Courses

Please use the Yale Course Search website to officially enroll in courses and for the most up-to-date information. If information on this page differs from that on Yale Course Search, consider Yale Course Search to be more accurate unless the course instructor says otherwise.

 

FALL 2022 COURSES

KOREA-FOCUSED CONTENT COURSES – FALL 2022

GLOBAL KOREAN CINEMA – EALL 297/EAST 300/FILM 342

Instructor: Tian Li

Day/Time: Tuesday & Thursday, 11:35am–12:50pm

Location: TBA

Description: In recent times, world cinema has witnessed the rise of South Korean cinema as an alternative to Hollywood and includes many distinguished directors such as Park Chan-wook, Lee Chang-dong, Kim Ki-duk, and Bong Joon-ho. This course explores the Korean film history and aesthetics from its colonial days (1910-1945) to the hallyu era (2001-present), and also analyzes several key texts that are critical for understanding this field of study. How is Korean cinema shaped by (re)interpretations of history and society? How do we understand Korean cinema vis-à-vis the public memories of the Korean War, industrialization, social movements, economic development, and globalization? And how do aesthetics and storytelling in Korean cinema contribute to its popularity among local spectators and to its globality in shaping the contours of world cinema? By deeply inquiring into such questions, students learn how to critically view, think about, and write about film. Primary texts include literature and film. All films are screened with English subtitles.

KOREA-INCLUSIVE CONTENT COURSES – FALL 2022

INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF ART: ASIAN ART AND CULTURE – EAST 119/HSAR 119

Instructor: Quincy Ngan

Day/Time: Monday & Wednesday, 9:25am–10:15am

Location: Loria Center 250

Description: This introductory course explores the art of India, China, Japan, and Korea from prehistory to the present. We consider major works and monuments from all four regions. Themes include the representation of nature and the body, the intersection of art with spirituality and politics, and everything from elite to consumer culture. All students welcome, including those who have no previous experience with either art history or the study of Asian art. This class makes frequent visits to Yale University Art Gallery.

RACE AND PLACE IN BRITISH NEW WAVE, K-POP, AND BEYOND – ER&M 081/MUSI 081/SOCY 081

Instructor: Grace Kao

Day/Time: Monday & Wednesday, 4:00pm–5:15pm

Location: TBA

Description: This seminar introduces you to several popular musical genres and explores how they are tied to racial, regional, and national identities. We examine how music is exported via migrants, return migrants, industry professionals, and the nation-state (in the case of Korean Popular Music, or K-Pop). Readings and discussions focus primarily on the British New Wave (from about 1979 to 1985) and K-Pop (1992-present), but we also discuss first-wave reggae, ska, rocksteady from the 1960s-70s, British and American punk rock music (1970s-1980s), the precursors of modern K-Pop, and have a brief discussion of Japanese City Pop. The class focuses mainly on the British New Wave and K-Pop because these two genres of popular music have strong ties to particular geographic areas, but they became or have become extremely popular in other parts of the world. We also investigate the importance of music videos in the development of these genres.

20TH CENTURY JAPAN: EMPIRE & AFTERMATH – HIST 353

Instructor: Hannah Shepherd

Day/Time: Varies by section

Location: Varies by section

Description: In 1905, in a victory which shocked the world, Japan defeated Imperial Russia in a regional conflict over control of Korea. To many in Asia and the non-Western world, Japan looked like a new model of anti-Western, anti-imperial modernity. However, the ensuing decades would see this image contested. The expansion of Japan’s political and economic power into East Asia over the first half of the twentieth century has shaped the region in ways still visible today. This course is split into three parts, each covering roughly two decades. First, we look at the legacies of Japan’s Meiji Restoration and the development of what has been called an “Imperial Democracy” in early 20th century Japan. Next, we look at the crises which rocked Japan in the 1930s and marked a new era. Finally,  we deal with the aftermath of empire—both in the immediate “postwar” era for Japan, and in the debates over imperial legacies and history which still reverberate in Japan and many of its former colonies today.

