The Major in International and Area Studies — Concentration in Eurasian Studies: New Silk Roads
This concentration focuses on the social, cultural and economic interconnections among the peoples of Eurasia. We define Eurasia as the vast landmass stretching east to west from China to Europe and north to south from Siberia into the Caucasus, the Crimean Peninsula, Central Asia, and the Himalayas. Ancient trade routes that crisscrossed the interior spaces of Europe and Asia, known collectively as the Silk Road, served as a globalizing thoroughfare for the movement of peoples, cultural practices, religious values, and commodities. Recent infrastructural improvements in these areas — as well as international economic, environmental, and political concerns — have once again opened up transnational economic networks and cross-cultural exchange along these "new silk roads." For this concentration, students draw from a variety of disciplines to study not only specific geographical regions but also vital intersections and interrelationships among regions and peoples.
This concentration requires 36 units of course work:
- 3 to 6 units of introductory course work (100-200 level)
- 30 to 33 units of advanced Eurasian studies course work from a minimum of three academic disciplines (at least two courses must be at the 400 level) and dealing with three different regions (e.g., Eastern, Western, and Central Eurasia) or with a transregional focus
Additional requirements and regulations:
- Students must receive a grade of C+ or higher in all IAS courses. All courses taken for IAS credit must be taken for a letter grade, including language courses.
- Students must fulfill the standard IAS foreign language requirement with Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Persian, Russian or another Eurasian language as determined in consultation with their IAS adviser.
- Students must complete one semester of language before declaring the major.
- We strongly encourage students to study abroad. Russian Language and Literature study abroad programs are an especially good fit for this concentration, although other programs may also apply. For those students who do not study abroad, an additional 3-unit course at the 300 or 400 level is required.
- Throughout the course of completing the major, students must complete course work dealing with three different regions (e.g., Eastern, Western, and Central Eurasia) or with a transregional focus.
- Students must choose their upper-level course work from a minimum of three academic disciplines (e.g., anthropology, art history, film, history, literature, political science).
- No more than 12 total credits earned outside of the day school of Washington University may be applied to a student's IAS major. This limit includes credits from study abroad experiences (never more than 6 credits from a single semester, 3 credits from a summer, or 12 credits from a year), University College, summer school from another U.S. university, or any combination thereof. (All 400-level credits must be earned on campus or in Washington University courses taught abroad.)
- All advanced credits counting for the IAS major must be unique to the IAS major.
- At least 6 credits must be at the 400 level.
Note: A single course may satisfy more than one of the distribution requirements (i.e., disciplinary or regional). Some of these requirements may be completed while abroad.
Advanced courses: Choose 10 or 11 courses from current, relevant, internationally-focused course offerings in the following areas of study.* All courses must be approved by the student's IAS adviser in order to count for the major.
* | Students may submit a request to add a course by following the instructions for the Petition Process. |
- Anthropology
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
Anthro 3053 | Nomadic Strategies and Extreme Ecologies | 3 |
Anthro 3617 | Past and Present Cultural Environments | 3 |
Anthro 374 | Social Landscapes in Global View | 3 |
Anthro 376 | Warriors, Merchants, Monks and Courtesans: Ancient Narratives of Globalization in Google Earth | 3 |
Anthro 3775 | Ancient Eurasia and the New Silk Roads | 3 |
Anthro 4033 | Culture, Illness and Healing in Asia | 3 |
Anthro 4041 | Islam and Politics | 3 |
Anthro 4455 | Ethnographic Fieldwork: The Politics of Schooling | 3 |
Anthro 474 | National Narratives and Collective Memory | 3 |
Anthro 4761 | The Pleistocene Peopling of Eurasia | 3 |
Anthro 4803 | Advanced GIS Modeling and Landscape Analysis | 3 |
- Applied Linguistics
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
APL 4023 | Second-Language Acquisition and Technology | 3 |
APL 4111 | Linguistics and Language Learning | 3 |
APL 4692 | Reading Across Languages and Cultures: Theory, Research and Practice | 3 |
- Arabic
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
Arab 352 | Iraqi Literature | 3 |
- Art History
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
