Bachelor of Arts - Asian Studies

This vague and general designation underscores the longstanding tendency to view the “East” as an undifferentiated “other,” a perspective that has been used to justify Western colonialism and political hegemony, and one that often pervades contemporary views of what is in fact the world’s most culturally and physically diverse macroregion. Today, the realm’s three most populated regions (Southern Asia, Eastern Asia, and Southeastern Asia) contain nearly 3.7 billion people, roughly 56 percent of the world’s population. With Central and Western Asia, these regions with nearly four millennia of continuously recorded history are the birthplaces of the world’s major religions, the home of innumerable languages and dialects, and the domain of several of the world’s largest economies. Asian studies is a multidisciplinary field, providing a wide variety of intellectual perspectives and learning experiences, and recognizing a great range of cultures and a tremendous diversity of peoples.

Students who choose this concentration may focus on a specific topic a set of topics within Asian studies, including language, the visual arts, music, religion, cultural geography, politics, economics, literature, and history. Alternatively, they may design a focus within the Asian studies concentration, for instance, taking a comparative view of the role of women in Asian cultures. Of course, these approaches may also be combined, and students can pursue their own topics of study in consultation with the faculty.