 

KOREAN LANGUAGE COURSES – FALL 2022

ELEMENTARY KOREAN I – KREN 110

Instructor: Varies by section

Day/Time: Monday–Friday, 9:25am–10:15am (Sections 01 & 02); Monday–Friday, 10:30am–11:20am (Sections 03 & 04); Monday–Friday, 11:35am–12:25pm (Section 05)

Location: Varies by section

INTERMEDIATE KOREAN I – KREN 130

Instructor: Varies by section

Day/Time: Monday–Friday, 9:25am–10:15am (Section 01); Monday–Friday, 10:30am–11:20am (Section 02)

Location: Varies by section

INTERMEDIATE KOREAN FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS I – KREN 132

Instructor: Seungja Choi

Day/Time: Monday–Friday, 10:30am–11:20am (Section 01)

Location: Varies by section

ADVANCED KOREAN I: KOREAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE THROUGH K-POP MUSIC – KREN 150

Instructor: Angela Lee-Smith

Day/Time: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 11:35am–12:25pm

Location: TBA

Description: An advanced language course with emphasis on developing vocabulary and grammar, practice reading comprehension, speaking on a variety of topics, and writing in both formal and informal styles. Use storytelling, discussion, peer group activities, audio and written journals, oral presentations, and supplemental audiovisual materials and texts in class. Intended for nonheritage speakers.

ADVANCED KOREAN FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS – KREN 152

Instructor: Varies by section

Day/Time: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9:25am–10:15am (Section 01); Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 11:35am–12:25pm (Section 02)

Location: TBA

Description: An advanced course in modern Korean. Reading of short stories, essays, and journal articles, and introduction of 200 Chinese characters. Students develop their speaking and writing skills through discussions and written exercises.

SPRING 2023 COURSES

KOREA-FOCUSED CONTENT COURSES – SPRING 2023

RELIGION & CULTURE IN KOREA – RLST 121/EALL 296/EAST 391

Instructor: Hwansoo Kim

Day/Time: Monday, 1:30pm–3:20pm

Location: TBA

Description: Introduction to Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Christianity, and new religions in Korea from ancient times to the present. Examination of religious traditions in close relationships with social, economic, political, and cultural environments in Korean society. Examination of religious tensions, philosophical arguments, and ethical issues that indigenous and foreign religions in Korea have engaged throughout history to maximize their influence in Korean society.

REMEMBERING THE KOREAN WAR – AMST 298/ER&M 288

Instructor: Madeleine Han

Day/Time: Monday & Wednesday, 11:35am–12:50pm

Location: TBA

Description: The Korean War, though often narrated as a “forgotten war” and a “police action,” marks a crucial period in the US imperial expansion into Asia. This course proceeds from the recognition that the Korean War remains ongoing, and asks how to “remember” the violent and unresolved legacies of the “hot” wars that have constituted the cold war in Asia. How have the Korean War and its legacies shaped the relationship between militarism and empire? How has warfare conditioned the movements and lives of the Korean diaspora? And how might the work of Korean and Asian American activists and cultural workers help us move toward a decolonial genealogy of the transpacific? While we consider problems of mainstream US historiography in narrating the Korean war, this interdisciplinary course takes a cultural studies approach in attending to the racialized and gendered legacies of a war that continues to condition the present. Themes include: overlapping US and Japanese imperialisms; Cold War nationalisms; cultures of militarism and warfare; tourism; race, gender, and labor; Asian American and Asian studies; migration and immigration; and diasporic memory. No knowledge of Korean is required.

 
KOREA AND THE JAPANESE EMPIRE IN CRITICAL CONTEXTS – HIST 203J

Instructor: Hannah Shepherd

Day/Time: Thursday, 1:30pm–3:20pm

Location: TBA

Description: This course addresses critical moments of contact, conflict, and connection in the modern histories of Korea and Japan. Each week our discussion and readings focus on a specific event, before looking at the wider contexts involved and historical debates they have produced. This is not a comparative study of the histories of the different countries, but a chance to focus on themes—nationalism, colonial oppression, collaboration, war, identity—which continue to shape both relations between Japan, South Korea and North Korea, and the work of historians today..

THE UNITED STATES, CHINA, AND THE ORIGINS OF THE KOREAN PENINSULA CRISIS – GLBL 355

Instructor: David Rank

Day/Time: TBA

Location: TBA

Description: This course looks at the current situation on the Korean Peninsula and the interaction of the major players there through historical and diplomatic practitioners’ perspectives. The strategic interests of major powers intersect on the Korean Peninsula to a degree found in few other places on earth. In a part of the globe China long viewed as within its sphere of influence, four nuclear powers now rub shoulders and the United States maintains a military presence. With the Armistice that ended the Korean War still in place, Northeast Asia is the Cold War’s last front, but today’s nuclear crisis makes it more than a historical curiosity. Drawing on original diplomatic documents and other source materials, as well as first-hand experience of current-day diplomats, this course considers the trajectory of the two Korea’s relationships with the United States and China and their role in the international politics of East Asia.

