Summer Course Offering: What is China?
During Cornell’s first three week summer session (June 1- June 18) I will be teaching (Distance Learning-Asynchronous) one of the “gateway” courses for the CAPS major. This is my “What is China?” lecture. If you are looking to think about China from an inter-disciplinary perspective, and push beyond the conventional wisdom about modern Chinese politics, and China’s place in the world, this course is for you. The class should be of interest to both those who have not previously studied Chinese politics and foreign policy, and to those who have already taken several classes on China. In addition, the course is cross listed with Government and Asian Studies, and can be used toward their major requirements, or to fulfill various elective requirements. If you have any questions about the class, please respond to this post or email me at: arc26@cornell.edu. And please consider enrolling today. The course description is pasted below.
-Allen Carlson, Associate Professor, Government Department (and former Director of the Levinson Program)
What Is China? CAPS 3967/GOV 3967/ASIAN 3395
Course Description: China is often thought of as being isolated from the outside world. It is imagined as existing in historic seclusion, and, following the establishment of the People's Republic, as pursuing a path of autarky. Such separation has then only been somewhat modified by the set of economic reforms that Deng Xiaoping first instituted in the late 1970s. In this lecture we will seek to turn such conventional wisdom on its head through examining what China is via a consideration of transnational currents within the country's development. However, the course's primary focus will not be upon the past, but rather the present and attempting to determine just where the point of intersection between China and the rest of the world is. Coming to terms with such an issue will provide those who enroll in the class with a deeper, more nuanced, understanding of China's rise and this trend's implications for the rest of the world. We will accomplish this task through a combination of surveying the existing literature on China and transnational politics, and considering new theoretical perspectives on both.
Distribution Requirements (CA-AG, SBA-AG), (GLC-AS, SSC-AS)