Date and Time: Th 2pm–4:25pm 
Room: 3701 Posvar
Instructor: Raja Adal

This course approaches Asia not as a geographic place but as a malleable object of study.  It begins by contextualizing the meta-geographical concept of Asia within other geo-bodies, from nations to continents, religious realms, oceans, and highlands.  It then turns to three case studies to discuss how the intersection of topics and methodologies result in multiple conceptions of Asia.  What does Asia look like, and what does it compare to, if we focus on sugar?  How about human networks, ranging from biographies of a single individual to datasets that include thousands?  What happens to Asia if we look at the world in terms of languages and scripts?  In this way, this course explores a multiplicity of Asias, each of which is created as much by Asia as an object of study as by the position from which it is being approached.

While the first hour of each class will discuss these multiple Asias through a critical reading of recent scholarship, the second hour will turn to a study of the primary sources used for writing about Asia.  Students will discuss how textual sources, visual sources, and datasets provide different understandings of Asia, what each source reveals, and what each obscures.  Special attention will be paid to how large datasets can provide cross-national and global perspectives for understanding Asia.  Students will learn to analyze such datasets using Tableau Online and will practice publicizing their results using data visualizations.  In addition to weekly readings and discussions, students will write reviews of secondary and primary sources related to their own research.  These will culminate in a final public blog post in which each student will present their own research using some of the approaches and methods studied in class.