WGST 363 - Women in Asian Traditions

4 credits

This course critically examines traditional definitions of gender and the ways women both enact and challenge such definitions in the present day in Asia, through our reading of contemporary ethnographic (field research) studies on women and religion.  The methodology of the course is to examine ways in which cultural history is both affirmed and changed in the present, through study of scholarly theories of intersections between the academic disciplines of history, ethnography and history of religions.  We perform gender analysis to contrast women’s social agency in past present in order to situate the opportunities they have to participate in the shaping of tradition today, and to examine ways in which contemporary women are actively and authoritatively redefining tradition to shape their every day lives in social and political context, engaging traditional cultural values in new definitions of rights and ways of acting in society.  The world region/s of focus - South Asia, Southeast Asia, and/or East Asia - will vary by offering. Same as HIST 362   CLA-Diversity International, CLA-Writing Intensive