AP/HIST4765 6.0 A: Gender in East Asian History
Offered by: HIST
Session
Fall 2025
Term
Y
Format
SEMR
Instructor
Calendar Description / Prerequisite / Co-Requisite
Examines gender roles in pre-modern and modern China, Korea and Japan. It focuses on women: their places in the family and society, their relationships with one another and men, and the evolution of ideas about gender. Note: Priority is given to History or East Asian Studies Honours majors and minors who have successfully completed at least 84 credits. Prerequisites: AP/HIST 2710 6.00 or AP/HIST 3760 6.00 or AP/HIST 3766 3.00 or AP/HIST 3770 6.00 or AP/HIST 3775 3.00 or AP/HUMA 2420 9.00 or AP/HUMA 2430 9.00 or AP/HUMA 2435 9.00 or AP/HUMA 3500 6.00 or AP/HUMA 3505 3.00 or AP/HUMA 3506 3.00 or AP/HUMA 3510 6.00 or departmental permission.
Course Start Up
Course Websites hosted on York's "eClass" are accessible to students during the first week of the term. It takes two business days from the time of your enrolment to access your course website. Course materials begin to be released on the course website during the first week. To log in to your eClass course visit the York U eClass Portal and login with your Student Passport York Account. If you are creating and participating in Zoom meetings you may also go directly to the York U Zoom Portal.
For further course Start Up details, review the Getting Started webpage.
For IT support, students may contact University Information Technology Client Services via askit@yorku.ca or (416) 736-5800. Please also visit UIT Student Services or the Getting Help - UIT webpages.
706 Kaneff Tower, Office Hours for one hour before seminar.
History 4765 examines changes in social and family structures and gender roles in premodern and modern China, Korea and Japan. It focuses mainly on women: their places in the family and in society, their relationships with one another and men and the evolution of ideas about gender and sexuality throughout East Asia’s complicated past. This seminar in no way attempts to cover the histories of China, Korea and Japan in depth. Rather, it takes points of social, political and ideological transition and examines their relations to social and familial change as well as with evolving gender roles. Its approach is interdisciplinary and inter-regional.
Bettine Birge. Women, Property, and Confucian Reaction in Sung and Yüan China, 960-1368. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Amy Stanley. Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early Modern Japan. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2012.
Sungyun Lim, Rules of the House. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2019 (on Colonial Korea)
Andre Schmid, North Korea’s Mundane Revolution: Socialist Living and the Rise of Kim Il Sung, 1953-1965. Oakland: University of California Press, 2024.
Anne Allison, Permitted and Prohibited Desires. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1996.
*All readings are on E Class or through the York Library System
Assignments and Grading
1. Short Review 1 of Cohen or Robbins (500 words maximum) (5%)
2. Review 2 of Birge (2000 words maximum) (20%)
3. Review 3 of Stanley (2000 words maximum) (20%)
4. Outline and Bibliography of Final Research Paper 1 (5%)
5. Outline and Bibliography of Final Research Paper 2 (5%)
6. Historiographic Review (5000 words maximum) (30%)
7. Seminar Participation (15%)
Student evaluation is based on English composition, research and bibliography skills and class participation. Since there are no lectures or exams, discussion is the heart of the course, and you will be expected to prepare for and attend each seminar and participate actively. All written work will be evaluated on the content, the research AND the quality of the writing. Please bring a double-spaced, printed copy of your assignments to class on their due dates. As a rule, late work will not be accepted except in cases of DOCUMENTED medical or family emergency.
The course will provide critical reading, writing, and analytical skills as well as refine oral and written communication.
- Academic Honesty
- Student Rights and Responsibilities
- Religious Observance
- Grading Scheme and Feedback
- 20% Rule
No examinations or tests collectively worth more than 20% of the final grade in a course will be given during the final 14 calendar days of classes in a term. The exceptions to the rule are classes which regularly meet Friday evenings or on Saturday and/or Sunday at any time, and courses offered in the compressed summer terms. - Academic Accommodation for Students with Disabilities
