Fall 2022
AS 221 / ENG 222 Survey of Asian Literature
Instructor: Walt Hakala
AS 221 (Reg #18497), MoWeFr 1:00PM – 1:50PM, Clemens 06 (basement), 3 credits
This course will introduce students to narratives of romance that span Asia’s wide variety of religious, literary, theatrical, and cinematic traditions. Rather than defining romance by what it contains, we will instead consider what romance as a genre does. Through this approach, it becomes possible to examine why certain narratives were compelling enough to be transmitted across and preserved within a diverse range of cultures and historical periods. “Texts” include English translations of Sanskrit drama, The Arabian Nights, an early Japanese novel, recent Bollywood cinema, Korean television melodramas, and the worldwide Harlequin Romance phenomenon.
Satisfies 200-level requirements for English and a “Core Course” requirement for Asian Studies majors and minors. Fulfills Global and Thematic Pathway requirements in the UB Curriculum. No prerequisite coursework or knowledge of a foreign language is expected prior to the start of the course. This course is the same as ENG 222 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.
HIN 101 Intensive 1st-Year Hindi-Urdu
Instructor: Vandana Iyer
HIN 101 (Reg #16864) MW 10:00 AM – 12:05 PM; Greiner 118B, 5 credits
A five-credit course that will introduce the closely-related languages of Hindi and Urdu, intended for students with no or very limited exposure to these or related South Asian languages. At the introductory level, Hindi and Urdu are similar in vocabulary and grammar but use different scripts. Students will gain competency in speaking Hindi and Urdu, and in reading and writing these languages using both scripts. This is the first semester of a year-long sequence that prepares students for 2nd-year HIN 193-194. No prerequisites.
Fulfills a component of the UB Global Pathway in Introductory Hindi-Urdu.
Spring 2022
AS 333 South Asian Cinema: Bollywood and Beyond
Instructor: Shantam Goyal
AS 333 (Reg #23709), T 7:00PM – 9:40PM, Norton 218, 3 credits
This course is a chronological exploration of Hindi cinema, stretching from the 1940s to the present. With its flashy “item numbers,” “chocolate” heroes, “masala” films, and “playback singers,” Bollywood films offer delights that no other genre can. But beneath its flashy exterior, Bollywood also offers moral lessons for social uplift, provides examples of changing class and family dynamics, tracks the influence of the West on a decidedly South Asian art form, and has its finger perennially on the cultural pulse of India.
Satisfies an upper-level elective requirement for Asian Studies majors and minors. Satisfies a List 3 requirement of the UB Global Pathways.
ENG 715 Postcolonial Lit & Theory: Orientalist Discourse and Postcolonial Theory
Instructor: Walter Hakala
ENG 715SEM (Reg #23499), Tuesdays 12:30-3:10 pm, Clemens 538
Kashiprasad Ghosh (1809 -1873)
This seminar introduces graduate students in literary studies and allied fields (such as anthropology, art history, history, sociology, and gender studies) to past and present debates central to the study of colonialism. Our focus will be on the British East India Company and British Raj in South Asia, though much of what we discuss will have global implications. This seminar will thus serve as a pedagogy proseminar for those intending to teach world literatures and other global topics. Seminar participants are not expected to have prior training or expertise in South Asia studies.
We will begin with foundational texts by Benedict Anderson, Partha Chatterjee, Ranajit Guha, Edward Said, Gauri Viswanathan, and others who helped shape debates around postcolonial and area studies scholarship, especially in the 1980s and after. We will pair these theoretical readings with primary sources drawn from the 19th century, including famous works by Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Babington Macaulay and lesser-known texts by Henry Derozio, Kashiprasad Ghosh, Behramji Malabari, and others. We will also consider as case studies recent first monographs by scholars like Jennifer Dubrow and Padma Rangarajan to understand emerging trends in the field and the process of transforming one’s dissertation into a book. Participants in the seminar will gain familiarity with a variety of theories and approaches to colonialism (including those advanced by Orientalists, Anglicists, nationalists, Marxists, and the Subaltern Studies Collective) and apply them to a wide range of literary and cultural materials.
