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- Core-courses
for the Center for Southeast Asian Studies
- Courses are listed alphabetically by department
- Ag. and Applied Econ/Econ
473: Economic Growth and Development in Southeast
Asia
- In this course students study
contemporary issues in the economic growth and development of Southeast
Asia. The countries of the region have much in common in terms of
history, geography and their role in the world economy. The original
member states of ASEAN – Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines
and Singapore – are among the world’s most rapidly-growing
economies. However, the region also contains some notable growth and
development failures, and as a result Southeast Asia’s modern
history has been marked by tremendous divergence in the levels of
living of its peoples. In this course students review the theory and
empirics of growth, development, trade and distribution in contemporary
Southeast Asian market economies. The goal is to address several different
facets of the question: How can development of Southeast Asian economies
be sustained into the future? We use case study and comparative approaches.
As instructor, my aim is to promote an economic way of thinking about
development issues in Southeast Asia. A typical topic thus combines
relevant economic theory with examination of Southeast Asian data
and debates.
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- Ag. and Applied Econ 731/Econ 877: Macroeconomics of Agricultural
Development
- In this course "macroeconomics"
is used to refer to the study of economic phenomena occurring at a
scale greater than that of the firm: the industry, sector, or economy
as a whole. The goal is to understand agricultural development as
part of the overall process of economic growth and development. This
will be accomplished by taking the agricultural sector as a unit of
analysis and examining its general equilibrium linkages with other
sectors of a developing country. The course is divided into three
parts. In part I we review classical and neoclassical models of economic
growth, structural change, and the distribution of income, with particular
focus on these processes as they occur in small, open economies. In
part 2 we examine the implications of relaxing some of the neo-classical
assumptions, in particular those of CRTS and market clearing through
price flexibility. In part 3 we address sectoral policy dimensions,
with coverage of agricultural policy, trade and industrialization
policy, exchange rate regimes and macroeconomic management.
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- Anthropology 330: Topics in Ethnology: Peoples
and Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia
- This course surveys the peoples and cultures of mainland Southeast
Asia, specifically of the countries now called Thailand, Burma, Laos,
Cambodia and Vietnam. This course is taught from a perspective
that it is not possible to understand Southeast Asian cultures by
narrowly focussing on modern-day single village studies. Rather
one must appreciate the role of economics, politics and history in
hsaping the croader contexts into which village life is integrated.
Due to hte dearth of English-language anthropological scholarship
elsewhere in the region, Thailand receives particular attention.
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- Anthropology 350: Political Anthropology
- This course has two main purposes. On the one hand it seeks
to familiarize students with major works in the historical development
of anthrpological theorizing about the subject of politics.
Simultaneously this course explores new directions for future anthropological
study.
-
- Anthropology 430: Language and Culture
- This course is an introduction to the interactions and interdependencies
between language and socio-cultural dimensions of communities.
the course begins with discussions of the nature of language, contrasting
the narrower structural view with broader definitions that include
contextual, historical, and textual information. These two
views of the nature of language will provide th basis for discussions
of the nature of topics such as linguistic structure and culture,
linguistic structure and meanign, metaphor, performance, language
and gender, conversational styles of language, speech acts, verbal
arts, and language as action.
-
- Asian American Studies 240: Refugees of the
'Cold' War: Southeast Asians in America
- Since 1975 close to a million Southeast Asian refugees have migrated
ot the United States from the three countries of Cambodia, Laos, and
Vietnam, adding four new major ethnic groups to American society:
Hmong, Khmer, Lao, and Vietnamese, among them being ethnic Chinese
and "Amerasians." This course is intended to provide
a better understanding of conditions that led thousands of people
to flee their homes in Southeast Asia and eventually take refuge and
start new lives in the United States. The course will be divided
into three parts: 1) Conflict in Indochina: Origins and Impact;
2) Continuing Conflict and Disorderly Departures: Refugees and Migrants;
and 3) Making New Lives in America.
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- Dance 001: Introduction to Javanese Performance
- This course provides an introduction
to classical Javanese dance in its musical context. Students
will learn to dance sequence in one of the three main dance styles--rough
male style, refined male style and female style. By the course's
end, students will have a foundation in basic dance technique and
an understanding of how the dance relates to the musical accompaniment
(gamelan music). They will have gained an appreciation of the
intricacy of the classical dance form and its musical structure.
