The East Asian Studies Center and Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures are collaborating to offer a new course in Spring 2022, "East Asian Languages & Literatures 4200: The History of Race in East Asia" (class number 33802). The course will be taught by Dr. Melvin Barnes, Jr., on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:55 - 5:15pm in Derby Hall, Room 049.

Course Description: This new course focuses on the influence of race in East Asia. The course will examine the origins of the concept, its interactions with science and medicine, and most important, its impact on the 19thand 20thcentury politics of China, Japan, and Korea. The goal of this course is for each student to develop a strong understanding of East Asian history and the global roots of race. By placing East Asia at its center, this course presents a non-U.S.-centric narrative on race that aims to undermine the troubling persistence of this unscientific idea.