In this seminar, students will read fifteen short stories from various languages of India translated into English. The stories will describe the relationships between men and women and how the society looks at the roles of men and women in Indian culture. The students will be expected to read the stories and to discuss and critique them in class. They will also be expected to write two five-page research papers. This seminar may be used to satisfy the Arts and Literature or Social and Behavioral Sciences requirement in Letters and Science.

Kausalya Hart (M.A., Annamalai University, 1962) is the author of Tamil for Beginners, Tamil Madu, and Tamil Tiraippadam (advanced Tamil textbooks). She has prepared numerous Tamil language teaching aids (including a collection of Tamil movie videos), and a dictionary for modern Tamil. Her current research involves the preparation of a dictionary of Tamil inscriptions. Her interests include Tamil literature, grammar, and inscriptions.

The course focuses on literary works that articulate the history, issues, and struggles of social movements in the Philippines. This includes the following: the poems and essays of the Katiipunan revolutionary movement in the 19th century; the symbolic dramas of the anti-colonial movement during the first decade of American colonial rule; the songs and poems of the peasant movement of the 1920s to the 1940s; the novels, poetry (published in the labor newspaper "Balagtas,"1930s), and verbal jousts on labor and capitalism; the street theater of youth groups during the First Quarter Storm student movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s; women's poetry and fiction propelled by the women's movement of the 1970s and 1980s; lesbian and gay literature; and the contemporary texts in the "Flash Publication Series" (Publikasyong Iglap) published by teachers. Among the questions the course addresses are the following: How did social movements influence these texts, and in turn, how did these literary texts contribute to these social movements? What strategies did the writers employ in their works? How were these works informed by popular culture, and consequently how did they interrogate popular cultural forms? How do these works contribute towards the writing of history from the point of view of those involved in social movements?

Prerequisite: Elementary Telugu 1A or consent of the instructor.

The course will introduce the students to the laity-clergy dichotomy and will concentrate on the laity. It will historically and critically examine the transformation of this concept in Christianity and its validity and usefulness as a heuristic tool to understand the complexity of other religions such as Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism.

We will pay special attention to Buddhism as one the most ancient traditions that established the laity-clergy dichotomy. We will study the definitions and internal debates on the ethical standards laypersons should abide by, on the religious achievements deemed accessible to them, and on the economic and religious roles they were expected to fulfill. This perspective will also allow to cover most important topics on Buddhist lay ethics and
rituals, ranging from abortion to the inclusiveness toward the outcastes during the weekly fasting days.

This course will explore the modern history of mainland Southeast Asia through the lens of gender. Our primary focus will be Cambodia, Burma, Siam/Thailand, and Vietnam. We will examine indigenous notions of gender as inscribed in various belief-systems and represented in diverse media, and explore the intersections between such concepts and emergent modern categories of state, citizen, and nation. Course materials will combine gender theory with more empirical studies of the countries under review, and analysis of primary sources.

At the end of the course, the students should be able to talk about themselves, their families and their communities, articulate their problems, needs and desires, narrate events, explain about their customs and traditions in the Filipino-American communities in the United States, and debate about issues relevant to them.

Course may be repeated for credit with consent of instructor.