U N I V E R S I T Y  O F  P I T T S B U R G H

October, 2001 

History, Literature, and Art in Japan: An Interdisciplinary Course Proposal

An ACIE award will help faculty from three departments to create a new course, Heian Japan and The Tale of Genji, to be offered in spring term 2002 as the first in a series of interdisciplinary courses on history, literature, and art in Japan. The series will span classical, medieval, and early modern times – covering more than a thousand years. Each course will introduce a great work of Japanese literature (Tale of Genji, Tale of the Heike, and Before the Dawn, for example), and students will read historical documents and study the art and architecture of Japan.

Faculty from three Faculty of Arts and Sciences departments – Ann Janetta, history; Katheryn Linduff, history of art and architecture; and Thomas J. Rimer, East Asian languages and literatures — collaborated to design the project. Miki Hirayama and Susan Zitterbart are serving as art history consultants; and Sachie Noguchi, bibliographer of the Japanese Collection, East Asian Library, is the reference consultant. Jane Vadnal, the technical consultant, will scan approximately 450 images and prepare a Website for the course.

In the spring term 2001, Jannetta and Rimer co﷓taught a pilot course on The Tale of Genji in the University Honors College. They were impressed by both the enthusiasm of the students for a society that existed a millennium ago and the high quality of the students’ work.

 

A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh

Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education
1996-2004 © University of Pittsburgh, CIDDE. All Rights Reserved.
Editor: Carol DeArment, Production: Joyce Walsh
Questions or comments, please contact CIDDE Webmaster, 04/09/2004