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- Dance 001: Javanese Performance II
- This course provides an introduction to Javanese dance theater performance
in a Javanese epic tradition with its branch folkstories through the
discipline of Central Javanese (Yogyanese court) dance-theater.
Dance styles depicting different key characters in the epic are introduced--for
example, the pricess, the prince, the king, the demon king, ogres
and clowns. Studnets work toward performance of an exceprt of
a Javanese epic folk story as a final class performance project.
Students are introduced to basic Javanese dance technique, and learn
about how stories abecome dance and how dance becomes theater.
Students will also build upon their knowledge of Javanese gamelan
music with additional music sessions, which focus on basic forms of
dance accompaniment for the dance drama. Assigned readings on
the epic stories and the performance tradition augment performance
instruction.
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- Geography 358:
China and Southeast Asia
- Description forthcoming
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- Geography 558: Social Geography
of Asian Cities in Comparative Perspective
- Description forthcoming
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- History 244: Introduction to Southeast Asia
- Southeast Asia is a region that today consists of ten independent
nations: Brunei, Cambodia (Kampuchea), Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar (Burma), Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, each
with its own history, cultures, and political and socio-economic conditions.
Nevertheless, it is a region -- between China and India -- that possesses
many cultural and historical similarities and continuities that make
it unique. This course is intended to provide a general introduction
to Southeast Asia's past and prsent. The course is organized
chronologically around three broad periods: 1) traditional states
and societies; 2) colonial transformations and indigenous responses;
and 3) independence and new nation states. Within these contexts,
the course will explore several topics and themes, amongh them the
origins of indigenous states, religious conversion and practice, social
roganization and gender relations, modern social and economic transformations,
responses to colonial domination, the develpment of "imagined
communities," nationalist and revolutinoary movements, post-colonial
societies and political systems, the impact of "cold war"
international relations, and U.S. involvement in the region.
Given the size and diversity of the region, the coures will concentrate
on four Southeast Asian countries: Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand
and the Philippines -- those countries that are the primary research
areas of Wisconsin's Southeast Asian program and for which significant
library resources exist on campus.
- History 319: The Vietnam Wars
- Even 25 years after the last US helicopter took off from the roof
of the US Embassy in downtown Saigon, the Vietnam War remains a wound
in our collective memory. The bitter partisan passions that divided
the nation
- during the war seemed to have widened in the years since the last
American troops left South Vietnam. Indeed, there are scholars who
argue that defeat in Vietnam has had a lasting impact of American
culture and left its imprint upon postwar US foreign policy. Even
in the euphoria that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the
ghost of Vietnam remains an unwanted guest at the national banquet.
Moreover, as the longest war in American history, the Vietnam conflict
commands our attention on its own terms. Over the space of 15
- years, four American presidents failed to devise a strategy to protect
our Saigon allies and check the rise of enemy combat operations. At
war's peak in 1968-69, over 500,000 American troops and nearly half
of American airpower were engaged in some of the most bloody and brutal
combat in the history of warfare.
- Over the span of a fifteen-week semester, this course will survey
the origins of the Vietnam conflict in a dying French colonial rule,
probe the origins of American commitment to the Saigon regime under
President
- Eisenhower, and then march through the years of American military
escalation. Students will be expected to attend all lectures, keep
pace with the readings, complete three pieces of written work--a take-home
- mid-term exam, a 5,000 word research paper, and blue-book final
examination. Apart from these formal requirements, students are expected
to attend weekly discussion sections which have their own reading
schedule. Reflecting the controversy surrounding the subject,
there is no single text for the study of the Vietnam Wars. Instead,
the syllabus covers each topic with journal articles and book extracts,
divided into
- "Required" and "Background" readings. To follow
the lectures and their unfamiliar material, students should read selections
from the "required" materials before the relevant lecture.
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- History 438: Buddhism and Society in
Southeast Asian History
- This course is not for a study of the Theravada's tenets in depth.
