Buddha in the Big City (ASN 320/GOV 455): August 2013

Monday, August 5, 2013

Required Texts

There are 3 required texts. Here they are:

Bangkok 8 by John Burdett
Best Guide to Eastern Philosophy and Religion by Diane Morgan
Concrete Dragon by Thomas Campanella

Click on the book title to see the Amazon.com link to the edition we're using. We'll have a few other articles for you to read online, and some clips for you to watch. We'll send those out as we get closer.

Description

Profs: Kyle Anderson & Chris Paskewich
Cost: $4100
This course explores the accommodations of Thailand and Shanghai's rich religious and cultural pasts to an increasingly postindustrial, metropolitan world. Students will study and recreate layouts of Thai and Chinese cities, including religious landmarks, parks, waterways, modern architecture, and the daily rituals of local monks, lay people, and tourists that reshape the purpose of space. We will also explore spaces outside the city centers that are crucial to the definition of these urban areas: rural temples and monasteries, plantations, slums, westernized satellite malls, and beaches.