SHUM 2208

Introduction to Southeast Asia

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2023-2024.

What is Southeast Asia? How does this faraway, "exotic," region intersect with our realities? This course introduces key questions in the study of Southeast Asia (which includes Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and its diasporas using cinematic, literary, historical and scholarly materials. This introduction to Southeast Asia's historical, religious, literary, visual, and political traditions -- and the ways in which scholars have thought about them -- addresses a variety of themes  including notions of kinship, gender, political conflict, colonialism, media and the arts, sexuality, textual and visual genres, and forms of belief and belonging. Students will have an opportunity to investigate topics of interest to them, in the form of research essays as well as small-scale fieldwork, curatorial, or media projects.

When Offered Fall.

Breadth Requirement (GB)
Distribution Category (ALC-AS, CA-AS, HST-AS)
Course Attribute (EC-SEAP)

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