Spring 2015 Course Descriptions
Chinese Language and Literature Courses
The course is designed for students who are of non-Chinese origin and were not raised in a Chinese-speaking environment, or who are of Chinese origin but do not speak Chinese and whose parents do not speak Chinese. The course continues to focus on training students in the four language skills--speaking, listening, reading, and writing with a gradually increasing emphasis on basic cultural readings and developing intercultural competence. Prerequisites: Chinese 1A; or consent of instructor.
Please note: The required tutorial sections will be scheduled once classes begin.
The second of a two-semester sequence introducing students to Chinese literature in translation. In addition to literary sources, a wide range of philosophical and historical texts will be covered, as well as aspects of visual and material culture. 7B focuses on late imperial, modern, and contemporary China. The course will focus on the development of sound writing skills. Prerequisites: None.
The course further develops students’ linguistic and cultural competence. In dealing with texts, students are guided to interpret, narrate, describe, and discuss topics ranging from real-life experience and personal memoire to historic events. Intercultural competence is promoted through linguistic and cultural awareness and language use in culturally appropriate contexts. Prerequisites: Chinese 10A; or consent of instructor.
Please note: The required tutorial sections will be scheduled once classes begin.
The course continues to develop students’ literacy and communicative competence through vocabulary and structure expansion dealing with topics related to Chinese heritage students’ personal experiences. Students are guided to express themselves on complex issues and to connect their language knowledge with real world experiences. Prerequisites: Chinese 1X; or consent of instructor.
The course helps students further develop their linguistic and cultural competence in Mandarin Chinese. It trains students to use Mandarin more appropriately and confidently in speaking, reading, and writing. With the expanded repertoire of Chinese language use and the increased awareness of the differences between cultures and subcultures, students are equipped to negotiate their way in an intercultural environment. Prerequisites: Chinese 1Y; or consent of instructor.
Please note: The required tutorial sections will be scheduled once classes begin.
The course continues the development of critical awareness by emphasizing the link between socio-cultural literacy and a higher level of language competence. While continuing to expand their critical literacy skills, students interpret texts related to Chinese popular culture, social change, cultural traditions, politics and history. Through linguistic and cultural comparisons, students understand more about people in the target society and themselves as well as about the power of language in language use to enhance their competence in operating between languages and associated cultures. Prerequisites: Chinese 100A; or consent of instructor.
Please note: The required tutorial sections will be scheduled once classes begin.
The course continues to develop students’ critical literacy skills in interpreting texts and writing in different genres and styles. It engages students to use their linguistic knowledge and skills to survey portions of Chinese history and society and comprehend Chinese cultural heritage in contemporary and historic economic, social, and political contexts. Students are guided to explore how language constructs subjective realities and contrast their own meanings in language production. The development of critical literacy and an understanding of the power of language in language use enables students to enhance their competence in operating between languages and associated cultures. Prerequisites: Chinese 100XA; or consent of instructor.
The course is designed to assist students to reach the advanced-mid level on language skills and to enhance their intercultural competence. Students read the works of famous Chinese writers. Movie adaptations of these writings are also used. In addition to reading and seeking out information, students experience readings by interpreting and constructing meanings and evaluate the effect of the language form choice. Prerequisites: Chinese 100B or Chinese 100XB; or consent of instructor.
Built on the foundation of Chinese 110A, which has focused on grammar learning through brief excerpts from ancient works, this course introduces students to longer and more complex essays in Classical Chinese including philosophical treatises, biographies, and fictions from Ancient to Late Medieval China. Samples of regular verses will also be covered. Students will be trained to use dictionaries, categorized compilations (leishu), and annotated editions to facilitate reading comprehension. The goal is to equip students with independent abilities to explore advanced Classical Chinese texts. Prerequisites: Chinese 110A; or consent of instructor.
This fast-paced course is designed to help the student reach an advanced-high competence level in all aspects of modern Chinese. It prepares students for research or employment in a variety of China-related fields. Materials are drawn from native-speaker target publications, including modern Chinese literature, film, intellectual history, and readings on contemporary issues. Texts are selected according to the students’ interests. Under the instructor’s guidance, students conduct their own research projects based on specialized readings in their own fields of study. Research projects are presented both orally and in written form. Prerequisites: Chinese 101 and Chinese 102; or consent of instructor.