Rather, the purpose is to learn about historical influence of Theravada
Buddhism in those countries and its contemporary dynamism. The
main subjects of the courses are: 1) Early Theravada Buddhism and
its introduction to Southeast Asia; 2) Ideas and the monastic
order; 3) Traditional Buddhist polity; 4) Transition in
the 19th century; 5) Buddhism and modern nations.
The focus is on Thailand and Burma, the major parts of the region's
history and religious development.
- History 457: Southeast Asia to
1800
- Enriched by the Chinese and Indic civilizations, Southeast Asia
is a place of striking diversity where the major world's religions
meet (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Confucianism).
Yet it is the subtle commonality of local culturs that make the region
distinctive. The cultural traditions have shaped the history
of the region and are very much alive today despite colonization and
Westernization. This course will explore major themes and topics
in the history of the whole region rather than of major events in
individual countries in details. No prior knowledge is required.
Nor is the ability to memorize the dates and unfamiliar names. The
enthusiasm to learn other cultures and to study unfamiliar materials,
plus imagination, is hoped for.
- History 458: Southeast Asia: 1800 to Present
- Through lectures and readings, the course surveys the modern social
and political history of Southeast Asaia, a region remarkable for
its religious and cultureal diversity. To treat two centuries
in the history of ten nations within the space of just 27 lectures
requires compression and selection. Instead of discussing the
history of individual nations, the course analyzes broad themes which
encompass major changes in the region within a given historical epoch.
to animate these generalities, lectures will illustrate regional themes
with detailed discussions of events in individual countries.
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- History 500: Inventing the Orient: The
East in our Knowledge
- Since Edward Said, Orientalism (1978), the critical studies of how
Western scholarship knows and represents other cultures have become
a major issue. The book rexplores how the Oriental (Muslim in
the Middle East in this case), are represented as the opposite to
Western civilization. They are "the Other" of the
West. This (mis) represenation is not simply the result of ignorance
or inadequate knowledge, but it is a result of the cross-cultural
and power relations between the West and the rest. Is "Orientalism"
synonymous with colonialism? Is it also true to every other
cross cultural encounters? Are there other forms of Orientalism
and in other time? Are the Orients typified? How? Is
Orientalism undifferentiated by gender, race or class? Are there
reactions or resistance from the Other? Finally, does the representation
of "the Other" belong exclusively to Western culture?
How do other cultures represent their "Others"?
- History 500: Nationhood and Nationalism
- This course puts together a large amount of literature on nationalism
which has been an important scholarly subject of the 1980s and 1990s.
The first part is a major theoretical one which has fundamentally
shaped the studies of the past two decades. The second part
details some important contributions to those stheories as well as
discussions on particular areas of the world. As we shall see,
nationalism is part of our modern history as much as history provides
how we can discuss and understand nationalism. The aim
of the course is for students to become familiar with the major literature
on the subject, thereby the state of theories, ideas, arguments and
remaining questions on nationalism and history.
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- History 755: Remembering Traumatic
Past: Thailand in the 1970s
- The 1973-76 period was the most critical time in the recent history
of Thailand. In many ways, it has shaped the entire political
and social milieu up to the present time. The turbulent period
was marked by the popular uprising against the military dictatorship
in October 1973, followed the most radical years of political conflicts
and polarization which led to several forms of violence, and ended
with an indescribably brutal massacre in October 1976. The traumatic
past is part of every society. Not only is it tragic, but it
is unsettled, ambivalent, and so disruptive to individuals and the
society. The reasons for the ambivalent narratives can be both
political and cultural. The purposes of the course are: 1) To
explore this traumatic past in Thailand, especially the massacre in
1976; what happened and why, in historical contexts. 2) To understand
how it is traumatic, and how it has been remembered or forgotten,
politicall and culturally. 3) Since the issue has never been
raised before, the course itself is a pioneering inquiry. Therefore
we will explore a few other cases of traumatic past in search of some
perspectives for 2).
