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- Cultures and Civilization of Xinjiang
- CEUS-R 333/533
- Gardner Bovingdon
This course surveys the cultures of Xinjiang from earliest times to the present. It covers the material life, languages and literatures, arts, and religions in the region, with emphasis on the modern period. Using both texts and audiovisual materials, we will consider the “mummy controversy,” Xinjiang’s place in the so-called Silk Road, the cultural impact of Islamicization, and the region’s rich cultural diversity today. The course will cover such themes as cultural borrowing, the “clash of civilizations,” civilizing processes, and the political implications of multiculturalism.
Course Requirements:
Undergraduates will submit written midterm and final exams, each 8-10 pages double-spaced. Graduates will submit a final research paper of approximately 20 double-spaced pages. All students will be expected to be prepared for each seminar and participate in discussions. The final grade for undergraduates will comprise participation (30%), midterm (35%), and final (35%); for graduate students, participation (40%) and final research paper (60%).
Required texts:
- Benson, Linda and Ingvar Svanberg. 1998. China's last Nomads : the history and culture of China's Kazaks. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.
- Levin, Theodore Craig. 1996. The hundred thousand fools of God : musical travels in Central Asia (and Queens, New York). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- Millward, James. 2006. Crossroads of Eurasia: A History of Xinjiang. London: Hurst and Company.
- Dautcher, Jay. 2009. Down a Narrow Road: Identity and Masculinity in a Uyghur Community in Xinjiang China. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, (NOTE: this book was originally due out November 2008. It will now come out in February. In the meantime I will scan the galleys into ERES for class use.)
- Whitfield, Susan. 1999. Life along the Silk Road. Berkeley: University of California Press.
