東アジア教養学演習I（１）a

In recent years, social division has increasingly escalated worldwide. This seems to indicate people’s lack of the art of internalizing the complexity of global entanglements, such as economic, environmental, and technological interconnections between humans and non-human objects, as well as the intricate relationships among humans that revolve around emotions, memories, and actual experiences.

Let’s consider the connections between your everyday life and the highly globalized world. Wherever you are, your life is sustained and shaped by mobilizing various resources, such as materials, labor, and energy, from around the globe. Just as drops of water accumulate to eventually form large rivers, every need and desire you have has unconsciously become part of this global mobilization process. This process not only affects environments but also determines the fates of people living in distant places. In fact, you might unknowingly be mobilized and entangled in immense projects that are reshaping parts of the world you’ve never seen.

This course aims to foster and develop our imaginations, enabling us to comprehend the entangled states of contemporary, globalized societies through intensive reading and learning, primarily from works in anthropology. The goal is to acquire a more holistic and ontological perspective on the realities and essential qualities underlying pressing and urgent social challenges that require immediate attention.

Please note that students enrolling in this course are required to also enroll in Seminar in East Asian Liberal Arts II (1)(a). Additionally, this course is designed to complement Theories in East Asian Liberal Arts I (1)(a) and Theories in East Asian Liberal Arts II (1)(a) in the S1 term. Therefore, it is highly recommended to take all four courses: Theories in East Asian Liberal Arts I (1)(a), Theories in East Asian Liberal Arts II (1)(a), Seminar in East Asian Liberal Arts I (1)(a), and Seminar in East Asian Liberal Arts II (1)(a) together.

◆ Theories in East Asian Liberal Arts I (1)(a) / II (1)(a)
These courses consist of 6 intensive reading sessions and 6 discussion sessions, organized by the (a) TA(s). Six guest lecturers are invited to the intensive reading classes, organized into 3 thematic sessions based on the following topics: (1) Capitalism, (2) Agency, and (3) Co-becoming. In each class, the content and key arguments of texts selected by the guest lecturers are explained by them.

◆ Seminar in East Asian Liberal Arts I (1)(a) / II (1)(a)
These courses consist of 6 intensive reading sessions and 6 discussion sessions, organized by the (a) TA(s). Throughout the term, the instructor and participants intensively read one text: Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing (2015), The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. The classes are grouped into 3 sessions, each focused on one of the following topics: (1) Scalability, (2) Salvage Accumulation, and (3) Disturbance and Entanglement. In each session, scheduled for the 4th and 5th periods, the content and key arguments of the relevant chapters of the book are explained by (a) guest lecturer(s), and the course instructor.