This course is an introduction to the history of Buddhism in China from its beginnings in the early centuries CE to the present day. Through engagement with historical scholarship, primary sources in translation, and Chinese Buddhist art, we will explore the intellectual history and cultural impact of Buddhism in China. Students will also be introduced to major issues in the institutional history of Buddhism, the interactions between Buddhism and indigenous Chinese religions, and the relationship between Buddhism and the state. Prerequisites: None. Previous study of Buddhism is helpful but not required.
Daoism is China’s indigenous institutionalized religion. Founded in the second century of our era, Daoism remains today one of the major world religions, with practitioners and lay followers on every continent. In this course, we will trace the origins of Daoism in Warring States philosophical and technical literature, examine the millenarian church of the early medieval era, explore the fourth century scriptural revelations that brought Daoism to a wider audience of literati and the state, and observe the rise of monasticism and the personal cultivation of inner alchemy. The course will conclude with a detailed treatment of Daoism in modern Chinese religion, as revealed in recent fieldwork in China and Taiwan. A primary focus of the course will be an understanding of Daoism as a lived religion that responds to the needs and aspirations of a changing, dynamic Chinese populace. Prerequisites: None.
This course aims to introduce vernacular Chinese literature from the late nineteenth century to contemporary period. Our engagement with vernacular Chinese literature will center around the following questions: What is vernacular Chinese literature and how do we define it in relation to modern Chinese literature? How did Chinese intellectuals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries conceptualize, discuss, and produce vernacular literature for different purposes? In particular, how is the concept of the vernacular language (baihua) intersected with other social, political, and scientific discourses? We will read a variety of literary works and essays to explore the rise of vernacular Chinese literature as a renewed tradition. In addition to the literary tradition in China, we will also study how contemporary authors from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia engage with vernacular literary production. While most readings are in English, we will also read a few works in Chinese. Students who are proficient in Chinese are encouraged to read all texts in the original language. Prerequisites: Chinese 100B or Chinese 100XB (may be taken concurrently); or consent of instructor.
This class introduces cinema from Taiwan through the lenses of its major film auteurs. We will focus on internationally celebrated auteurs of the New Taiwan Cinema—Hou Hsiao Hsien, Edward Yang, and Tsai Mingliang—by situating their works in Taiwan’s film history and their engagement with the global “new wave” cinema as well as Taiwan’s political and cultural history. The class will combine inquiries of film style with considerations of Taiwan’s colonial legacy, its pressing social and political concerns, and its geopolitical dynamic between other parts of the Greater China and the Chinese diasporiac communities around the globe. Introducing major scholarship on Taiwan cinema and sinophone studies, this class will equip students with film analysis skills, critical theory, and knowledge of Taiwan cinema. Prerequisites: None.
This course centers around intensive reading and analysis of Cao Xueqin’s 18th-century masterpiece of Chinese fiction (also known as the Dream of the Red Chamber). Students will be introduced to the literary, cultural, philosophical, and material world from which this work emerged, as well as various approaches to the world within the text. Prerequisites: None.
A study of the founding period of Daoism through primary documents. We will read a variety of texts from the Daoist canon that can be confidently dated to the second through fifth centuries of the movement, including scriptures, ritual manuals, precept lists, demonological works, and hagiographies. These sources will document diverse aspects of the early church, but a special focus will be on ordination and church organization. Prerequisites: Graduate student standing.
This semester the seminar will focus on the writings of Heze Shenhui 荷澤神會 (684-758), the disciple and champion of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng 惠能 (638-713) and one of the architects of the "sudden school" of Chan. We will focus on the Dunhuang manuscripts associated with Shenhui, notably the Putidamo nanzong ding shifei lun 菩提達摩南宗定是非論 ("Treatise Establishing the Truth of the Southern Tradition of Bodhidharma") and the Nanyang heshang dunjiao jietuo chanmen zhi liaoxing tanyu 南陽和尚頓教解脫禪門直了性壇語 ("Platform Sermon by the Reverend of Nanyang on Directly Comprehending One's Nature according to the Chan Doctrine of Liberation through the Sudden Teaching"). In addition to the primary texts (we will use the edition by Hu Shih, Shenhui heshang yiji, 1970), we will be consulting the voluminous body of unpublished material left behind by the late John McRae. Prerequisites: Graduate student standing.