All seminar participants will be responsible for leading a class discussion and preparing four written responses from among six prompts assigned throughout the semester. Those enrolled intensively will also prepare a 5,000- to 8,000-word final paper.
HIN 102 Intensive 1st-Year Hindi-Urdu
Instructor: Vandana Iyer
HIN 102 (Reg #23909) M W , 10:00 AM – 12:05 PM; Baldy 105
A five-credit course that will introduce the closely-related languages of Hindi and Urdu, intended for students with no or very limited exposure to these or related South Asian languages. At the introductory level, Hindi and Urdu are similar in vocabulary and grammar but use different scripts. Students will gain competency in speaking Hindi and Urdu, and in reading and writing these languages using both scripts. This is the second semester of a year-long sequence that prepares students for 2nd-year HIN 193-194. No prerequisites.
Fulfills a component of the UB Global Pathway in Introductory Hindi-Urdu.
Fall 2021
Instructor: Vandana Iyer
HIN 101 (Reg #17453) MW 10:25 AM – 12:30 PM; Baldy 118, 5 credits
A five-credit course that will introduce the closely-related languages of Hindi and Urdu, intended for students with no or very limited exposure to these or related South Asian languages. At the introductory level, Hindi and Urdu are similar in vocabulary and grammar but use different scripts. Students will gain competency in speaking Hindi and Urdu, and in reading and writing these languages using both scripts. This is the first semester of a year-long sequence that prepares students for 2nd-year HIN 193-194. No prerequisites.
Fulfills a component of the UB Global Pathway in Introductory Hindi-Urdu.
Fall 2020
AS 199 UB Seminar: The Idea of India
Instructor: Walt Hakala
AS 221 (Reg #21795), MoWeFr 10:20AM – 11:10AM, HYBRID, 3 credits
70 years after gaining independence, and more than a century after beginning its struggle for independence from Britain, this course will evaluate the legacy of India as both an idea and a reality by asking unresolved questions such as
- To what extent has postcolonial India lived up to the promises outlined in the preamble to its 1949 constitution “to secure to all its citizens” justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity?
- What role has colonialism played in shaping present-day Indian society?
- How have perceptions of India changed outside India? How (if at all) are they connected with reality of life within India?
“The Idea of India” will serve as an introduction to the vexed histories of colonialism, caste, gender, religion, language, and politics in modern India. Students enrolled in the course will examine primary sources and secondary scholarship to understand debates about India’s status (aspiration or actual) as an independent political, cultural, and economic unit. Through online “running notes” and exercises, in-class debates, and a final project, students will employ various media (written, oral, visual) to argue, synthesize, and critically analyze unresolved questions about India’s past, present, and future. We will connect ethical debates about area studies with discussions of academic integrity to explore the broader political implications of how, why, and for whom knowledge gets produced. No prerequisite coursework or experience with Asian Studies is expected prior to the start of the course.
AS 221 / ENG 222 Survey of Asian Literature
Instructor: Walt Hakala
AS 221 (Reg #21424), MoWeFr 3:00PM – 3:50PM, ONLINE, 3 credits
This course will introduce students to narratives of romance that span Asia’s wide variety of religious, literary, theatrical, and cinematic traditions. Rather than defining romance by what it contains, we will instead consider what romance as a genre does. Through this approach, it becomes possible to examine why certain narratives were compelling enough to be transmitted across and preserved within a diverse range of cultures and historical periods. “Texts” include English translations of Sanskrit drama, The Arabian Nights, an early Japanese novel, recent Bollywood cinema, Korean television melodramas, and the worldwide Harlequin Romance phenomenon.
Satisfies 200-level requirements for English and a “Core Course” requirement for Asian Studies majors and minors. Fulfills Global and Thematic Pathway requirements in the UB Curriculum. No prerequisite coursework or knowledge of a foreign language is expected prior to the start of the course. This course is the same as ENG 222 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.
