Academics > Spring 2009 New Course Offerings
Anthro 446 - Southeast Asian Cultures
Art 400V - Monumental Past in Southeast Asia
Art 491C - Art and Architecture of Southeast Asia
Art 791 - Hindu Visual Culture
Asian Studies 491 - Film in Thailand
Botany 498 - Mekong Ethnobotany
Spring 2009 Courses | Full Course List
Southeast Asian Cultures
Anthropology 446
Students taking this course will examine Southeast Asia’s cultural diversity using commonalities as entry points. The commonalities include linguistic ties, historical ties, particularly the impacts of foreign trade, introduced religions, and colonialism, and the more recent effects of development and global economic trends. Three intellectual ‘threads’ will be the guide through Southeast Asia: power, performance, and gender.
Monumental Past in Southeast Asia
Art 400V
This course provides a critical introduction to a selection of well-known
monuments in mainland and maritime Southeast Asia that have been, and
continue to be, instrumental in the formation of collective and national
identities in the region. The course will consist of a series of case
studies of such monuments and sites as Borobudur (Indonesia), Angkor Wat and
Preah Vihear (Cambodia), Sukhothai and Ayutthaya (Thailand), Luang Prabang
(Laos), Shwedagon Pagoda (Myanmar/Burma), and Hue (Vietnam) that will be
placed in a comparative framework to highlight points of similarity and
difference in the use of the past for more recent political purposes. In
order to make the course accessible to students with little or no background
in Southeast Asian Studies, each case will be presented in two parts.
First, the monuments will be introduced according to "original" cultural and
historical context. Second, we will examine the history of the monument or
site subsequent to the period of its creation. The emphasis will be on
identifying and tracking changes that have occurred in use, meaning, and
significance. We will also discuss major interpretive shifts that have
occurred in the scholarly literature or in the way that people "approach"
and perceive a given monumental site.
The course is not a survey in the traditional art historical sense of presenting a canon of major works in a developmental sequence. Rather, each case has been specifically selected in order to highlight important critical issues, including the construction of "classical" pasts and art/architecture traditions in the colonial and post-colonial eras; the role of monumental architecture and sculpture in Southeast Asian nationalism(s); monuments and the development of heritage; the relationship between monuments and collective memory; monuments as contested spaces between competing nations, nationalist vs. globalizing initiatives, and diverging economic interests; and the use of modern public art/architecture to invoke the past and shape identities.
Art and Architecture in Southeast Asia
Art 491C
This course provides an introduction to the arts and architecture of Burma
(Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam from the Neolithic period
to the present through examination of architecture, sculpture, painting,
metalwork, ceramics, and textiles. Primary emphasis is placed on early
periods, including the Bronze Age and Dong Son culture; Hindu/Buddhist
sculpture and stone architecture, particularly the temples of Pagan (Burma),
Angkor (Cambodia), and Cham civilization (Vietnam); Theravada Buddhist
architecture and painting in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia; Vietnamese sacred
architecture (Mahayana Buddhist temples, the Confucian Temple of Literature,
and community halls); and Thai and Vietnamese ceramics and their role in
early modern SE Asian trading networks. Artistic developments will be
examined in terms of technology; style; social, historical, and political
contexts; and the main religions that have shaped the culture and history of
the region: Buddhism and Hinduism.
Hindu Visual Culture: From the Ancient Past to the Present explores the role of art in the diverse religious traditions known collectively as Hinduism. Students are introduced to Hindu iconography and mythology as depicted in painting and sculpture from the ancient period through the 20th century, as well as in recent Indian films and comic books. Students will also read excerpts (in English translation) from ancient mythological texts (the Puranas) and the great Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Topics to be investigated include the major themes of Hindu mythology and art, the nature of the divine in Hinduism, the importance of "seeing" in the Hindu religious context, and the various approaches to the depiction of narrative in Hindu art.
Contemporary Thai Cinema
Asian Studies 491S
Contemporary Thai Cinema has three goals. First, the class will approach cultural movements through the motifs of Thai cinema (generational politics, the 1997 financial crisis, new forms of indie cinema production, national disasters, violent clashes in the South, urban migration, etc.). Second, the class will compare how these films are put together (for example, content, shot sequences, montage, cinematography, etc.). Third, Film in Thailand will look at film as a register of society (e.g., what is a stereotype versus what is realistic, is the film accessible, should it be?).
Class will consist of numerous film viewings followed by lively class discussions in which students will engage theoretical concepts that link class readings to film viewings
The class will be taught by Noah Viernes, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Hawaii working on a dissertation entitled The Politics of Aesthetics in Contemporary Thai Film and Literature (1992-2006).
Hindu Visual Culture: From the Ancient Past to the Present explores the role of art in the diverse religious traditions known collectively as Hinduism. Students are introduced to Hindu iconography and mythology as depicted in painting and sculpture from the ancient period through the 20th century, as well as in recent Indian films and comic books. Students will also read excerpts (in English translation) from ancient mythological texts (the Puranas) and the great Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Topics to be investigated include the major themes of Hindu mythology and art, the nature of the divine in Hinduism, the importance of "seeing" in the Hindu religious context, and the various approaches to the depiction of narrative in Hindu art.