How do we evaluate the Wenxin diaolong and its place in the history of Chinese literature? Students in this seminar will be reading texts pertaining to premodern Chinese literary thought, with a focus on the Wenxin diaolong by Liu Xie. As we work our way through each chapter, we will examine Liu’s formulation of the ethics and aesthetics of reading and writing in his own historical context, with attention to how the formal aspects of the work reflect its ideals. Along the way, we will pause to examine key critical terms and ideas as they appear therein, and trace examples of their continued use in the tradition; and, through an examine of critical editions and citations, look at its reception and influence over time. Prerequisites: Graduate student standing.
The advent of Chinese literary modernity is often associated with the introduction of the modern vernacular language in the early twentieth century. This process, however, was preceded and augmented by a fundamental restructuring of prevailing genre hierarchies, as well as the gradual institutionalization of new systems for the categorization of cultural production. In this seminar, we will familiarize ourselves with various 'genres' of genre theory, while undertaking a concurrent exploration of how genre has worked to constitute new infrastructures for reading and writing in the early twentieth century. Topics will include late Qing print culture and its orthographic and paratextual innovations; the problem of the realist novel and the persistence of short forms such as xiaopinwen; and the power of designations such as "popular," "folk" and "mass" literature and culture. The course will culminate with a series of case studies of particular intermedial genres such as science fiction, wuxia, and melodrama/romance, understood as local and contingent inflections of transnationally circulating forms through which the experience of modernity has been mediated. Prerequisites: Graduate student standing.
East Asian Languages and Cultures Courses
This course will explore some of the most difficult bioethical issues confronting the world today from the perspective of traditional values embedded in the cultural history of India, China, and Japan as evidenced in their religions, legal codes, and political history. Possible topics include population control, abortion, sex-selection, euthanasia, suicide, genetic manipulation, brain-death, and organ transplants. Prerequisites: None.
Rather than approaching Buddhism as a belief system, this course examines how Buddhism is practiced in select South and Southeast Asian societies. The first segment will be dedicated to the Theravada traditions of Sri Lanka, Thailand and Cambodia. The second (and longer) segment focuses on the tantric Mahayana tradition of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, the sole form of Buddhism surviving in mainland South Asia. Across these Buddhist traditions we will examine how Buddhism is woven into the fabric of society, and shapes and structures peoples' lives. For this we will examine particular themes such as the different models of monkhood and monasticism, the adaptation to the caste system, the practices and role of the laity, kingship, life-cycle and other rituals, tantric practices, etc. The course materials will be brought to life by the extensive presentation of visual materials including documentaries and rare video footage. While the prior study of an Asian religious tradition, ideally Buddhism or Hinduism, is recommended, this is not a prerequisite and the course is open to all interested students. Prerequisites: None.
Description coming soon. Prerequisites: None.
This course is a capstone experience that centers on the philosophies and religions of East Asia examined from multiple theoretical perspectives. It comprises several thematic units within which a short set of readings about theory are followed by chronologically arranged readings about East Asia. Themes will alternate from year to year but may include: ritual and performance studies; religion and evolution; definitions of religion and theories of its origins; and the role of sacrifice. Prerequisites: None. Preference will be given to majors, especially those with junior or senior standing.
This course is taught in parallel with the EA LANG 191 capstone course on the philosophies and religions of East Asia examined from multiple theoretical perspectives. It comprises several thematic units within which a short set of readings about theory are followed by chronologically arranged readings about East Asia. Themes will alternate from year to year but may include: ritual and performance studies; religion and evolution; definitions of religion and theories of its origins; and the role of sacrifice. Graduate students will additionally attend five “teaching East Asia thought” lectures and also produce an original syllabus in a related area of their interest. Prerequisites: Graduate student standing.
Japanese Language and Literature Courses
Japanese 1B is designed to develop basic skills acquired in Japanese 1A further. Students will learn approximately 150 new kanji. At the end of the course students should be able to express regret, positive and negative requirements, chronological order of events, conditions, giving and receiving of objects and favors, and to ask and give advice. Grades will be determined on the basis of attendance, quiz scores, homework and class participation. Prerequisites: Japan 1A; or consent of instructor.
