This Year’s Courses at UVa

J-Term 2009

RELB 102 Buddhism in Fiction and Film
This course is an introduction to Buddhism and an exploration of the place of Buddhism within contemporary Asian, European, and North American fiction and film. It offers a solid and engaging introduction to the history and doctrines one of the world’s great religious traditions, as well as an introduction to the study of non-western culture in contemporary global setting. By focusing upon the presence of Buddhist themes within six contemporary novels and six films produced throughout the world—from India, China, Japan, Korea and India to Germany, Russia, Scotland, and the United States—the course encourages students to consider Buddhism (and religion in general) not as an ancient, monolithic, and isolated tradition but as a vibrant, adaptable, and contested aspect of modern global culture. The interpretive goals in each case are to identify possible Buddhist sources for narrative themes and, more importantly, to consider how, why, and by whom Buddhism is employed in recent film and fiction to address contemporary issues.

 

Spring 2009

ANTH 367 Tibet and the Himalayas
3 Credits, 1400-1515 TR, Sihle, Nicolas
This course aims at providing a balanced, anthropological outlook on a complex and culturally diverse area, on which the West and others have massively projected their own fantasies: Tibet and the Himalayas. We will learn to mistrust these myths and will develop an understanding of these societies both in their own terms and by relating Tibetan and Himalayan ethnography to larger anthropological issues and debates. The main topics investigated shall include ethnicity, social and political organization, and religious forms. The course materials will center on academic articles and books, but will include also biography, fiction, poetry, analyses of recent political developments and films.

ANTH 557 Minorities in China: Recent Ethnography
3 Credits, 1400-1630 T, Shepherd, John
This will be a small group seminar for students who have previous background in China studies or anthropology. This course explores the distant and recent history of Han and non-Han nationalities in the Chinese empire and nation-state, primarily through the medium of recently published ethnographies. The course will examine the reaction of minority nationalities to Chinese predominance, and the bases of Chinese rule and cultural hegemony. The course explores changes in gender roles, ethnic and subethnic (i.e., intra-Han) identity formation, processes of ethnic conflict, and the emergence of separatist and nationalist movements. The course also examines the role of minorities (religious and sexual as well as ethnic minorities) in the definition of Chinese nationalism, and China as a multi-cultural society. The course will offer a critique of Eurocentric theories of colonialism, modernity, and world system.
This course will fulfill the second writing requirement and the non-Western requirement.

ARAH 571 The Golden Age of East Asian Buddhist Art in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries
4 Credits, 1300-1530 T, Wong, Dorothy
This seminar examines the formation of an International Buddhist style under the Tang dynasty, which became a classical idiom adopted throughout East Asia (China, Korea and Japan) in the seventh and eighth centuries (and beyond). The seminar will examine major Buddhist sites in East Asia: the Dunhuang and Longmen cave-temples in China, the Horyuji and Todaiji in Japan, and Sokkuram in Korea. The seminar will consider themes of Mahayana Buddhist art germane to these sites, from Pure Land devotion to the Huayan doctrine associated with state Buddhism and deity cults. It will also explore the roles of imperial patronage (notably Empress Wu of Tang China and Emperor Shomu of Nara Japan) and international exchanges that fostered the formation and spread of an international idiom of Buddhist art style.

ARTH 271 East Asian Art
3 Credits, 1400-1515, MW, Wong, Dorothy
This course is a general introduction to the artistic traditions of China, Korea, and Japan from the prehistoric period to the modern era. Major topics include funerary art, Buddhist art, and later court and secular art. The course seeks to understand artistic forms in relation to technology, political and religious beliefs, and social and historical contexts. It also introduces the major philosophic and religious traditions—Confucianism, Daoism, Shinto, and Buddhism—that have shaped cultural and aesthetic ideals of East Asia. The lectures survey major monuments and the fundamental concepts behind their creation.

RELB 254 Tibetan Buddhism
3 Credits, 1100-1215 TR, Miller, Amy
Examines the Tibetan Buddhist culture, giving equal attention to religio-philosophical and contemplative systems, as well as historical and social contexts.
Course meets Non-Western Perspectives Requirement

RELB 315 Buddhism and Gender
3 Credits, 1530-1800 M, Lang, Karen
This seminar takes as its point of departure Carolyn Bynum’s statements: “No scholar studying religion, no participant in ritual, is ever neuter. Religious experience is the experience of men and women, and in no known society is this experience the same.” The unifying theme of this seminar is gender and Buddhism. We will explore historical, textual and social questions relevant to the status of women and men in the Buddhist world from the time of Buddhism’s origins to the present day. Materials will be interdisciplinary, drawing from religious studies, anthropology, and gender studies. Prerequisite: An introductory course on Buddhism or instructor’s permission.
Course meets Non-Western Perspectives Requirement

RELB 517 Dalai Lamas
3 Credits, 1400-1630 M, Schaeffer, Kurtis

RELB 548 Literary Tibetan VI/ RELB 581 Literary Tibetan VIII
3 Credits, 1230-1345 TR, Miller, Amy
Advanced study in the philosophical and spiritual language of Tibet, past and present.
Prerequisite: RELB 500, 501, 535, 536, or equivalent.

TBTN 102 Beginning Tibetan I
4 Credits, 0900-0950 MTWRF, Nepali, Tsetan

TBTN 202 Intermediate Tibetan II
4 Credits, 1000-1050 MTWRF, Nepali, Tsetan

TBTN 302/502 Advanced Tibetan II
3 Credits, 1200-1250 MWF, Nepali, Tsetan

TBTN 304/504 Advanced Modern Tibetan IV
2 Credits, 1200-1250 MWF, Nepali, Tsetan

Summer 2009

RELB 500S Intensive Introductory Tibetan I
6 credits, TBA

RELB 501S Intensive Introductory Tibetan II
6 credits, TBA