JAPN 250 - William & Mary in Osaka: Tales of Three Cities

Credits: (3)
Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe are the three major cities in the Kansai region, the second largest economic zone in Japan after the Kantō (Tokyo) region, with a population of roughly 20 million. In this two-week, three-credit course, we will engage with various cultural texts on these cities and visit relevant sites. We adopt an interdisciplinary approach that combines history (the study of change over time), geography (the study of relations between places), and cultural studies (the study of connections between cultural texts and power). The main goals are to familiarize ourselves with this region’s history, culture, and geography and to understand the meanings of “place” as a critical concept by which to appreciate cultural representations.