Courses

Two-term directed research project under the supervision of a ladder faculty member. Students should write essays using materials in East Asian languages when possible. Essays should be based on primary material, whether in an East Asian language or English. Summary of secondary material is not acceptable.

Two-term directed research project under the supervision of a ladder faculty member. Students should write essays using materials in East Asian languages when possible. Essays should be based on primary material, whether in an East Asian language or English. Summary of secondary material is not acceptable.

The holdings of the Yale Univerity Library include numerous collections of invaluable pre-modern Japanese documents, including many, such as the “Kyoto Komonjo” collection, which make it possible to delve deep into the history of Tokugawa period (1600–1868) Japan. In the last two years, moreover, the Council on East Asian Studies has been able to acquire a variety of fascinating new collections of Tokugawa period documents to augment the library’s existing holdings. As a result, students at Yale now have the opportunity to use unpublished primary sources to study various aspects of Tokugawa period history in a way that is rarely possible outside of Japan. This course is intended to help graduate students and properly qualified undergraduates build the advanced skills, knowledge, and confidence needed to engage these kinds of materials independently and use them to pursue a variety of historical research topics.

By arrangement with faculty and with approval of the DGS.

By arrangement with faculty and with approval of the DGS.

Directed reading and research on a topic approved by the DGS and advised by a faculty member (by arrangement) with expertise or specialized competence in the chosen field. Readings and research are done in preparation for the required master’s thesis.

Directed reading and research on a topic approved by the DGS and advised by a faculty member (by arrangement) with expertise or specialized competence in the chosen field. Readings and research are done in preparation for the required master’s thesis.

In the decades after 1979, China’s adherence to key tenets of the U.S.-backed liberal international economic system enabled it to achieve middle income status. After the 2008-9 global financial crisis, however, weaknesses in the U.S. model combined with China’s own sustained growth increased Beijing’s confidence in an alternative, state-oriented model that increasingly underpins China’s foreign economic engagement. This course examines the Global Security and Belt and Road initiatives, trade, investment, and development policies, international organization advocacy, business practices, and other aspects of China’s growing international economic footprint. These factors are analyzed from the perspective of China’s internal dynamics, competition with the United States, and overall foreign policy goals, and are evaluated for their impact on the prevailing global economic order. The course is taught by a practitioner who spent over a decade managing U.S. Government economic policy in and on China.

Four centuries of Japan's history explored through the many incarnations, destructions, and rebirths of its foremost city. Focus on the solutions found by Tokyo's residents to the material and social challenges of concentrating such a large population in one place. Tensions between continuity and impermanence, authenticity and modernity, and social order and the culture of play.

This seminar is intended for first-year students with no background in Chinese history. Introducing the study of history at the university level (which differs considerably from the memorization of high school history classes), this course emphasizes the analysis of primary sources in translation and the close reading of secondary sources to help students generate meaningful questions. The topic is the Song dynasty (960-1276), a time when China was arguably more modern than the world's other societies.

Examination of how, after centuries of war in Japan and overseas, the Tokugawa shogunate built a peace that lasted more than 200 years. Japan's urban revolution, the eradication of Christianity, the Japanese discovery of Europe, and the question of whether Tokugawa Japan is a rare example of a complex and populous society that achieved ecological sustainability.

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.