KOREA-INCLUSIVE CONTENT COURSES – SPRING 2023

MIGRATION IN EAST ASIA AND BEYOND – EAST 425/ER&M 411/SOCY 425

Instructor: Angela McClean (Yoonjeong Choi)

Day/Time: Monday & Wednesday, 4:00pm–5:15pm

Location: TBA

Description: Over the past few decades, East Asia has become a new destination region for migrants, the phenomenon of which is continuing to cause fierce public and political discussions on national identity and immigration and integration policies. This course explores various types, debates, and industries of migration in contemporary East Asia. While we focus largely on Japan and South Korea, we also have an opportunity to discuss migrant experiences in other popular destination and origin countries in Asia including China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan. Starting with the major theories and concepts in international migration, we examine East Asian migration regimes, connections between migration and high- and low-skilled labor, gender, co-ethnics, and families, as well as state, public, and civil society responses to migration.

 
POLITICS OF EAST ASIAN SCREEN CULTURE – FILM 345/EALL 298/EAST 302

Instructor: Tian Li

Day/Time: TBA

Location: TBA

Description: East Asian screen culture, ranging from cinema, television, musical video, to online games, has (re)shaped the global and national/regional imaginings of East Asia. The Post-Cold War intensification of intra-Asian interactions has precipitated the rise of a Pan-Asian regional identity wherein the nation-state is not yet obsolete. What role does screen culture play in the border-crossing interplay among languages, ideologies, aesthetics, and affect? How do we understand the storytelling and politics of East Asian screen cultures in relation to its historical and social context? How does screen culture capture local/global desires in a digital time? Within the contemporary media ecologies, how does screen culture create an audiovisual relation that traverses screen and actuality? How do screen culture continue to push forward the history of transformation of sign system from the written words to visual moving images in the contemporary sensory over-loaded world of screens. This course deals with issues of (trans)nationalism, (un)translatability, locality and globality, (post)modernity, virtuality and actuality, and politics of gender. Students learn how to think and write about screen cultures of East Asia in particular and of contemporary screen culture in general.

AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOOD MUSICS – MUSI 378

Instructor: Trevor Baca

Day/Time: TBA

Location: TBA

Description: Introduction to American regional musics. Five units, including go-go in Washington, DC; Tejano music in South Texas; Detroit techno and its influence on global EDM; Puerto Rican reggaeton; and the American reception of K-pop. Extensive listening lists and select readings help students understand both the musical attributes and social context of all musics studied in the course.

KOREAN LANGUAGE COURSES – SPRING 2023

ELEMENTARY KOREAN II – KREN 120

Instructor: Varies by section

Day/Time: Monday–Friday, 9:25am–10:15am (Sections 01 & 02); Monday–Friday, 10:30am–11:20am (Sections 03 & 04); Monday–Friday, 11:35am–12:25pm (Section 05)

Location: Varies by section

Description: Continuation of KREN 110.

INTERMEDIATE KOREAN II – KREN 140

Instructor: Hyunsung Lim

Day/Time: Monday–Friday, 9:25am–10:15am (Section 01)

Location: TBA

Description: Continuation of KREN 130.

INTERMEDIATE KOREAN FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS II – KREN 142

Instructor: Angela Lee-Smith

Day/Time: Monday–Friday, 10:30am–11:20am (Section 01)

Location: TBA

Description: Continuation of KREN 132.

ADVANCED KOREAN II: LANGUAGE AND CULTURE THROUGH MEDIA – KREN 151

Instructor: Angela Lee-Smith

Day/Time: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9:25am–10:15am

Location: TBA

Description: This course is content and project-based to further develop integrated language skills-spoken and written, including grammar and vocabulary, as well as intercultural competence through Korean media. Through a variety of media, such as print media, publishing, digital media, cinema, broadcasting (radio, television, podcasting), and advertising, students explore and reflect on a wide range of topics and perspectives in Korean culture and society. The course learning activities include interactive, interpretive, and presentational communication; critical analysis; creative and authentic language applications in formal/informal contexts.

ADVANCED KOREAN III – KREN 154

Instructor: Varies by section

Day/Time: Tuesday & Thursday, 1:00pm–2:15pm (Section 01); Monday & Wednesday, 11:35am–12:50pm (Section 02)

Location: TBA

Description: An advanced language course designed to develop reading and writing skills using Web-based texts in a variety of genres. Students read texts independently and complete comprehension and vocabulary exercises through the Web. Discussions, tests, and intensive writing training in class.