2011-2012 Academic Catalog

Nov 23, 2024

2011-2012 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Asian Studies Minor

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Overview

Undergraduate Program

Asian Studies is a newly approved interdisciplinary major (beginning Fall 2010) that straddles the social sciences, humanities, arts, and business. At Clark, students who major in Asian Studies develop not only their analytical skills; they also gain in-depth knowledge concerning the history, politics, and culture of different Asian countries. Students will also develop linguistic proficiency in Asian language, usually either Chinese or Japanese. Our core program faculty includes experts on China, Japan, mainland Southeast Asia, and South Asia. The program reflects the growing importance of Asia, rising public interest in Asia, and the undeniably central role of Asia in the world economy and in world affairs today.

Program Faculty

Yuko Aoyama, Ph.D.
Ya-chen Chen, Ph.D.
Ken MacLean, Ph.D.
Paul Ropp, Ph.D.
Srinivasan Sitaraman, Ph.D.
Alice Valentine, M.A.

Adjunct Faculty

Sarah Buie, M.F.A.
Jude Fernando, Ph.D.
William Fisher, Ph.D.
SunHee Kim Gertz, Ph.D.
Betsy P. Huang, Ph.D.
Stephen M. Levin, Ph.D.
Douglas Little, Ph.D.
Thomas Massey, Ph.D.
Shelly Tenenbaum, Ph.D.

Courses

Program Minor (Formerly Concentration)

Requirements

Asian Studies is an interdisciplinary minor that can be taken as a complement to any major. The minor requires six Asian studies courses. Of these six courses, three may be selected from language courses; the other three must be selected from non-language courses. The minor further requires that two of the non-language courses must be 200-level courses and one course must include a significant research component. Students minoring in Asian Studies are encouraged, though not required, to take at least one year of Chinese or Japanese language, and to study one year abroad in Asia.

Study Abroad

Through Clark’s Study Abroad Office, students may apply to enroll at Kansai Gaidai University near Osaka, Japan, or at the CET language program in Beijing or CET internship in Shanghai, for language and other courses on Japan or China. Students may spend one year or one semester at Kansai Gaidai, which requires at least one year of Japanese language prior to study in Japan. The CET programs in Beijing and Shanghai are available for one semester each year in the spring term.

Enrollment in the CET program requires at least three semesters of Chinese language study prior to enrollment in China. Clark offers Chinese and Japanese language courses at the beginning and intermediate levels, and advanced Japanese as well. Through the Colleges of Worcester Consortium, students may also take advanced Chinese and other Asia-related courses at the College of the Holy Cross.