Prospectus

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Premodern History of South and Southeast Asia

Course
2013-2014

Admission requirements

-

Description

This course provides a long-term history of South and Southeast Asia from 3500 BCE to 1850 CE. After a historiographical (sources & concepts) and geopolitical (la longue durée) introduction the lectures engage (in chronological sequence) with themes that connect the various regions of South and Southeast Asia. We will compare the most prominent regional developments of settlement, agrarian expansion and state-formation and connect them through various trans-regional processes of migration, trade and conquest. More in particular, the course will reflect on the unity and diversity of the SSEA region as a whole by discussing three regional varieties of globalization: Indianization, Islamization and Colonization.

Course objectives

Students will gain basic knowledge of the main developments of the pre-modern history of South and Southeast Asian history. They will be able to understand what long-term conditions and historical processes unified and divided the SSEA macro-region both internally and externally (compared to other regions like West and East Asia, Europe). Students will gain a sense that history itself is not somewhere out there but part of an ongoing process.

Timetable

See timetable History.

Mode of instruction

Lecture

Course Load

140 hrs:

  • Lectures (incl. learning): 40 hrs.

  • Literature: 100 hrs (500 pp).

Assessment method

Written examination on the basis of essay questions (100%)

Blackboard

Yes, for practical instructions and publication of PP-presentations.

Reading list

  • Thomas R. Trautmann, India: Brief History of a Civilization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011): pp. 1-182.

  • André Wink, “From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean: Medieval History in Geographic Perspective”, Comparative Studies of Society and History (2002): pp. 416-45

  • M.C. Ricklefs et al., The New History of Southeast Asia (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010): pp. 1-238.

Registration

Via uSis.

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Registration Studeren à la carte.
Registration Contractonderwijs.

Remarks

Students who like to do this course at level 300 should write a comparative and/or connective essay of ca 1000 words that discusses the theme of indianisation. In this case the essay takes 25 % of the grade. Please notice that grade and written examination should be graded 6 or more; one resit allowed for each element.

Contact information

Email: Prof. Dr. J.J.L. Gommans.