Spring 2022

Professor Yoon Jeong Oh | W: 2:00 PM - 4:45 PM

Translation is “a process in which our entire relation to the Other is played out,” says Antoine Berman. While the very aim of translation is to open up a certain relation, however, translation is often represented as articulating different entities of languages to facilitate the construction of one’s Own through the mediation of the ambiguous Foreign. Cases include the Lutheran translation of the Bible from Latin into local German vernacular of the sixteenth-century; Japanese translation of the Chinese classics and ancient texts into colloquialisms in the eighteenth-century; and modern Korean translation of the recent past and Western canons into han’gŭl in the early twentieth-century. This seminar will examine the mediation of the Other/Foreign by extending questions involved in translation, such as the mediality of language, transmediality of (hi)stories, and transversality of cultural spheres as well as that of the subject in transit, through transcritical readings of the East-West. Borrowed from Karatani Kojin, the term “transcritique” is used to stress a critical approach to dissect transcendental structures that substitute for the relation to the real Other. No prior knowledge of Korean is required, and both MA and PhD students from other disciplines are welcome.

Professor Thomas Looser | M: 2:00 PM - 4:45 PM

This course looks at the various elements that make up and structure the contemporary urban subject in Asia. This includes architecture, art, technology and new media, and economic (and political economic) conditions. Attention is paid to the ways in which each of these factors create and organize life—but the aim is also to examine how these elements are being recombined in ways that point to new orders of social life in general. The boundaries of crime, and of subculture, play an integral role in this view. While sociological analysis is part of the approach, the course also draws heavily on the ways in which conditions are formulated and expressed in fiction, film, animation, and fine art. The course entails some historical overview and comparison with earlier moments (especially the early 20th century), but the emphasis is on the situation now. It is also meant to provide a comparative view between major Asian cities, but will focus on particular cities. The conditions being discussed are also global, and so inevitably the topics expand beyond Asia as well, even while they have specificity in different regions. At stake overall is the changing conditions of life, of mass culture, and of the social community in Asia and the world.

Professor Dongmin Kim | R: 11:00 AM - 1:45 PM

The course is designed to help students learn to teach East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean at the college-level. A wide range of issues related to the teaching of a foreign language will be discussed, including 1) historical overview of language teaching methods and approaches and their application to the classroom teaching; 2) curriculum design and lesson planning; 3) textbooks and supplementary teaching materials; 4) different strategies and skills in language teaching; 5) testing and assessment; and 6) use of technology.