AS 333 South Asian Cinema: Bollywood and Beyond
Instructor: Dr. Francesca Bremner
AS 333 (Reg #22193), Th 7:05PM – 9:45PM, ONLINE, 3 credits
This course is a chronological exploration of Hindi cinema, stretching from the 1940s to the present. With its flashy “item numbers,” “chocolate” heroes, “masala” films, and “playback singers,” Bollywood films offer delights that no other genre can. But beneath its flashy exterior, Bollywood also offers moral lessons for social uplift, provides examples of changing class and family dynamics, tracks the influence of the West on a decidedly South Asian art form, and has its finger perennially on the cultural pulse of India.
Satisfies an upper-level elective requirement for Asian Studies majors and minors. Satisfies a List 3 requirement of the UB Global Pathways.
HIN 101 Intensive 1st-Year Hindi-Urdu
Instructor: Vandana Iyer
HIN 101 (Reg #19249) MWF 10:25AM – 11:50AM; ONLINE; 5 credits
A five-credit course that will introduce the closely-related languages of Hindi and Urdu, intended for students with no or very limited exposure to these or related South Asian languages. At the introductory level, Hindi and Urdu are similar in vocabulary and grammar but use different scripts. Students will gain competency in speaking Hindi and Urdu, and in reading and writing these languages using both scripts. This is the first semester of a year-long sequence that prepares students for 2nd-year HIN 193-194. No prerequisites.
Fulfills a component of the UB Global Pathway in Introductory Hindi-Urdu.
Spring 2020
AS 333 South Asian Cinema: Bollywood and Beyond
Instructor: Anupriya Pandey
AS 333 (Reg #21976), Th 7:00PM – 9:40PM, Clemens 322, 3 credits
This course is a chronological exploration of Hindi cinema, stretching from the 1940s to the present. With its flashy item numbers, chocolate, heroes, masala films, and playback singers, Bollywood films offer delights that no other genre can. But beneath its flashy exterior, Bollywood also offers moral lessons for social uplift, provides examples of changing class and family dynamics, tracks the influence of the West on a decidedly South Asian art form, and has its finger perennially on the cultural pulse of India.
Satisfies an upper-level elective requirement for Asian Studies majors and minors. Satisfies a List 3 requirement of the UB Global Pathways.
AS 338 Islam and Literature
Instructor: Walt Hakala
AS 338 (Reg #22070), MoWe 5:00PM – 6:20PM, Capen 258, 3 credits
This course will expose students to the wide variety of poetic and prose literary forms associated with Islam, including contemporary English-language novels and translations from Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Hebrew, Persian, Saraiki, Tamil, and Urdu originals. We will explore literature through a variety of themes and genres common to the literary traditions of these languages. Theory and primary source readings will be paired each week. All readings are in English and will include early Sufi mystical works, pre-Islamic, medieval, and more recent 20th-century poetry, and such prose genres as autobiography, folktales, romances, short stories, and novels. In addition to brief UBlearns response papers on directed topics and weekly contributions to collaborative “Running Notes” on assigned readings, seminar participants will spend the second half of the semester preparing a final project consisting of a prospectus, annotated bibliography, and research paper. All assigned texts are in English and no background in other languages or Islam is expected.
Satisfies an upper-level elective requirement for Asian Studies majors and minors. Satisfies a List 3 requirement of the UB Global Pathways.
HIN 102 Intensive 1st-Year Hindi-Urdu
Instructor: Vandana Iyer
MWF 9:00 – 10:25 am; Baldy 115
A five-credit course that will introduce the closely-related languages of Hindi and Urdu, intended for students with no or very limited exposure to these or related South Asian languages. At the introductory level, Hindi and Urdu are similar in vocabulary and grammar but use different scripts. Students will gain competency in speaking Hindi and Urdu, and in reading and writing these languages using both scripts. This is the second semester of a year-long sequence that prepares students for 2nd-year HIN 193-194. No prerequisites.
Fulfills a component of the UB Global Pathway in Introductory Hindi-Urdu.