIC to identify the four large emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India and China. These economies had an amazing run for the next decade, and emerged as the biggest and fastest growing emerging markets. However, since 2014 there has been some divergence in the BRICs’ economic performance. In this course, we look at the economic experiences of the BRIC countries for the past several decades. We discuss the reasons that contributed to their exceptional growth rates, with particular emphasis on their transformation into market economies, and the reasons for their eventual divergence. We also analyze some of the challenges that these countries continue to face in their development process. |
| AS.190.370 (01) | The Politics of China | TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM | Yasuda, John Kojiro | Fall 2025 | This course is designed to help students better understand the politics of China. Lectures will focus on the tools of governance that China has employed to navigate its transition from plan to market, provide public goods and services to its citizens, and to maintain social control over a rapidly changing society. The course will draw heavily from texts covering a range of subjects including China's political economy, social and cultural developments, regime dynamics, and historical legacies. Students interested in authoritarian resilience, governance, post-communist transition, and domestic will find this course particularly instructive. | |
| AS.192.345 (01) | Trade Wars: Easy to Win, Good, or Fantastically Disruptive? | T 1:00PM - 3:30PM | Dore, Giovanna Maria Dora | Mergenthaler 266 | Fall 2025 | Changing technologies, economic and market conditions challenge the international system of rules governing trade and make it more susceptible to the possibility of trade wars. This course will take an interdisciplinary approach toward understanding current trade wars and the world trading system. You will learn what international trade policy is about, why it becomes politicized, how trade policies are formulated in the U.S., the European Union and East Asian countries, especially China, and how current trade policies are governed by international agreements and laws (i.e., the WTO). Along the way, the course will explore current trade trends and how they affect consumers, workers, firms, and industries globally, as well as whether trade wars boost the fortunes of countries/regions that remain outside the fray, have shaped and changed relationships among world’s big and small trade partners, aided or damaged bilateral, multilateral trade agreements, or the relevance of the WTO. |
| AS.220.220 (01) | Reading Korean Literature in Translation: A Survey | Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM | Kim, Kyeong-Soo | Fall 2025 | An introduction for students unfamiliar with the Korean language but interested in Korean culture / literature. Students will read a variety of translated texts, especially of works written in the 20th and early 21st centuries by authors including Kim Tong-in, Hwang Sun-wŏn, Pak Wansŏ, Hwang Sŏk-yŏng and Han Kang; there will also be classes on traditional sijo poetry. Students will become familiar with Korean literary genres and formal features, and develop a broad understanding of the historical and sociocultural context of Korean literature. | |
| AS.230.175 (01) | Chinese Revolutions | TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM | Kuo, Huei-Ying | Gilman 186 | Fall 2025 | This survey course examines the foreign influence on China’s political changes between the nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The topics include Chinese Christians and anti-dynastic revolutions, Japanese imperialism and Chinese nationalism, Chinese overseas and federalist movements, as well as global connections of Chinese communist movements between 1921 and 1949. |
| AS.305.101 (01) | Introduction to Critical Diaspora Studies | MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM | Schrader, Stuart Laurence | Fall 2025 | Introduction to Critical Diaspora Studies will explore the transnational, relational, and comparative approach to racism, migration, and colonialism at the heart of this major. It will introduce students to cutting-edge literature in the major’s four tracks: Migration and Borders; Global Indigeneities; Empires, Wars, and Carceralities; and Solidarities, Social Movements, and Citizenship. Topics covered will include diasporic and indigenous cultures and politics from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, as well as the United States. Students should expect to learn the value of interdisciplinary and transnational approaches to questions of social belonging, activism, justice, and politics. This course will also be useful to students in all humanities and social science majors who are interested in questions of racism, migration, and colonialism. This course may entail travel over fall break. | |
| AS.310.305 (01) | China, Southeast Asia, and U.S. National Security | T 1:30PM - 4:00PM | Ott, marvin C | Mergenthaler 266 | Fall 2025 | The global political and security landscape of the 21st century will be shaped by the rivalry between two superpowers -- China and the U.S. For the foreseeable future, the geographic focus of that contest will be Southeast Asia and the surrounding maritime space, particularly the South China Sea. Southeast Asia is a complex, highly differentiated region of ten-plus nations, each with its own unique history and relationship with China. This course will introduce Southeast Asia as a key region -- geographically, economically, and strategically -- often overlooked by policymakers and scholars. It will also focus on the craft of national security strategy as the best tool for understanding the multi-sided competition, already well underway involving China, the U.S., and the Southeast Asian states. |
| AS.310.332 (01) | Ethnicity in China | TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM | Henning, Stefan | Mergenthaler 266 | Fall 2025 | Ever since the Chinese Empire fell in 1911, Chinese have tried to think of themselves as modern and to build a modern Chinese state. Among the Western concepts that Chinese appropriated to define and comprehend themselves were the notions of ethnicity, culture, nationality, and race. We will try to answer the following questions: What was the allure of arcane and elusive Western categories on culture, ethnicity, and race for Chinese scientists in the 20th century, and how did these categories come to underpin the rule of the Chinese state over its enormous population since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949? How have the Chinese state’s policies on nationality and ethnicity shaped the minds of American China scholars as they study ethnicity and nationality in China? |
| AS.310.336 (01) | Rebellion and Its Enemies in China Today | TTh 4:30PM - 5:45PM | Henning, Stefan | Fall 2025 | On 13 October 2022, a middle-aged upper-middle class Chinese man staged a public political protest on an elevated road in Beijing. Peng Lifa, or “Bridge Man,” as he has become known in allusion to Tank Man from the Tiananmen demonstrations in 1989, demanded elections and reforms. How have urban Chinese been able to be so content or even happy despite their lack of political freedom? The class readings will introduce you to different kinds of activists who have confronted the authoritarian state since the late 1990s, among them human rights lawyers, reporters, environmental activists, feminists, religious activists, and labor activists. We will ask whether freedom, an obviously Western notion, is useful as an analytical category to think about China. Does freedom translate across the West/non-West divide? | |
| AS.310.431 (01) | Senior Thesis Seminar: East Asian Studies | W 4:00PM - 6:30PM | Staff | Mergenthaler 252 | Fall 2025 | The East Asian Studies Senior Honors Thesis Seminar is a workshop for EAS majors writing an honors thesis. It is a year-long course with meetings scheduled in both the fall and spring semesters. Please note that in order to qualify for honors in the major, the thesis must receive a final grade of A- or better. Students will receive credit for the seminar regardless of whether their thesis qualifies for honors. |
| AS.373.111 (01) | First Year Heritage Chinese | MWF 9:00AM - 9:50AM | Zhao, Nan | Maryland 104 | Fall 2025 | This course is designed for students who were raised in an environment in which Chinese is spoken by parents or guardians at home and for those who are familiar with the language and possess native-like abilities in comprehension and speaking. The course therefore focuses on reading and writing (including the correct use of grammar). Cross-listed with East Asian Studies |