ASIAN 6668 - Transpacific Studies

Fall. 4 credits.

Co-meets with ASIAN 4468.

N. Sakai.

The disciplines of East Asian area studies have been noted for their structural shortcomings for a long time. Since these disciplines are designed to investigate and accumulate knowledge on the areas geographically located on the Western shore of the Pacific, no attention is paid to the very interactions between North America and East Asia. Transpacific Studies addresses the structural deficiency and limitation inherent in the formation of area studies; it aims to study the mutual dependency and political asymmetry between North America where the vast majority of the academic centers of area studies are located and East Asia; how people move across the Pacific; and how North American societies are affected by peoples, and activities originating in East Asian countries, in the area studies. (SC)