Art-Arch 3415 | Early Chinese Art: From Human Sacrifice to the Silk Road | 3 |
Art-Arch 4924 | 1968 and its Legacy | 3 |
-
Chinese
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
Chinese 341 | Early and Imperial Chinese Literature | 3 |
Chinese 342 | Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature | 3 |
-
Classics
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
Classics 345C | Greek History: The Dawn of Democracy | 3 |
Classics 346C | Greek History: The Age of Alexander | 3 |
-
Comparative Literature
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
Comp Lit 376 | Reading Across the Disciplines: Introduction to the Theoretical Humanities | 3 |
Comp Lit 394 | Worldwide Translation: Language, Culture, Technology | 3 |
-
East Asian Languages and Cultures
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
East Asia 4242 | Culture and Politics in the People's Republic of China: New Approaches | 3 |
- Environmental Studies
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
EnSt 380 | Applications in GIS | 3 |
EnSt 402 | Topics in Environmental Science: International Energy Politics | 3 |
- Film and Media Studies
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
Film 475 | Screening the Holocaust | 3 |
Film 485 | Visualizing Orientalism: Art, Cinema and the Imaginary East 1850-2000 | 3 |
Film 507 | The 007 Saga: James Bond and the Modern Media Franchise | 3 |
- Hindi
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
Hindi 353 | Understanding Indian (Hindi/Urdu) Literature: Through Text and Images (Visual) | 3 |
- History
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
History 301T | Historical Methods — Transregional History | 3 |
History 3073 | The Global War on Terrorism | 3 |
History 3122 | Race, Caste, Conversion: Social Movements in South Asia | 3 |
History 313C | Islamic History: 600-1200 | 3 |
History 335C | Becoming "Modern": Emancipation, Antisemitism and Nationalism in Modern Jewish History | 3 |
History 3350 | Out of the Shtetl: Jewish Life in Central and Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries | 3 |
History 3354 | Vienna, Prague, Budapest: Politics, Culture and Identity in Central Europe | 3 |
History 3416 | War, Genocide and Gender in Modern Europe | 3 |
History 3455 | Cultural Encounters: China and Eurasia Since the Middle Ages | 3 |
History 3548 | Gender, Sexuality and Communism in 20th-Century Europe | 3 |
History 3559 | Socialist and Secular? A Social History of the Soviet Union | 3 |
History 3598 | The First World War and the Making of Modern Europe | 3 |
History 3680 | The Cold War, 1945-1991 | 3 |
History 3681 | The U.S. War in Iraq, 2003-2011 | 3 |
History 3810 | Between Sand and Sea: History, Environment, and Politics in the Arabian Peninsula | 3 |
History 39SC | Imperialism and Sexuality: India, South Asia and the World: Writing-Intensive Seminar | 3 |
History 4154 | From Decolonization to Globalization: Postcolonial South Asia | 3 |
History 4274 | Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict | 3 |
- International and Area Studies
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
IAS 3040 | International Law and Politics | 3 |
IAS 318 | Learning to Use GIS in Development, Area Studies and International Affairs | 3 |
IAS 3248 | Intercultural Communication | 3 |
IAS 3575 | U.S. Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice | 3 |
IAS 364 | Anarchism: History, Theory and Praxis | 3 |
IAS 374 | Russian Literature at the Borders: Multiculturalism and Ethnic Conflict | 3 |
IAS 3750 | Topics in Russian Lit and Culture: (WI) | 3 |
IAS 376 | International Economics | 3 |
IAS 384 | Migration and Modernity in Russia and the (Former) Soviet Union | 3 |
IAS 3866 | Interrogating "Crime and Punishment" | 3 |
IAS 389 | Furies and Die-Hards: Women in Rebellion and War | 3 |
IAS 396 | Comintern: The Communist International's Global Impact | 3 |
IAS 402 | The Meaning of National Security in the 21st Century | 3 |
IAS 4414 | Gender Analysis for International Affairs | 3 |
IAS 4622 | Labor and Labor Movements in Global History | 3 |
IAS 4761 | Politics of Global Finance | 3 |
IAS 4869 | Reading War and Peace | 3 |
- Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
JIMES 354 | Anthropological and Sociological Study of Muslim Societies | 3 |
JIMES 3622 | Topics in Islam | 3 |
JIMES 373 | Topics in Near Eastern Cultures | 3 |
JIMES 442 | Empire and Memory: Approaches to Islamic Historiography (ca. 800-1250) | 3 |
JIMES 445 | Topics in Islam | 3 |
JIMES 4970 | Empire and Messianism in the Middle East | 3 |
- Political Science
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
Pol Sci 372 | Topics in International Politics | 3 |
Pol Sci 393 | History of Political Thought III: Liberty, Democracy and Revolution | 3 |
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
Psych 413 | Contemporary Topics in Social Psychology | 3 |
- Religious Studies
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
