Non-Western and Comparative Studies
Last updated: June 13, 2018 at 4:21 p.m.
Objectives
The non-Western and comparative studies requirement is designed to encourage students to explore societies, cultures and experiences beyond those of the Western tradition. The common goal of the courses in the program is to acquaint students with world views, indigenous intellectual traditions, historical narratives and social institutions that have developed largely outside European society and its North American transplants.
By examining some particular culture, society or region of the non-Western world (such as those of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Oceania), or by systematically comparing a range of values and institutions across cultural boundaries, students will be able to broaden their understanding of human achievements and potentialities beyond the Western heritage. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, and at the same time more diverse, such an understanding is all the more necessary.
Through the study of non-Western societies in their original settings, it is expected that students will also gain a better understanding of minority groups and diasporic cultures (such as African-American, Latino, Asian and Muslim) in the United States and the West in general. Non-Western courses expand students’ horizons and help them better understand their own history and culture.
Courses that satisfy the requirement may have Western components or modes of analysis, but their primary purpose is to foster an understanding of non-Western cultures, experiences and perspectives. For example, in a course on the political economy of Africa that employs Western methodologies, the history and culture of Africa still occupy a central place. The program draws attention to the intellectual and methodological problems inherent in the study of cultural systems other than those of the West.
Courses of Instruction
AAAS
18b
Africa and the West
AAAS
60a
Economics of Third World Hunger
AAAS
80a
Economy and Society in Africa
AAAS
102a
African Cinema
AAAS
115a
Introduction to African History
AAAS
120a
African History in Real Time
AAAS
122a
Politics of Southern Africa
AAAS
123a
Third World Ideologies
AAAS
126b
Political Economy of the Third World
AAAS
132b
Introduction to African Literature
AAAS
133b
The Literature of the Caribbean
AAAS
134b
Novel and Film of the African Diaspora
AAAS
146b
African Icons
AAAS
158a
Theories of Development and Underdevelopment
AAAS
161b
African Diaspora Theory
AAAS
162a
Assassination: A History of 20th Century Africa
AAAS
163b
Africa in World Politics
AAAS
175a
Comparative Politics of North Africa
AAAS/FA
74b
Introduction to African Art
ANTH
1a
Introduction to the Comparative Study of Human Societies
ANTH
7a
Great Discoveries in Archaeology
ANTH
55a
Anthropology of Development
ANTH
80a
Anthropology of Religion
ANTH
107a
Wealth, Value, and Power in a World without Money
ANTH
111a
Aging in Cross-Cultural Perspective
ANTH
119a
Conquests, Resistance, and Cultural Transformation in Mexico and Central America
ANTH
121b
Archaeology and Environment
ANTH
127a
Medicine, Body, and Culture
ANTH
133b
Colonialism and Post-coloniality in Africa: Encounters and Dilemmas
ANTH
136a
Archaeology of Power: Authority, Prestige, and Inequality in the Past
ANTH
136b
Contemporary Chinese Society and Culture
ANTH
138b
All-Under-Heaven: Global China and the Anthropological Imagination
ANTH
140b
Critical Perspectives in Global Health
ANTH
142b
Global Pandemics: History, Society, and Policy
ANTH
144a
The Anthropology of Gender
ANTH
146a
Gender and the City
ANTH
147b
Mesoamerican Civilizations and Their Legacies
ANTH
153a
Writing Systems and Scribal Traditions
ANTH
156a
Power and Violence: The Anthropology of Political Systems
ANTH
163b
Production, Consumption, and Exchange
ANTH
164a
Medicine and Religion
ANTH
165b
Anthropology of Death and Dying
ANTH
168a
The Maya: Past, Present and Future
ANTH
178b
Culture, Gender and Power in East Asia
ANTH
184b
Cross-Cultural Art and Aesthetics
CHIN
100a
Introduction to Chinese Literature: Desire and Form
CHIN
106b
Business Chinese and Culture
CHIN
130b
China on Film: The Changes of Chinese Culture
CHIN
136b
Chinese Modernism in International Context
CHIN
136bj
Chinese Modernism in International Context
CHIN
140a
Yin Yu Tang Documents, Decoding the Late Qing and Early Republic Writings (I)
COML
146b
Classical East Asian Poetics
ECON
30a
The Economy of China
ECON
122b
The Economics of the Middle East
ECON
176a
Health, Hunger, and the Household in Developing Countries
ENG
20a
Bollywood: Popular Film, Genre, and Society
ENG
22a
Filmi Fictions: From Page to Screen in India
ENG
32a
21st-Century Global Fiction: A Basic Course
ENG
52a
Refugee Stories, Refugee Lives
ENG
62b
Contemporary African Literature, Global Perspectives
ENG
72a
The Caribbean's Asias: Asian Migration & Heritage in the Caribbean