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- History 755: Seminar: The Islands of Southeast
Asia: A Comparative History of Indonesia and the Philippines
- Designed for graduate students with some background in the region's
history and politics, the course will cover selected topics in the
comparative history of these two nations from the 17th to the late
20th centuries. As island nations that experienced a parallel
history of protracted colonial occupation, Indonesia and the Philippines
are an ideal site for explorations into the limits of comparative
history. Focusing on themes of continuity and change, the seminar
will study some of the major points of historical change in these
two archipelagic nations over the past five centrueis, concentrating
on three overlapping issues: 1) the impact of external forces for
change, common wo the Southeast Asian region, upon each nation;
2) the internal dynamics of development within these two countries;
and 3) a comparison of these processes in Indonesia and the Philippines.
In adopting this approach, we are aware that we are imposing, post
facto, the Procrustrean paradigm of the nation-state and its imagined
uniformities upon a disparate, historically undifferentiated archipelago
that stretches from the Straits of Malacca to the Luzon Strait.
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- History 755: Photography & Philippine Environmental
History
- This interdisciplinary seminar is a part of a larger, ongoing project
that will link academics and environmentalists from two countries
in a cooperative effort to collect, archive, and analayze historic
photography for both environmental and historical applications.
The seminar will train Philippine and American graduate students in
field work, oral history, and the use of historical photographs for
btoh general historical research and the stufy of environmental change.
This instruction will move outside the conventional classroom to establish
a join, trans-national seminar on the internet and in the field that
will provide students on btoh sides of the Pacific with research experiences
beyond the bounds of current graduate education.
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- Lit in Trans 379: Modern Indonesian Literature
in Translation
- This course introduces the student to the social, historical, and
literary contexts of the development of Indonesian literature and
tools for approaching these distant texts. The course begins with
a number of early modern texts of the late colonial period (1890-1940),
exploring the Western/modern influences on Malay literature of Dutch-medium
and Malay-medium school graduates. Reprsentative pre-independence,
post-independence, and contemporary prose works are examined in conjunction
with readings of literary critics and historians to gain an understanding
of the development of Indonesian literary aesthetics as well as cultural
themes and values.
- Music 361(Lab 1): Beginning Javanese Gamelan.
(1 cr.)
An introduction to the repertory and performance techniques of Central
Javanese gamelan music. Students learn to play four or five of the
simpler Javanese gamelan pieces (gendhing) as an ensemble, meeting
for two one-hour sessions per week. Most class time is devoted to
performance, with a few sessions devoted to viewing videos of Javanese
theatrical and dance traditions accompanied by gamelan music.
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- Music 361(Lab 2): Advanced Javanese Gamelan.
(1 cr.)
A performance ensemble class that offers one or more concerts annually
on campus and occasionally performs off-campus. Students learn a wide
variety of Javanese gamelan repertory, including accompaniment for
Javanese dance dramas and other forms of Javanese theater and dance.
The class meets for two 90-minute sessions a week, and is supplemented
by private instruction on the more difficult instruments.
Music 103: Introduction to Music Cultures of
the World (2 cr.)
A first survey of music from selected cultural areas around the world
(particular choices vary from semester to semester). A lecture course
open to all students, with no prerequisite courses or musical training.
Recent
offerings have included a substantial unit on music in Indonesia (as
well as other countries of Asia, Oceania, Africa, and North America).
Assignments include textbook readings and listening. Grading based
on several exams.
Music 402: Music Cultures of the World: East
and Southeast Asia (3 cr)
A survey of music throughout Pacific Asia for students with some formal
musical background. The course begins with in-depth coverage of music
from Indonesia: various traditional musics, followed by consideration
of current and recent popular music. Most other countries of Southeast
Asia are covered as well, but not as comprehensively (Philippines,
Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia). The last third
of the course is devoted to music in East Asia (China, Korea, and
Japan). Grading is based on three exams and a research paper.
Music 515: Proseminar in Ethnomusicology (3 cr.)
A seminar introducing the field of ethnomusicology, its history, methods,
and current theoretical concerns. Students read and discuss important
ethnomusicological studies, write several book reviews, prepare a
transcription of a musical excerpt, and write a major paper based
on local field research or review of important theoretical literature.
Students may choose to focus on a Southeast Asian topic for the major
project, and
several weeks of reading and discussion are devoted to issues pertaining
to music and musical scholarship in Southeast Asia. Grading is based
on the three written projects, an oral presentation of the final paper,
and
participation in weekly discussions.
Music 915: Seminar in Ethnomusicology (3 cr.)