Re St 311 | Buddhist Traditions | 3 |
Re St 3392 | Topics in South Asian Religions | 3 |
- Russian Language and Literature
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
Russ 332 | Russian Theater, Drama and Performance: From Swan Lake to Punk Prayer | 3 |
Russ 350C | The 19th-Century Russian Novel (Writing Intensive) | 3 |
Russ 372 | Dostoevsky's Novels | 3 |
- Sociology
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
SOC 3710 | Sociology of Immigration | 3 |
Additional Information
Language Requirement for the Major in Eurasian Studies/International and Area Studies: All IAS majors must satisfy a foreign language requirement that entails the successful completion of four semesters of one modern language appropriate to their concentration while at Washington University. For some students, this may mean the first four semesters of a modern language; for others who place into advanced language classes and who receive approval from IAS language faculty, this may include literature, culture, oral communication, or linguistics courses in the target language, once such students complete the basic language sequence. Students must complete one semester of language to be eligible to declare the major in IAS.
Students are encouraged to study more than one language at Washington University, but they must satisfy their IAS language requirement by demonstrating competence in at least one modern language through the fourth semester. Available languages include Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swahili. Students should consult the course listings for details about the language sequences. (On the "A&S IQ" tab, click on "Courses," and then toggle "Area Requirement" to "LS Language & Cultural Diversity-Language" and click "Search" to see a list of available language courses.)
Special note for Spanish speakers: The following Spanish courses are not part of the regular sequence that are counted toward the four semesters of foreign language: Intermediate Spanish Conversation and Culture (Span 223), Business Spanish (Span 351), Medical Spanish (Span 353), and Spanish for the Social Sciences (Span 355). Some students might find these courses valuable for other reasons. For questions about this, students should consult with their major adviser.
Advanced foreign language courses in literature and culture used to satisfy the foreign language requirement may be counted as advanced credit for IAS majors as long as they are cross-listed with or approved for study abroad credit for the student's IAS concentration and provided the courses are not being counted toward any other degree.
Language courses taken to fulfill the IAS language requirement may count toward another major or minor unless they are being counted as advanced elective units for the IAS major requirement.
Students With Prior Language Experience
Native speakers of a foreign language: Students must satisfy the four-semester requirement in another language appropriate to their concentration.
Heritage speakers who do not have a native level of fluency: Students must seek appropriate placement by the coordinator of the language program and complete the four-semester requirement.
Transfer students who have taken language courses: Students may receive credit for the courses as part of the four-semester IAS foreign language requirement only if a placement exam is taken upon arrival at or return to Washington University and the foreign language department determines that the student may progress to the next highest level of language instruction.
Students who take a foreign language course at another institution (whether in the United States or abroad): Students may receive credit for the course as part of the four-semester IAS foreign language requirement only if (1) the credit is transferred back as Washington University credit; and (2) students take a placement exam upon their return to Washington University and the foreign language department determines that they may progress to the next highest level of language instruction.
Study Abroad: Majors are strongly encouraged to study abroad in one of Washington University's Overseas Programs during junior year or the summer. Some credit for courses taken abroad may be applied toward the major. For those students who do not study abroad, an additional 3-credit course at the 300 or 400 level is required.
Senior Honors: Students must confidently expect to graduate with an overall grade-point average of 3.65 or higher in order to qualify for Senior Honors. Students should enroll in Preparation for IAS Honors Thesis (IAS 485) during the fall of senior year and in IAS Senior Honors Thesis (IAS 486) during the spring of senior year (under the corresponding section number of the faculty member overseeing the student's thesis).
Contact: | Toni Loomis |
---|---|
Phone: | 314-935-5073 |
Email: | aloomis@wustl.edu |
Website: | http://ias.wustl.edu |