2024-2025 Academic Year

Fall 2024

JPNS 201 Intermediate Japanese
The aim of this course is the mastery of the basic structure of Japanese language and communicative skills. The student will have an opportunity to get to know more of Japanese culture. Prerequisite: 102 or permission of the instructor.

EASN 305 War & Memory EASN Lit & Film
Cross-listed with FMST 310-01. This class examines Japanese, Chinese, and some Korean and Taiwanese representations of the war fought in Asia between 1937 and 1945. This conflict affected the lives of millions and irrevocably changed the landscape of foreign relations in the region. We will investigate questions of collective (and contested) memory, victimization and responsibility, as well as how artists attempted to represent experiences that stretched the boundaries of imagination. Many of the issues we will discuss remain heated topics of debate in domestic and international politics today. This investigation into collective memory will involve in-depth engagement with fiction and films as well as scholarship relating to the war. By the end of the semester, students will gain experience expressing their ideas using the analytic and research tools that we practice in class. Students will evaluate responses to historical controversies in the realms of academia, politics, literature, film and popular culture, and consider how these debates shape the ways in which we remember and understand past conflicts.

FMST 310 War & Memory EASN Lit & Film
Cross-listed with EASN 305-01. This class examines Japanese, Chinese, and some Korean and Taiwanese representations of the war fought in Asia between 1937 and 1945. This conflict affected the lives of millions and irrevocably changed the landscape of foreign relations in the region. We will investigate questions of collective (and contested) memory, victimization and responsibility, as well as how artists attempted to represent experiences that stretched the boundaries of imagination. Many of the issues we will discuss remain heated topics of debate in domestic and international politics today. This investigation into collective memory will involve in-depth engagement with fiction and films as well as scholarship relating to the war. By the end of the semester, students will gain experience expressing their ideas using the analytic and research tools that we practice in class. Students will evaluate responses to historical controversies in the realms of academia, politics, literature, film and popular culture, and consider how these debates shape the ways in which we remember and understand past conflicts.

JPNS 361 Advanced Japanese II
The emphasis in this course is placed on polishing and refining the students' language skills. Emphasis is placed on covering more sophisticated materials such as newspapers, magazine articles, film and literature. Prerequisite: 232 or permission of the instructor.

Spring 2025

FMST 102 Fund of Digit Film Production
This course provides instruction in the basic aesthetic and technical aspects of digital film production, including writing, producing, directing, shooting, lighting, recording and mixing sound, and editing. Students will learn to harness digital tools while focusing on their roles as storytellers. Each participant will write and direct a video, rotating through various crew positions as they carry out exercises designed to deepen their knowledge of the different elements of moviemaking. Ultimately, students will collaborate in teams on short movies, which will be screened at the final class. Offered spring semesters.

JPNS 102 Elementary Japanese
These courses establish the basic language skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing. These courses also provide students with a brief overview of Japanese culture.Prerequisite: 101 or permission of instructor

JPNS 202 Intermediate Japanese
The aim of this course is the mastery of the basic structure of Japanese language and communicative skills. The student will have an opportunity to get to know more of Japanese culture. Prerequisite: 201 or permission of the instructor. This course fulfills the language graduation requirement.

EASN 204 East Asian Cinema
Cross-listed with FMST 210-02. This class is intended as an introduction to the cinematic traditions of East Asia, including China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. No semester long course can do justice to the subject, so we will focus on certain historical moments, genres, and themes. We will begin in the postwar era when the region was emerging from the devastation of war. We then turn to blockbuster Asian films in the gangster and wuxia genres and how other films situate themselves as alternatives to the classical Hollywood style. From there, we explore the role of film festivals in bringing Asian cinema to the world. Additional Time Slot: Mondays 7-10pm for film screenings. Alternate modes of viewing will be made available for those with unavoidable conflicts.

FMST 210 East Asian Cinema
Cross-listed with EASN 204-01. This class is intended as an introduction to the cinematic traditions of East Asia, including China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. No semester long course can do justice to the subject, so we will focus on certain historical moments, genres, and themes. We will begin in the postwar era when the region was emerging from the devastation of war. We then turn to blockbuster Asian films in the gangster and wuxia genres and how other films situate themselves as alternatives to the classical Hollywood style. From there, we explore the role of film festivals in bringing Asian cinema to the world. Additional Time Slot: Mondays 7-10pm for film screenings. Alternate modes of viewing will be made available for those with unavoidable conflicts.