the Bates and Benjamin Professor of Classical and Religious Studies, Director of Asian Studies
Thomas Wilson
Thomas Wilson is an expert on Confucian ritual and the cult of Confucius.
Asian Studies
Asian Studies concentrators gain an understanding of the diversity of cultures in Asia through multiple disciplinary practices in the humanities, languages, and social sciences. They gain an in-depth understanding of Asia through language study, with opportunities to study in China, Japan, or India, and learn multidisciplinary approaches in courses in at least three disciplines, culminating in the senior project.
About the Major
Learning a major Asian language is part of the curriculum: Proficiency is critical not only for communicating across cultural lines but for gaining a more complete understanding of the region's identity and expression. Balancing liberal arts principles with innovative scholarship, courses stress the importance of Asia's cultural traditions as well as its modern social and political transformations.
Due to the smaller class sizes in the Japanese department, it’s incredibly easy to get close with the faculty. Professor Omori and Kamiya have been absolutely wonderful mentors to me during my time at Hamilton. They are both great professors, and I am truly glad that I got to get to know them so well in such a small amount of time.
Jack Lyons — Asian studies major with a Japanese focus
Hamilton's Asian Studies Program begins with the conviction that a real understanding of this immense human tapestry requires an interdisciplinary approach to the continent's cultures, languages and society. Students draw on the rich diversity of courses offered in a range of departments such as: anthropology, art history, East Asian languages and literatures, environmental studies, government, history and religious studies.
Careers After Hamilton
- Data Assurance Specialist, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi
- Analyst/Linguist, U.S. Department of Defense
- Vice President, Interaction Designer, Bank of America
- Assistant Language Teacher, Japan Exchange and Teaching Program
- Trader, Pacific Asia, Ajc International
- Curator for SE Asia, The British Museum
- Assistant Editor, MTV Networks
- Director East Asia & Pacific, Council for the International Exchange of Scholars
- Senior Protection Officer, UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Meet Our Faculty
Associate Professor of Asian Studies
Abhishek Amar
Abhishek S. Amar specializes in the archaeological history of South Asian religions.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Asian Studies
Sabrina Datoo
Sabrina Datoo’s research on the medical humanities in South Asia has been supported by the American Institute of Indian Studies and the American Philosophical Society.
Assistant Professor of Asian Studies
Usman Hamid
A historian of Islam, Usman Hamid specializes in early modern South Asia.
Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures
Junqing (Jessie) Jia
Junqing Jia focuses on foreign language learning motivation.
Associate Professor of Japanese
Masaaki Kamiya
Masaaki Kamiya's research interests are syntax, semantics, and language acquisition.
Associate Professor of Japanese
Kyoko Omori
Kyoko Omori’s research focuses on 20th-century Japanese popular culture, with an emphasis on interwar film and magazines.
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Julie Starr
Julie Starr teaches about cultural anthropology, the anthropology of China, food, race, consumer culture and the body.
Chair, Professor of History
Lisa Trivedi
Lisa Trivedi, a cultural and social historian of modern South Asia, received her doctorate from the University of California at Davis.
Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures
Zhuoyi Wang
Zhuoyi Wang's teaching interests include Chinese history, film, literature and language.
the Edmund A. LeFevre Professor of English
Steven Yao
Steven Yao's books include Foreign Accents: Chinese American Verse from Exclusion to Postethnicity.
Associate Professor of Art History Emeritus (retired)
Steve Goldberg
Steve Goldberg specializes in the history of Chinese art.
A Sampling of Courses
Everyday Islam 160F
Introduction to the study of Islam as an everyday lived religion. The course uses interdisciplinary approaches to understanding Muslim beliefs, practices, and institutional practices. Particular focus on questions of revelation, devotion, law, spirituality, and aesthetics. Students develop facility with analyzing Islamic texts and material culture. Writing-intensive.
View All CoursesExploring Cultures in Asia 180S
History of South and East Asian cultures beginning in ancient times, emphasizing both their commonalities and distinctive features in comparative context. Critical examination of structural hierarchies that have shaped Asian societies, focusing on ritual and kingship, the spread and transformation of Buddhism throughout Asia, Islamization of South Asia, gender, and the formation of empire. Students read secondary and primary sources, including selections from epic traditions, ritual and mythic sources, and literary texts. Writing-intensive.
View All CoursesHistory of Iran 228S
This course traces the history of Iran from Late Antiquity to the modern period. It looks beyond the geographic territory of the modern nation state of Iran and considers the impact of Persian culture in the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia. Topics include the cultural and political legacy of pre-Islamic Iran; the impact of the Arab conquest; the Perso-Islamic cultural synthesis; the rise of Turkic and Mongolian dynasties; the emergence of Shi’ism as a state religion in the early modern period; and social and political roots of the Iranian revolution in the twentieth century.
View All CoursesAsian Temples in a Digital World 309S
Examination of Asian religions in ritual, bodily, and spatial contexts. Discussions of textual and visual sources on human ritual interactions with gods; the use and layout of temples and altars, including food offerings, music, dance, representations of deities; and meditation and internal alchemy. Readings in scholarly sources, instruction in digital historical methods of collecting and analyzing materials on the web. Writing assignments include short essays and a final research project of the student’s design to be presented with text and images in digital form. Writing-intensive.
View All CoursesArt of Devotion: Visual and Material Culture of Islam 329F
What is the relationship between aesthetics, material culture, and religious experience? In this course we explore this question by examining the aesthetic traditions of Islam, focusing on how Muslims have used literature, visual art, musical performance, and architecture as modes of religious expression and creativity. Through studying aesthetics and devotion in the Islamic tradition, we will reflect on questions of cultural appropriation and reuse, politics of representation, and the global circulation of objects, peoples, and capital. Writing-intensive.
View All CoursesToday and Tomorrow
Research and Discovery
Amplifying Asian American Voices
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