HISTORY 315, Modern Japan THIS IS A DRAFT SYLLABUS!
Course description:
This course will cover Japanese history from the Meiji Restoration to the present, with an emphasis upon the twentieth century. The primary focus of the course will be upon the internal dynamics of Japanese culture viewed in relationship to the wider world, particularly to the United States. As much of Japan's post-war history has been dominated by economic issues, we will pay considerable attention to Japanese economic history.
Specific objectives of course:
To acquaint the student with the development of Japanese History and Culture from the Meiji Restoration (1867) to the present, with an emphasis upon the twentieth century; To learn to research and write an extended paper in Japanese history; To learn to utilize electronic (internet) resources. To prepare papers so that they may easily be converted to HTML files and placed upon the World Wide Web.
A major aspect of the grade for the course will be to work both individually and in groups preparing materials to be mounted on the “Asian Studies Page” of the Pacific University Web page. Please review this site at: http://www.pacificu.edu/up/as/as.html before the second class meeting. These projects will flow from the research papers done in the class and will not be an additional heavy burdern. There are several students in the class who have good web skills, and if you do not wish to learn these skills, you do not need to do so. If, however, you wish to learn them, you can take History 255 (See below.) and work up your project to be an extensive mutli-media or WWW page for additional credit. For additional information on this assignment see the file “Web Work” . All students must be on e-mail by the end of the second week of class and learn to use and participate in electronic discussion groups. Send me a message telling me a bit about yourself and why you are in the class to: barlowj@pacificu.edu so that I can load your address into my class list. Be sure and specify that you are in History 315, my Asian Survey course, History 112 is huge and will be generating a lot of e-mail.
Please note:
I have reserved Strain 220, the large computer lab, for two other classes (H-255, History Web Lab) which have small enrollments. These meet on Fri 12-12:50 and Wed 11-11:50. This class can be taken for 1-2 hours credit and is often used to work up work done in H-315 for presentation on the Web. In this course you will learn basic HTML and to use Adobe's Golive web editing program, our campus standard program for such work. Even if you do not enroll in either of these classes, you are free to work in their on your own projects as long as you do so quietly, we usually use only the first row or so of the machines. There will usually be somebody in the room who can help you.
Assigned Books:
Grading and Assessment:
This is a reasonably small course (8-12?) and I hope to be able to run it as a sort of proseminar, a class which will be largely discussion of the assigned readings. This will mean that readings will have to be done in a timely fashion and that attendance and participation will be an important element of the final grade. Elements of the final grade will include:
Instructor’s Office Hours:
Instructor's additional classes: (For web pages go to: <http://mcel.pacificu.edu/as/faculty/barlow.html>
Email: barlowj@pacificu.edu