Some Possible Scenarios

In order to illustrate how our new program will meet the needs of our students—both returning and new—the following scenarios will demonstrate how students with particular interests will be able to choose courses to complete their degrees.

Scenario One:

Student: Suzie
Interests: Modern Chinese fiction, Chinese language, internationalisation.

Suzie is a new student. For her to complete her Major in Pacific and Asian Studies, she’ll complete our four core courses. She’ll take PAAS 100 and 200 in her first and second years. Then, because she’s interested in literature, she’ll be able to choose PAAS 302, Introduction to Literary Theory, in her third year. In her fourth year, she’ll take PAAS 400.

Along the way, she’ll also take 9 units of Chinese language courses. Because she’s a native English speaker, she’ll start with PAAS 110, Intensive Chinese: I, and then take 111 (Intensive Chinese: I), 210 (Intermediate Chinese), and 211 (Intermediate Chinese II). She can certainly choose to take other language classes, but these will fulfill her requirements.

So far, Suzie now has 15 units. Her degree requires 27—and so, because of her interests in Chinese literature, she’ll be able to choose from courses related to the fiction of China. She’ll also be able to have a comparative perspective: she can choose from literature courses related to Japan and Indonesia, as well. She’ll also be able to take courses on Chinese, Japanese, or Indonesian film, as well as theatre.

All of these classes will count towards her degree, and they’ll be sufficient in and of themselves. There won’t be any restrictions on the courses she’ll be able to choose.

Scenario Two:

Student: Andrew
Interests: Southeast Asian societies, postcolonialism, change in Asia

Andrew is a returning student who declared his Major under the previous program. He’s entering his 4th year, and will graduate soon. He’s already taken six units of Indonesian language as well as several 200-level culture courses. He’s also taken the old PACI 210 and 290—these have now been replaced by PAAS 100 and 200. Because of scheduling conflicts, he hadn’t been able to take three of the upper-level seminars he needed under the old set of requirements, and he’s worried they might not be offered this year because an instructor is on leave.

Andrew’s course choices are now much more flexible than under the previous program. He’s already completed many of the requirements: the language units, and the 1st and 2nd-year core courses, as well as several seminars that he can use toward his degree.

He still has the 300-level PAAS core to choose. He can now choose from PAAS 300, 301, or 302—all will count. Then, he’ll complete PAAS 400, the final core course.

But Andrew is now free to choose all the rest of the units he needs from any of our upper-level offerings. Because under the old program Andrew found he had no time to take literature courses, he had been hesitant to consider them, but now he has the freedom to try different options. Andrew has been considering issues of social change, and to expand his horizons, he’s thinking of taking PAAS 365, Society and Politics in Small Pacific Islands. Because of his interest in postcoloniality, he’s also decided to take PAAS 371, Narrating Southeast Asia: Novels, Films, and History. Previously, these choices would have been unavailable to him. Now, however, they answer to his needs and his interests.

Scenario Three:

Student: Tony
Interests: Asian cinema, Japanese animation, Chinese history

Tony has also chosen to Major in Pacific and Asian Studies. He had a class in Japanese in high school, and even though he sincerely tried, he found the language beyond him. He still has a great interest in Japan, though, and would love to Major in our department.

Tony is not out of luck. Tony has decided to take courses in Indonesian, and after his first term, he’s discovered that he’s been able to learn much more than he ever expected. Tony can continue on with the Indonesian language, taking PAAS 120, 121, 220, and 221. That gives him six units of language, which he’s supplemented by taking PAAS 170 and 171, courses on Southeast Asian Culture.

He’s also decided to take PAAS 393 and 487, on Japanese film, as well as PAAS 202, Topics in Asian Film. Along the way, he’s developed an interest in Classical Chinese Poetry, and so he’s decided to take PAAS 353, Survey of Classical Chinese Literature. This leads him to have an interest in premodern Japanese Theatre, and so he’ll take PAAS 394, Introduction to The History of Japanese Theatre. He can take courses on Japanese social issues, as well as on Chinese history and society.

Tony will be able to deepen his knowledge of Asia as a whole, while concentrating on the specific aspects of it which initially attracted him to our department, while also discovering a new language and areas of study he’d never thought about before.

Scenario Four:

Student: Jin-hee
Interests: Post-Colonialism, social change in Asia, Buddhism

Jin-hee is interested in the ways Asia as a whole has changed in the years after the Second World War, specifically in terms of social conditions, gender equality, and transformations in spirituality. She’s studying Japanese, and is taking PAAS 300, Social and Economic Change in the Pacific Region, to get a broad perspective that she can bring to the other upper-level classes that interest her. She’s taking PAAS 305, Religions of East Asia, and 306, Indo-Tibetan Religious Traditions, because these two will help her develop her knowledge of Asian spirituality. She’s also taking PAAS 364, Oceania: Indigenous Societies and Colonial Relations, because she’s interested in the effects one country can have on another through relations of power and influence. And she’s also taking PAAS 493, Readings in Buddhism, because she wants to learn more about the religious philosophy her parents have followed.

All of these mixed courses are useful for Jin-hee’s degree, and, more importantly, they’re all helping her answer the particular questions she has about Asia and its development.

The one thing that all of these scenarios have in common is that the students themselves are able to focus on choosing courses which interest them. Our new program’s flexible structure provides an educational core built around four foundational courses coupled with Asian language study. From this core, our students—you—will be able to branch out in ways you yourselves wish.

It’s all appropriate, it’s all possible, and it really is that easy!

More details about the Restructured Program:

[Frequently Asked Questions]

[Year-by-Year Overview]