This class explores major literary writers of modern Japan and introduces important cultural contexts from the Meiji Restoration (1868) into the 21st century. Topical focus is determined by the key directions of the authors, resulting in a wide conceptual range topics including problems with individualism, definitions of the beautiful, moral weakness / strength, conundrums in apprehending or narrative truth, revenge, and aimlessness. All readings are in English translation. Writing credible and interesting analytic essays is an integral part of the course. Prerequisites: None.
The goal of this course is for the students to understand the more advanced language and culture required to communicate effectively in Japanese. Some of the cultural aspects covered are; pop-culture, traditional arts, education, convenient stores, haiku, and history. Through the final project, students will learn how to introduce their own cultures and their influences. In order to achieve these goals, students will learn how to integrate the basic structures and vocabulary they acquired in the previous semesters, as well as study new linguistic expressions. An increasing amount of more advanced reading and writing, including approximately 200 new kanji, will also be required. Prerequisites: Japan 10A; or consent of instructor.
This course introduces students to debates on gender and sexuality from the vectors and flows of transnational queer cinema. We will explore how queer cinema, as an archive of local intimacies, opens up new critical possibilities for us to imagine alternative forms of belonging, embodiment and sexual freedom.
This course aims to develop further context-specific skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing. It concentrates on students using acquired grammar and vocabulary with more confidence in order to express functional meanings, while increasing overall linguistic competence. Students will learn approximately 200 new Kanji. There will be a group or individual project. Course materials include the textbook supplemented by newspapers, magazine articles, short stories, essays, and video clips which will provide insight into Japanese culture and society. Prerequisites: Japan 100A; or consent of instructor.
Students will be trained to read, analyze, and translate modern Japanese scholarship on Chinese subjects. A major purpose of the course is to prepare students to take reading examinations in Japanese. The areas of scholarship to be covered are: politics, popular culture, religion, sociology and history as well as areas suggested by students who are actively engaged in research projects. Two readings in selected areas will be assigned, one by the instructor and the second by a student participant. Prerequisites: Graduate student standing; Japan 10B and Chinese 100B or equivalents.
This course helps heritage learners of Japanese who have completed 10X to develop further their linguistic and cultural competencies. More sophisticated linguistic forms are introduced and reinforced while dealing with various socio-cultural topics. Close reading knowledge and skills, formal and informal registers, and different genres of Japanese reading and writing are practiced. The materials covered are equivalent to those of 100A-100B. Prerequisites: Japan 10X; or consent of instructor.
This course provides students an opportunity to develop their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in order to express their opinions in argumentative discourse. Students read and discuss a variety of Japanese texts to deepen their understanding of Japanese society and people and to improve their intercultural communicative competence. Prerequisites: Japan 100, Japan 100B, or Japan 100X; or consent of instructor.
Students develop their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills further while examining Japanese historical figures, events, background, stories, etc. Students read a variety of texts and watch videos related to Japanese history as sources for discussions to deepen their understanding of Japanese society, culture, and people from historical perspectives. Students conduct individual research on a topic in Japanese history, and write a short research paper. Prerequisites: Japanese 100, Japanese 100B, or Japanese 100X; or consent of instructor.
This course is designed for students who have studied Japanese for at least four years (540 hours). It aims to develop further their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills with special emphasis on essay and research paper writing on topics relevant not only to the student’s interest but also to the student's major or intended career. Part of this written work will become the material on which the student will give an end-of-the-term oral presentation. Students are expected to fully prepare for and dynamically participate in the discussions and debates that occur in class. Prerequisities: Two courses chosen from Japanese 101, Japanese 102, Japanese 103, or Japanese 104
Description coming soon. Prerequisities: Japan 120; or consent of instructor.
This course is an introduction to the study of medieval Buddhist literature written in Classical Japanese in its wabun (aka bungo) and kanbun forms (including kakikudashi). The class will read samples from a variety of genres, including material written in China that are read in an idiosyncratic way in Japan. Reading materials will include Chinese translations of Sanskrit and Central Asian Buddhist scriptures, scriptural commentaries written in China and Korea, Japanese subcommentaries on influential Chinese and Korean commentaries, philosophical treatises, hagiography, apologetics, histories, doctrinal letters, preaching texts, and setsuwa literature. This course is intended for students who already have some facility in literary Japanese. Prerequisites: Japan 120; or consent of instrcutor. Prior background in Buddhist history and thought is helpful, but not required.