ENG
77a
Screening the Tropics
ENG
77b
Literatures of Global English
ENG
127a
The Novel in India
ENG
127b
Migrating Bodies, Migrating Texts
ENG
170a
The Globalization of Nollywood
ENG
171b
African Feminism(s)
ENG
172b
African Literature and Human Rights
FA
33b
Islamic Art and Architecture
FA
34a
History of Asian Art
FA
71b
The Art of Japan
FA
72b
Introduction to Korean Art
FA
77b
Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Latin American Art
FA
170a
Arts of the Ming Dynasty
FA
172b
Ink Painting in Taiwan and Hong Kong: Chinese Renaissance in Exile
FA
173b
Art in Shanghai
FA
176a
Fashion History of China
FA
178a
Frida Kahlo: Art, Life and Legacy
FA
178b
Seminar on Chinese Calligraphy and Practice
FA
197a
Studies in Asian Art
HBRW
162b
Translation Practice and Theory
HISP
111b
Introduction to Latin American Literature and Culture
HISP
142b
Literature, Film, and Human Rights in Latin America
HISP
160a
Culture and Social Change in Latin America
HISP
164b
Studies in Latin American Literature
HISP
165b
The Storyteller: Short Fiction in Latin America
HISP
167b
Twice-Told Tales: Colonial Encounters and Postcolonial Fiction in the Americas
HISP
182a
Narco Cultures in Latin America and the United States
HISP
192b
Latin American Global Film
HIST
56b
World History to 1960
HIST
66a
History of South Asia (2500 BCE - 1971)
HIST
71a
Latin American and Caribbean History I: Colonialism, Slavery, Freedom
HIST
71b
Latin American and Caribbean History II: Modernity, Medicine, Sexuality
HIST
80a
Introduction to East Asian Civilization
HIST
80b
East Asia in the Modern World
HIST
111a
History of the Modern Middle East
HIST
112a
Nationalism in the Middle East
HIST
135b
The Middle East and Its Revolutions
HIST
170b
Global 1968: Student and Youth Revolutions
HIST
174a
U.S. Relations with Latin America and the Caribbean
HIST
175b
Resistance and Revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean
HIST
176b
Japan and Korea in Modern World History
HIST
180a
The Global Opium Trade: 1755-Present
HIST
182b
Modern China
HIST
183a
Empire at the Margins: Borderlands in Late Imperial China
HIST
184a
Silk, Silver, and Slaves: China and the Industrial Revolution
HIST
184b
Swashbuckling Adventurers or Sea Bandits? The Chinese Pirate in Global Perspective
HIST
185a
The China Outside China: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Diaspora in the Making of Modern China
IGS/SAS
160a
The Rise of India
IMES
104a
Islam: Civilization and Institutions
IMES
105a
War and Revolution in the Middle East
IMES
140a
Photology of the Syrian Uprising
JAPN
120a
Topics in Contemporary Japanese Culture and Society
JAPN
120b
Readings in Modern Japanese Literature
JAPN
125b
Putting Away Childish Things: Coming of Age in Modern Japanese Literature and Film
JAPN
130a
The Literature of Multicultural Japan
JAPN
135a
Screening National Images: Japanese Film and Anime in Global Context
JAPN
140a
The World of Early Modern Japanese Literature
JAPN
145a
The World of Classical Japanese Literature
KOR
100a
Introduction to Korean Culture
LALS
1a
Introduction to Latin American and Latino Studies: History, Politics, and Culture
LGLS
124b
Comparative Law and Development
MUS
3b
World Music: Performing Tradition through Sound
NEJS
6a
Jewish History: From Ancient to Modern Worlds
NEJS
104a
Comparative Semitic Languages
NEJS
113b
Law in the Bible and the Ancient Near East
NEJS
114a
Death, Memorial, and Immortality in Biblical Literature
NEJS
116a
Ancient Near Eastern Religion and Mythology
NEJS
122a
Magic and Witchcraft in the Ancient Near East
NEJS
144a
Jews in the World of Islam
NEJS
152a
Jerusalem: Holy and Contested
NEJS
185b
The Making of the Modern Middle East
NEJS
186a
Introduction to the Qur'an
NEJS
188a
The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1800
NEJS
194b
Sufism: Mystical Traditions in Classical and Modern Islam
NEJS
195b
Early Islamic History from Muhammad to the Mongols
NEJS
197b
Political Cultures of the Middle East
POL
128a
The Politics of Revolution: State Violence and Popular Insurgency in the Third World
POL
133a
Contemporary Politics in the Middle East
POL
144a
Latin American Politics
POL
147a
Seminar: The Government and Politics of China
POL
148a
Seminar: Contemporary Chinese Politics
POL
162b
Middle East Crisis: Competing Explanations
POL
179a
Seminar: China's Global Rise: The Challenge to Democratic Order
REL
107a
Introduction to World Religions
REL
151a
The Buddha: His Life and Teachings
REL
161a
Chinese Religion and Thought: Understanding Confucianism and Daoism (Taoism)
REL/SAS
152a
Introduction to Hinduism
SAS
100a
India and Pakistan: Understanding South Asia
SAS
101a
South Asian Women Writers
SAS
150b
Indian Film: The Three-Hour Dream
SQS
160a
Transnational Sexualities
WMGS
140a
Diversity of Muslim Women's Experience
WMGS
161b
Transnational Feminisms: Perspectives from South Asia and Beyond