InterAsia Related Yale Courses

Below are a list of InterAsia related courses offered at Yale and their syllabi.

Fall 2015
Islam and Empire in Central / South Asia (SAST 327)
Instructor:  James Pickett
Course Description:
This seminar examines Islam in practice through the prism of empire in Central / South Asia (considered as a single unit), focusing on the eighteenth through early twentieth centuries. In the academic setting, Central and South Asia are usually considered in isolation from one another, but this seminar examines a cohesive axis of Persophone, Sunni Islam prevalent in the eastern reaches of the Muslim world, throughout territories now within countries such as Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and India. Similarly, the course transcends the colonial – pre-colonial chronological partition by covering the period from the mid- eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth, which allows for the consideration of Islam under both Turko-Islamic and European empires while interrogating concepts such as “pre-modern” and the “modern.” Topics covered include Sufism, inter-religious “syncretism,” orientalism, sharia law, Islamic modernism, and more.

Spring 2014
Humanitarianism Across Asia (ANTH349/EAST359)
Lecturer:  Chika Watanabe
Course Description:
Introduction to international humanitarianism with a focus on aid across Asia and by Asian actors. Theories of humanitarian moralities, charity, paradoxes, and politics. Explorations of how we can develop analyses of inter-Asian connections through the study of humanitarian problems, ideologies, and actions.

Fall 2013
Migration in the Indian Ocean Region (SAST335)
Lecturer:  Rajashree Mazumder
Course Description:
This course explores the Indian Ocean basin as an arena of historical continuity and
change, examining the experiences of a range of people whose lives were shaped by
transoceanic networks. The time period for the course will roughly coincide with the
emergence of Islam in the seventh century C.E. to the intrusion of various European
powers into the region and the subsequent emergence of the global economy and
colonialism in the nineteenth century.