An advanced seminar in ethnomusicology. Topic varies from year to
year. Several seminars have addressed Southeast Asian topics:
"The Wayang World and its Music" (1991) and "Issues
in the Music of Southeast Asia" (1997). Assignments have included
transcriptions of musical excerpts, analyses of Javanese musical accompaniment
of drama, readings on the history and aesthetics of various musical
traditions, critical evaluations of media representations (commercial
recordings and television broadcasts), employing
the UW-Madison's extensive collection of cassette recordings and videos
from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
- Poli Sci 312: Politics of the World Economy
- This course is intended to help students
understand: (1) the recent history and present nature of the world
economy; (2) the differing ways that economists, political scientists,
and journalists tend to view the global economy; (3) key controversies
about the economic and political implications of the existence and
operation of the world economy; and (4) relevant choices for public
policy, including their possible consequences.
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- Poli Sci 339: Southeast Asian International
Relations
- This course spans three activities and two goals. The activities
are awareness, analysis, and assessment. The first goal is to
help students improve their awareness of ten countries in a region
of the crescent of a rim in the world. The countries are Brunei,
Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The regions is Southeas Asia, the
crescent is East Asia; and the rim is Asia Pacific. The second goal
is to help students exercise and thus improve their capacity to analyze
and assess the ways in which these countries relate to each other
and with other countries in the revised context of the post-Cold War
world.
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- Poli Sci 695: Politics of the Pacific Rim: Security,
Prosperity, Democracy
- This course will help students explore the international politics
of the Pacific Rim by focusing on efforts to organize regional cooperation
among the diverse countries there. Such efforts include the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum, and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
Implications for US foreign policy will be drawn. For example, what
policies should the US pursue in ARF on behalf of regional security,
or in APEC to promote regional prosperity? Should Americans
pursue multilaterally the democratization of East Asia as well?
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- Poli Sci 639: Southeast Asian Politics
- This course will focus on three major countries: Indonesia, Thailand,
and the Philippines. Our study of these three countries will,
in turn, focus on three major themes. First, we will examine
major features of the historical process of state formation in each
of the three countries, as well as modern pattersn of state-society
relations. This examination will begin, necessarily, with a
focus on the enormous contrasts in how these three countries experienced
European expansion: Thailand was never formerlly colonized, while
Indonesia and the Philippines were brought under very different types
of colonial rulership. Second, we will examine the politics
of economic development, with particular attention to how varying
patterns of state-society relations have influenced--and been influenced
by--the course of economic development in each of the three countries.
Third, we will analyze recurring tensions between authoritarian and
democratic forms of government throughout the postwar era.
- Poli Sci 967: Seminar - Asian Pacific Regionalism
- This course offers a comparative examination of the process of state
formation and the character of state-society relations in Southeast
Asia. The first portion of the course will consist of a broad survey
of a range fo theoretical literatures on European state formation,
colonial state formation, modern states' perceptions and strategies,
state-society relations in the Third World, and territorial dimensions
of the state. After a brief look at precolonial state formation
in Southeast Asia, the course will proceed to a much more careful
examination of colonial-era state formation in Indonesia, Thailand,
and the Philippines. In the third portion of the course, we
will examine he character of states and state-society relations in
postcolonial Indonesia, post-1932 Thailand, and the postcolonial Philippines.
The final week of readings examines strategies of decentralization
currently being considered or implemented in each of these three polities.
The goal throughout will be to draw upon and contribute to theoretical
understandings of how states are constructed and how they relate--across
time and space--with various social forces.
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- Poli Sci 967: Southeast Asian Political Economy:
Comparative Colonialism
- This course offers a comparative examination of the pre-colonial
and colonial legacies bequeathed to the modern states and modern political
economies of Southeast Asia, focussing in particular on the intersection
between the process of state formation (the development of on-going
administrative structures, legal systems, methods of extracting revenue,
and systems of coercion) and the transformation of economic structures.
While major attention will be devoted to Indonesia, Thailand,
and the Philippines, we will also seek to bring in insights from other
settings in Southeast Asia--and from elsewhere in the Third World.
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- Poli Sci 967: Seminar: Southeast Asian Politics
- Description forthcoming
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