Infusing Asia & South Asia into the Curriculum at Rio Hondo College

ASDP Institute – July 29, 2010 Colin Young & Mike Mehrban Javanmard

Demographics of the College

• ~20,000 students served/semester

• Males: 51.9% Females: 48.1%

• Ethnicity: – African-American – 4.0%– Asian/Pacific Islander – 11.2%– Hispanic – 67.5%– Other Non-White – 2.0%– White Non-Hispanic – 15.3%

Politics of Curriculum At Rio Hondo

• currently, Rio Hondo has three Humanities classes on Mexico and zero covering the rest of the world, including Asia

• neither of our current Humanities instructors were interested in a creating a class on Asia, so we did it and Mike volunteered to teach it

• as the student body demographics show, over 11% of our students are of Asian descent and the other 89% need to be aware of Asia and its widely diverse cultures

• Asian Studies at Rio Hondo would be extremely educational not only for students but for administrators and elected officials who don’t seem to understand that there is a world beyond North America

Splendors of Asia – The Beginning of Asian Studies at Rio Hondo

• last year, we created a Humanities class to fill the vacuum about Asia at Rio Hondo

• the class is Splendors of Asia, and will provide a broad survey of Asian art, architecture, music, culture, politics, and history

Making The Class Interesting to Appeal to Students

• Since this is the beginning of Asian studies there is a need to make this class as accessible and interesting as possible to students.

Stealing Arindam’s Idea

• Asia is huge

• Maps are traps

• Instead of covering Asia through geography or regions, the class will be structured on the five physical senses and the sixth of the mind

• This will make the class unique in its approach and will engage the students

6 Senses

1. Tastes

2. Smell

3. Hearing

4. Touch

5. Vision

6. The Mind

• Food• Herbs and Spices• Music, Language• Textiles, Yoga, and Martial

Arts, physical environment• Art and Film• Politics, Philosophy and

Religion

Tastes and Smells

• A natural blend

• Food taste is based on the smells

• Chili peppers from the Americas – Tie in with history and trade

• Black Peppers from South Asia – Tie in with history and trade– Did the Portuguese change the Curry?

Hearing

• Interdisciplinary with Music

• Languages – Chinese and Japanese Calligraphy

• Mix of Hearing and seeing

– Increase the level of interest in the Asian Language Classes at Rio

Vision

• Interdisciplinary with Art

• Also when studying film it will reinforce the hearing aspect of the course– Movies from around Asia

• Various movies from around South Asia• Chinese• Japanese film

Touch

• Interdisciplinary with Physical education– Yoga– Tai Chi– Karate

• Textiles (ex. Silk) – Tie in with History and international trade

• Kama sutra– Fear this is not interdisciplinary but intermural

The Mind

• This was interwoven as students went through the various senses during the course

• However, after the students have used their senses to come to their own conclusions they will be given an insight into philosophy from an Asian viewpoint.

• This will sum up everything they have learned through the standard 5 senses.

Criticism of this Approach

• This set up will be criticized for lacking rigor

• Counter argument in support of this approach is students have to be intrigued before they agree to study something in a serious fashion

Reading Materials for StudentsAsian Religions in Practice: An

IntroductionEd. Donald S. Lopez Jr.Princeton University Press, 1999ISBN: 978-0-691-00513-3

Chan Buddhism (Dimensions of Asian Spirituality)

By Peter D. HershockUniversity of Hawaii Press, 2004ISBN: 978-0824828356

Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India By Diana EckColumbia University PressISBN: 978-0231112659

White Tigerby Aravind AdigaFree Press, 2008ISBN 978-1416562597

The Art of WarBy Sun-Tzu

The Book of Five RingsBy Miyamoto MusashiShambhala, 2005ISBN: 978-1590302484

Books by Haruki Murukami

Reading Materials for Instructor Preparation

*The Complete Asian CookbookBy Charmaine SolomonLansdowne Publishing, 2002ISBN: 0-8048-3757-0

Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300by Romila ThaparUniversity of California Press, 2004ISBN 978-05200242258

Introducing Eastern PhilosophyBy Richard OsborneTotem Books, 2001ISBN 978-1840467864

Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism

By Koichi IwabuchiDuke University Press, 2002978-0822328919

A History of IndiaBy Burton SteinWiley-Blackwell, 1998ISBN: 978-0631205463

*The God of Small ThingsBy Arundhati RoyHarper-Perennial, 1998ISBN: 978-0060977498- may be assigned to students

Columbia Project on Teaching in the Core Curriculum: A Guide for Teaching

Masterworks of Asian Literature in Comparative Perspective

Ed. Barbara Stoller-MillerISBN 1-56324-257-5

Feltwell, John. The Story of Silk. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991.

Relevant WebsitesSouth Asian Literature: Resources for Study• http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00litlinks/index.html

Asian Arthttp://www.asianart.com/

Asian Musichttp://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/view/page.basic/region/content.region/asia_2

http://guides.lib.washington.edu/ethnomusicology

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservation RequiredTravel Channel, 2009http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Anthony_Bourdain/Video/Homemade_Indian_Cuisine

Creation of Asian Studies

• Beyond our new Humanities course, we also currently have courses on:

• Asian art• World Religions• World Dance• Languages of the World (linguistics)• Anthropology – Religion, Magic, Witchcraft, and

Supernatural• Political Science – Comparative Government &

International Relations

How to Create More Courses & Infuse Existing Courses with ASDP Material

International Political Economy• a combined Political Science & Economics

course, it will look at:• how countries like India have both developed &

deal with the struggles of caring for over 1 billion people

• how the center of the economic world has shifted to Asia and what this means for the future

• how North Americans can understand Asia and successfully interact with countries in that region

How to Create More Courses & Infuse Existing Courses with ASDP Material

History of Asia

• in order to understand and interact with Asian cultures, students must know how countries in regions like South Asia came to be what they are today

• need to highlight the development of religion and culture and the effects of colonial rule on much of Asia

Infusing Asia into Political Science

Comparative Government• examining the uniqueness of the caste

system in India and its effect on the Indian political system

International Relations• examination of the effects of partition on

Indian-Pakistani relations• economic and military development in

South Asia

Long Term Goals

• with both existing and new courses, we would like to create an Asian Studies A.A. degree

International Weeks – broaden students’ horizons about the world with interactive presentations (and food) from various world cultures

• promote the ASDP program for other faculty to attend (art, anthropology, history) so that several people can run and expand Asian Studies at Rio Hondo