Toward a truly global Yale curriculum

JOSIAH LEIGHTON/YH

More than 50 students crowded into a seminar room in Linsly-Chittenden Hall on the first Thursday of classes this semester to shop a new English seminar on South Asian literature. When instructor Amitava Kumar, a postdoctoral fellow in Southeast Asian Studies, entered the room, he was astonished at the turnout. "The experience of entering the class on my first day and finding it more crowded than a railway station in India convinced me that courses like this are certainly needed here," Kumar said.

The turnout for the seminar (called Bombay, London, New York) and Kumar's subsequent reaction are symptoms of Yale's inconsistent academic presence in Asian and African studies. Certain aspects of Africa and Asia are addressed in departments ranging from sociology to history to anthropology to English, but the selection is haphazard. "The Administration gives arguments about resource crunches and that, instead of specific [geographic] areas, they want to be more theoretical," Assistant Professor of Political Science Arun Agrawal said. "I won't agree with either reason, but I'm not sure what other reasons there are."

But where Yale is strong, it's very strong, and the University knows there's more progress to be made. "On the one hand, Yale's coverage of non-Western areas is outstanding--there is an incredible richness of courses offered," said Nancy Ruther, associate director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS). "On the other hand, we aspire to more. It's like most things--there are parts of the world that are underrepresented, and there are parts that are very well represented."

Give and take

JULIA TIERNAN/YH This semester, students can take Hindi for credit for the first time in over 10 years, but only one term of language is offered.

Yale boasts one of the best East Asian studies departments in the nation. However, South Asian studies is nearly nonexistent at Yale. Between these two extremes, non-Western area studies range from exceptional to mediocre.

China and Japan are treated comprehensively; students can choose from a variety of language, literature, history, anthropology, sociology, and religious studies classes. While Yale's nationally recognized African studies program offered language sequences in four African tongues and several history classes this semester, there were no classes on African religion or philosophy. "African studies is great here, but I can't supplement my language and history education with much in other departments," one student who did not wish to be identified said. "There's no way I can understand the continent if I know nothing about the philosophical, religious, and social structures which create the dynamic of the continent." Meanwhile, the philosophical, religious, and social structures of the Near East are well-covered, as are languages and literature. But history offerings on the Near East are sparse.

One history class, one political science class, and Kumar's seminar currently represent Yale's offerings on India. No other nations on the South Asian subcontinent are addressed. After extensive student lobbying, one semester of Hindi is now available, but no classes on Hinduism or Indian society were taught this year. Similarly, while Korean language is taught in a full sequence, there are no classes on Korean history, politics, or religion.

"Commitments to East Asia and Southeast Asia go back a long ways. Africa does as well," Provost Alison Richard said. "We can't do everything." In comparison to other competitive schools, Yale's programs do stand out--some as paragons, some as weak efforts. Like Yale, Harvard has strong programs in East Asian and Near Eastern studies. However, the school also boasts numerous South and Southeast Asian language courses and other classes on the region. Harvard's African studies program is also strong. Penn covers the non-Western world in a similarly comprehensive manner. Could Yale conceivably do the same?

Prioritizing

PATRICK MCGARVEY/YH Comparative Literature Professor Vilashini Coppan, MC '88, hopes next year's world literature class will broaden the undergraduate canon.

Yale's inconsistent coverage of African and Asian studies is a result of a number of factors: its history, student and faculty interests, and funding. "Our best non-Western departments are the ones in which we have very old traditions of scholarship and resource-collecting," Richard explained. "Everyone talks about internationalization as if it has happened in the last two years. If you look back at Yale's history, our interest in the world at large has been there for well over 100 years." "No institution can cover every field of study," Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology Stanley Insler said. "Yale decided a long time ago that it would not cover India. While I don't like the fact that we don't cover India in a much broader fashion, I understand the administrative problems. A university really has to commit itself to making a program. One person here and another person there without integrating into a full-fledged program would be pandering to student desires without producing something that would be substantial."

Yale's area studies programs began in the 1950s, funded by grants from the Ford Foundation. The one area which was not funded was South Asia. "Yale's strength and weaknesses are still a reflection of that basic thrust," History Chair Robin Winks said.

Consequently, the areas in which the University has most recently taken an interest remain its weakest. According to Comparative Literature Professor Vilashini Cooppan, MC '88, "When area studies were founded, different universities took areas as their particular fields. For example, the University of Chicago and Harvard took South Asia, and Yale took East Asia. Those choices may have had an institutional rationale at that point, but today that kind of division in no way reflects the kind of integrated knowledge of both the West and the non-West that is so necessary a part of our historical moment."

This academic division of the non-Western world has determined the areas in which the University is strongest today. "What we're good at, we're really good at. And with limited funds, I would rather see Yale do a few things well," Chinese History Professor Beatrice Bartlett, GRD '80, said. "We have three or four historians working on China--that's impressive. We also offer unique courses on Taiwanese history and the Chinese diaspora. But on areas like Korea, we are really backwards."

In its traditional areas of strength, Yale's long history of academic interest has enabled the University to support the extensive library resources scholars demand. "One of the reasons we can have someone like [Chinese History Professor] Jonathan Spence, SY '61, GRD '65, here is because of the richness of the library collections," Richard said. But Yale also has extensive South Asian and Southeast Asian library resources. Where are the scholars?