This course places in dialogue concepts of "strength" and "dependency" (amae), as explored in a variety of literary works written from Meiji times until the present. To ask "What is strength?" raises considerations of gender-specific norms and aspirations. To take seriously the widely encountered high valuation of "dependency" (amae) in modern Japanese narratives engages a way of thinking/feeling that is important for understanding them. However, both "strength" and "dependency" are better understood when considered together and the dialogue between these is an entry into questions such as "true love" or a sincere and "true life" is—questions that have been asked by fictional characters, narrators, and their authors in many different ways, from the early Shirakaba Group to the post-war Burai Group to the most contemporary of authors. We pursue some of the most interesting formulations of these questions as well as how tensions between strength and dependency give shape to fictional characters or drive narratives. Approximately 6-8 authors will be read. While larger works are read in English, all essential passages are read in Japanese. Prerequisites: J100B (may be taken concurrently); or consent of instructor.
This course deals with issues of the usage of the Japanese language and how they have been treated in the field of linguistics. It concentrates on pragmatics, modality/evidentiality, deixis, speech varieties (politeness, gender, written vs. spoken), conversation management, and rhetorical structure. Students are required to have intermediate knowledge of Japanese. No previous linguistics training is required. Prerequisites: Japan 10, Japan 10B, or Japan 10X; or consent of instructor.
In this course, we will address a range of prose narrative and visual works organized around the subject of “postwar.” We will explore how writers and artists represented the postwar in its varied forms. Some attempted to capture the experience of fighting and surviving the war. Others focused on the social dislocations they felt were occasioned by the occupation and defeat. Still others used the aftermath of war as a particular setting to explore the rapidly evolving gender roles and changing sexual mores. In examining postwar Japanese culture from roughly 1946 to 1960, the course seeks to show the interconnectedness of aesthetics and politics and to locate the multidirectional memories of the postwar that persist in our own time. Prerequisites: None.
Urami (rancor, resentment) has an enduring presence in Japanese literature. Figures overburdened with urami become demons, vengeful ghosts or other transformed, dangerous, scheming characters. They appear in many different genre and eras. The course's topic enables discussion on concepts important for understanding Japanese literary works such as hyper-attentiveness to shifting social status, the role of groupness in targeting victims, the imperatives of shame, secrets, the circumscribed agency of women, and the reach of Buddhist teachings into behavioral norms. For those interested in comparative literature, the course offers an opportunity to take a measure of what Japanese narratives offer as legitimate causes of rancor and revenge. Prerequisites: None.
Description coming soon. Prerequisites: Graduate student standing.
In the seminar, we will examine the concept of precarity and its effects on the study of Japan across various disciplines. We will reflect historically and theoretically on the ways in which the concept has been mobilized to describe an experience of human life as tenuous and unpredictable. We will then explore how the immaterial, affective, and cognitive demands of social life may compel a reconfiguration of Japan as an object of study and invite a realignment of disciplinary knowledge and practice. Readings for most weeks include one primary text supplemented by secondary sources. We will consider various figurations of precarity in fiction, ethnography and film; the ethics of vulnerability and the politics of care; catastrophes and the problem of scale, poverty and representation. This course is open to all graduate students. Prerequisites: Graduate student standing.
Close readings of Japanese literature (in the original language) in a variety of genres, from the 1940s to the present. Prerequisites: Graduate student standing.
Korean Language and Literature Courses
With an emphasis on speaking, listening, reading and writing, students will learn daily life expressions, common colloquialisms, and speech acts. The course is also intended to introduce certain cultural aspects through media sources and various activities. Prerequisities: Korean 1A; or consent of instructor.
With an emphasis on speaking, listening, reading and writing, students will learn daily life expressions, common colloquialisms, and speech acts. The course is also intended to introduce certain cultural aspects through media sources and various activities. Prerequisities: Korean 1A; or consent of instructor.
With special emphasis on reading and writing, students will expand common colloquialisms and appropriate speech acts. Prerequisites: Korean 1AX; or consent of instructor.
A survey of modern Korean literature and culture in the 20th century, focusing on the development of nationalist aesthetics in both North and South Korea. Topics include "new woman" narratives, urban culture, colonial modernity, war and trauma, and diaspora. Texts to be examined include works of fiction, poetry, art, and film. All readings are in English. Prerequisites: None.
