Courses

Topic: Making and Experiencing the State in East Asia

How do states acquire the capacity to govern, and how are their powers reshaped by the people and societies they seek to govern? This course examines the formation, operation, and experience of the state in East Asia, focusing on China, Japan, Korea, and, at times, Inner Asia from antiquity to the contemporary era. We will approach the state from both top-down and bottom-up perspectives. From above, we will ask what states are, what goals they pursue, and how they operate. From below, we will examine how different people experience and negotiate state power through collaboration, accommodation, resistance, and evasion. The course proceeds broadly chronologically, tracing how East Asian states changed as they confronted the challenges of their times. Simultaneously, each class centers on a thematic problem, examining a particular dimension of state power and the ways people responded to it. This structure places the distinctive histories of East Asian states in conversation with broader questions about the state.