Master

MA Seminar Spring 2006
Mondays 4:20 - 5:50

Everyday Life in the Asia-Pacific
This seminar utilizes socio-cultural anthropology (whether legal, political, feminist, urban, the anthropology of social policy, the anthropology of work, etc.), as a tool to explore the dynamics of social life among peoples in the contemporary Asia-Pacific region. Each MA student will focus on a particular country, asking a narrowly defined question, utilizing gender, class, race and ethnicity as appropriate as lenses to view the social phenomenon under question. If cultures are the tool kits of individuals, what new elements are entering these kits and what old ones cast aside as our world globalizes and flows of peoples across borders increase? What factors enable or constrain people as they seek to achieve their goals? What expectations underlie the bases of everyday life, and how do people negotiate or cope with, or catalyze, change? These are some of the larger questions with which students should expect to engage in their areas of particular inquiry for the MA thesis. In particular, students who wish to study qualitative aspects of migration, work issues, gender issues, or family/population/aging issues, are most welcome as these encompass my own areas of research. In addition, since the area of most of my research has been Japan, students wishing to study contemporary Japan are certainly welcome, although the seminar is not restricted to those interested in Japan.

Students will engage in qualitative research that includes participant-observation and/or in-depth interviewing in order to explore a narrowly defined question of their choice concerning some aspect of everyday life in a country of the region. For instance, past graduates have studied Korean female migrant workers in Tokyo and their daily lives and motivations, the gendered furitaa-phenomenon among young Japanese people today, Japanese junior college women 's attitudes toward their studies and their aspirations, and the situations of migrant women workers in a Japanese corporation in Shenzhen, China). In order to carry out qualitative research, students must have sufficient fluency in the language of their place of fieldwork. When at all possible, students are encouraged to use source materials written in both English and the language of the people being researched.

To enter this seminar, students should have some previous background in cultural or social anthropology, or sociology, at the undergraduate level. This could consist of one or two courses, but it is extremely helpful if the student has this knowledge. If the student has no previous social science background s/he should prepare in advance by reading recently published standard undergraduate textbooks in cultural anthropology and sociology. The student also needs to have sufficient ability in English to read graduate-level academic texts extensively and to make presentations and discuss reading materials or research findings in English. One might say that a love of reading is a prerequisite of this seminar! Although not a requirement, it is recommended that the student attain a minimum of 575 on the TOEFL exam before entering this seminar. The MA thesis itself, however, can be written either in English or in Japanese depending on the level of proficiency of the student.

The aim of this seminar is to train students in critical thinking, and to help them to hone their organization, presentation and writing skills as they utilize the theory and methods of socio-cultural anthropology in social inquiry. Whether the student ends up continuing on in academia, or whether the student joins a firm, works for the non-profit sector, or becomes a free-lance writer, journalist or film producer, s/he should have gained a body of knowledge about the thesis topic of choice. Moreover, s/he should have learned how to ask questions, make sense of the answers, and disseminate that knowledge to a broad audience.

In Spring term 2006 students will take turns presenting readings related to their thesis topics on contemporary gender, migration, population, identity or labor issues in the Asia-Pacific. We will also have presentations on thesis plans and finished theses of graduating students.