Academics

East Asian Studies

east asian studies

Explore the culture, history and languages of East and South Asia as an East Asian Studies minor at Saint Michael’s.

You can take courses from the History, Modern Languages and Religious Studies departments that will provide you with a fundamental background in East Asia’s cultures and traditions.

From History, take courses such as Traditional East Asia, Modern East Asia, China in the Twentieth Century, Japan and the Modern World, and East Asia and the West.

Japanese language classes starting from the introductory level and progressing all the way to a course on Advanced Conversation are also available to you as an East Asian Studies minor. Plus, you can select from courses offered in the Religious Studies department including Hindu Religious Thought and Buddhist Religious Thought.

Joseph Kroger, PhD

Professor of Religious Studies
View Full Profile

Ph.D. McMaster University
M.A. St. Louis University
B. A. University of Dayton

Areas of Expertise and Scholarly Interests:

Christianity’s encounter and dialogue with other cultures and religions; Christianity in Latin America, specifically Liberation Theology in Central America and Catholic Christianity in Mexico; Mesoamerican culture and religion; Philosophical foundations of Hinduism and Buddhism, Michael Polanyi’s Thought on Science and Religion.

Courses I Teach:

  • Aztec Goddesses and Christian Madonnas of Mexico
  • Buddhist Religious Thought
  • Christianity and World Religions in Dialogue
  • Hindu Religious Thought
  • Liberation Theology
  • Varieties of Christianity

Adrie Kusserow, PhD

Professor of Anthropology
View Full Profile

Ph.D. Harvard University (Anthropology)
M.T.S. Harvard Divinity School (Tibetan Buddhism)
B.A. Amherst College, Phi Beta Kappa

Areas of Expertise:

Medical and Psychiatric Anthropology, Refugees, Globalization and Poverty, Modern Day Slavery, Anthropology of Refugees, Anthropology of Religion, Social Class in America, Anthropology of Global Media

Courses I Teach:

  • Culture Illness and Healing
  • Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking
  • Refugees
  • Social Inequalities

Motivations:

I am a cultural anthropologist with special interests in refugees, social inequalities, poverty, anthropology of religion, culture, illness and healing, social class, ethnographic poetry and anthropology of the child. I strongly encourage both service work and community engaged learning to be an integral part of my anthropology classes. I am also a strong proponent of study abroad and have taken students to Sudan, Uganda and Bhutan.

Ke-wen Wang, PhD

Professor of History
View Full Profile

M.A., Ph.D. Stanford University
B.A. National Taiwan University

Areas of Expertise:

Politics in Nationalist China; the Sino-Japanese War; Chinese Newspapers in the Republican Era

Courses I Teach:

  • China in the 20th Century
  • East Asia and the West
  • Japan and the Modern World
  • Japanese Culture
  • Modern East Asia
  • Senior Seminar
  • Traditional East Asia
  • World War II in Asia
  • Women in East Asian History

My favorite course to teach is World War II in Asia. I feel that war is a constant reminder that human societies need to learn from their past – and that they seldom do. I enjoy teaching the course because it is close to my own research interest and because it challenges students to re-examine their U.S.-centered view of history through the study of an otherwise familiar event.

Our students often use their skills in their study abroad experience in places like China, Japan, Fiji and Thailand. Our program offers a solid background in East Asia's history so as to provide our students with a familiarity of East Asia's vast cultures and traditions.

In our current global economy, businesses and organizations are always looking for employees who are bilingual, especially in Asian languages such as Japanese. You will have the opportunity to become proficient in Japanese as an East Asian Studies minor at Saint Michael's, which will make you very appealing to future employers.

For more information on the East Asian Studies minor please contact the coordinator:

Professor Ke-wen Wang
Durick Library 311
802.654.2428
Box 101
kwang@smcvt.edu

getinsideSt.Mike's

†

The Edmundite Catholic Liberal Arts College