Educating East Asia
This course looks at East Asian history through the prism of higher education. What role has higher education in China, Japan, and Korea played in the rise of Modern East Asia (Late Nineteenth Century) and the historical experience of these three countries, shared as well as divergent, in the twentieth Century? How has higher education transformed the idea of class, gender, and nation in these three countries? Who went to higher educational facilities and what career paths did they develop? What do the indigenous educational systems in Korea, Japan, and China say about global modernity in the 19th and 20th Centuries? Through examination of select primary and secondary sources, students will obtain an inside glimpse at East Asia, global modernity, and the discipline of social and cultural history. Students will be required to produce two short essays, participate in class discussion, and submit a final paper.