Fall 2007

ANS 390 • Space-/Place-Making in East Asia

Course Description

To say place is made is to understand the geographical context of human activity as variable, contested, or constructed rather than given; to say space is produced is to tie the generation of geographical dimensionalities into other sorts of social process. The focus of this course is on recent work in East Asian anthropology and history that foregrounds space, place, or a variety of related issues: territory, mapping, environment, nature, region, globalism, or locality, to name a few. Another goal of the seminar, however, is to bring this East Asianist work into more explicit dialogue with conceptual precursors and alternatives. We will seek to develop a range of languages for talking about space and place.

Grading Policy

20% Class participation 20% Presentation(s) 60% Major research paper (20 pp. minimum)

Texts

Karen Wigen, The Making of a Japanese Periphery Jennifer Robertson, Native and Newcomer Marilyn Ivy, Discourses of the Vanishing Thongchai Winachakul, Siam Mapped Andre Schmid, Korea Between Empires Michael Dutton, Streetlife China Bryna Goodman, Native Place, City, and Nation Laura Hofstetler, Qing Colonial Enterprise Aihwa Ong, Flexible Citizenship Possible short selections from Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Emile Durkheim, Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, Raymond Williams, Bruno Latour, Walter Benjamin, Michel de Certeau, Lisa Rofel, Arjun Appadurai, Saskia Sassen, and others.

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