This intermediate course will emphasize reading and writing so that students can reach a comparable proficiency with their already high speaking and listening skills. Prerequisites: Korean 10AX; or consent of instructor.
Students will learn more advanced expressions and use them in reading and writing. Small group discussions will enhance speaking and listening skills. Prerequisites: Korean 100A; or consent of instructor.
Students will be introduced to advanced-level Korean by reading authentic texts and writing short compositions, summaries, essays, and critical reviews. Students will be encouraged to speak using advanced vocabulary and expressions. Prerequisites: Korean 100AX; or consent of instructor.
This is an advanced course of reading and textual analysis in various areas including politics, economics, society, and history. Both fluency and accuracy will also be emphasized in speaking and writing with the goal of preparing students to conduct independent research in Korean. Prerequisites: Korean 100B or Korean 100BX; or consent of instructor.
This course aims to prepare students for research or employment in a Korea-related field. Authentic materials will be used to discuss various issues in Korea and some may be selected by students to explore their specific interests/needs. Students will conduct research projects in their own fields of study. Prerequisites: Korean 101 and Korean 102; or consent of instructor.
This course will examine the works of major poets in the first half of the 20th century and will consider the formation of modern Korean poetry. Particular attention will be given to the ideas of lyricism, modernism, and the identity of a poet in the context of the colonial occupation of Korea. Prerequisite: Korean 100A or Korean 100AX.
This course aims to facilitate critical understanding of persistent themes and diverse styles of modern Korean literature through close readings of canonical works from the colonial period (1910-1945). It encourages students to develop broad comprehension of “post-colonial” characteristics of Korean literature. Concurrently, it explores how Korean literature aspired to the expression of the universal aesthetic values and judgment against the particularistic historical condition of colonialism. Prerequisite: Korean 100A or Korean 100AX.
This course examines Korean literature from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries through the perspectives of gender. Although the modern discourse of enlightenment in Korea, beginning in the early twentieth century, has been sharply critical of gender inequality in premodern Korea, the gender relations represented in premodern Korean literature are much more complex and dynamic than we might expect. To revise our understanding of gender in premodern Korea, this course seeks to examine how gender is imagined particularly in terms of the body, bodily practice, and theatrical performance. Prerequisites: None.
This course surveys modern Korean fiction in the second half of the twentieth century. Beginning with liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, this period in Korea was characterized by a highly charged political atmosphere, due to events such as the US occupation, the Korean War, the division, and the military dictatorship. In response, diverse and intense forms of activism emerged. This course will examine how modern Korean literature has been engaged with shaping historical memories by producing counter-narratives of critical historical and political events. Readings include major works in the genres of the novel, short fiction, and literary criticism. Various visual materials, including Korean films produced since the 1990s, will constitute significant component of course materials. All readings are in English. Prerequisites: None.
Tibetan Language and Literature Courses
A continuation of Tibetan 1A, Tibetan 1B develops further listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in modern Tibetan (Lhasa dialect), with a gradually increasing emphasis on basic cultural readings and developing intercultural competence. Prerequisites: Tibetan 1B; or consent of instructor.
This course seeks to develop a critical understanding of contemporary Tibet, characterized as it is by modernity, invasion, Maoism, liberalization, exile, and diaspora. It explores the cultural dynamism of the Tibetans over the last 100 years as expressed in literature, film, music, modern art, and political protest. The core topics include intra-Tibetan arguments regarding the preservation and "modernization" of traditional cultural forms, the development of new aesthetic creations and values, the constraints and opportunities on cultural life under colonialism and in the diaspora, and the religious nationalism of the recent political protests. Prerequisites: None.
This seminar is devoted to an exploration of the canon of Nyingma liturgies and commentaries known as the Kama (bka' ma), both "the very idea of" the collection itself and it's recessional history. The core texts for this seminar are a number of catalogs (dkar chag) of the Kama dating from the early 18th to the early 21st centuries. These catalogs were venues for the ongoing reflection regarding the identity and nature of the texts that belong within the canon and the place of the Kama within the Nyingma tradition more broadly. In addition to being an excellent opportunity for a study of late premodern and contemporary Nyingma history, the readings for this course also provide for a detailed study of Tibetan philological and editorial practices, and the social history of book production. Advanced-intermediate Tibetan is a prerequisite of the seminar; texts will be distributed in class. Prerequisites: Graduate student standing.