According to Richard, "for reasons having to do with historical accident more than anything else, Yale simply hasn't built a strong historical interest in South Asia." The University is trying to fix this "accident" and is taking preliminary steps--like the teaching of Hindi--on the long road to having a strong South Asian studies program.

Individual departments, too, are trying to jumpstart certain regional concentrations with new appointments and greater utilization of faculty expertise. "The South Asian situation I understand. I don't fully understand the Middle Eastern situation," Winks said. "I suppose other centers seem more attractive--it's very difficult to build critical mass in area studies programs. But we've been asking for an additional appointment in history to complement the work of [Near Eastern History Professor] Abbas Amanat. We have not attained what we believe is desirable."

Attaining what is "desirable" with the limited resources available is a delicate process--and one in which students can make a difference. For example, repeated petitions from the South Asian Society (SAS) finally brought Hindi for credit back to Yale after a more than 10-year hiatus. SAS member Vairavan Subramanian, SY '01, attributes this arduous process to the Administration's "circular logic." "Some department heads say that they can't offer more non-Western courses until they see interest from students, but you can't really build up interest unless the courses are offered," Subramanian said.

But change has been a slow process, especially given the hiring freeze Yale maintained for much of the last decade and finally lifted last fall. "Departments don't change their core structures very quickly, and they certainly don't change things under a freeze on faculty hiring," Ruther said. "If departments couldn't replace faculty in areas they were traditionally strong in, why would they want to hire in an area they never covered? For a long time, it was a very inhospitable environment to growing a program."

Growing programs in regional studies also require huge startup funds to establish library resources and to fund professors' travel, research, and salaries, as well as the salaries of language lecturers. Traditionally, Yale has received substantial funding from both national and private foundations. The African Languages Program was named a U.S. Department of Education National Resource Center for African Studies and as a result receives about $250,000 per year for fellowships, curriculum development, and instruction. But not all area studies programs are so lucky. Most must wait for endowments and University approval to increase their offerings.

Scatter-shot

As a result of these difficulties, most Yale undergraduates interested in non-Western areas have difficulty integrating their studies. "Only China gets a solid treatment at Yale," said Saema Somalya, CC '99, a political science major concentrating in international relations. "The mentality seems to be that there is a limited and contiguous realm of non-Western topics worthy of study and that, as long as there is some coverage of some non-Western topics, that's good enough."

"Offerings on South Asia are at best scattered courses that remain for a couple of years and then disappear," Subramanian said. "Without permanent faculty members who specialize in South Asia, those courses will never get full respect in departments." Classes on African and Asian areas are frequently taught by fellows like Kumar and visiting faculty members, which means they aren't consistently available. "This semester, Bombay, London, New York and a seminar on hybridity are being offered, and it's frustrating to know that they won't be offered again," Nina Rastogi, BR '02, who is in Kumar's seminar, said.

Though the history department recently voted unanimously to increase the number of non-Western classes required for majors from two to three, many students feel this number is still inadequate. "History majors must take two classes on American history, two on European, and three on non-Western. What a statement that makes!" Somalya said. "In order to be an intelligent, well-educated person, it will take you at least two semesters to understand the relevant aspects of the Americas and Europe. And three for the rest of the world, from Turkey to India to Korea, should be sufficient?"

Making an effort

But Yale is now working to integrate area studies. YCIAS is the most prominent symbol of this trend, and the Center's growth in recent years has facilitated expansion in several programs. An umbrella organization for faculty-led councils concerned with particular parts of the world, YCIAS is housed at Luce Hall. The Center was founded in the mid-1980s to replace its less coherent predecessor, The Consilium. Since it has its own building, YCIAS offers more space for council and committee members to meet together and with students and provides a tangible presence for scholars and donors. "The purpose of YCIAS is to promote understanding of parts of the world in the faculty research agenda and in the students' minds," Ruther said. "We have endowments supporting eight faculty members, and the East and Southeast Asian councils have individual endowments."

Ruther added that pressure and initiative from individual YCIAS councils has brought about significant changes in the past few years in Asian and African studies programs. According to Ruther, the efforts of the Southeast Asian Studies Council and YCIAS funding combined to bring History Professor Ben Kiernan, a Southeast Asian specialist, to Yale. The history department is now working on hiring a second specialist in Southeast Asia--an expert on the South Asian influence on Southeast Asia who would teach courses on both regions--to complement Kiernan. In addition, the East Asian languages and literatures department, supported by the Southeast Asian Studies Council, has just hired a new lecturer to teach Vietnamese at all levels for the next five years.

Other departments are also becoming more receptive to non-Western perspectives and scholarship. "My International Human Rights course with a professor from the Law School was superior, and I [was able] to integrate an East Asian studies component--a seminar paper focusing on China in the context of human rights," East Asian studies major Argyro Caminis, BR '00, said.

Under the direction of Cooppan and Comparative Literature Professor Michael Holquist, a survey course on world literature will be offered next year. "We would like to see undergraduates come into contact with an expanded curriculum from a very early stage in their Yale careers," Cooppan said. The course will be taught through a collaborative effort of nearly 20 professors representing all of the University's language and literature departments. For each text students read, a professor who reads or speaks the original language will deliver the lecture and address issues of cultural context, language, and translation.

The creation of the Ethnicity, Race and Migration (ER&M) major, an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and transnational ethnic studies program, also marked an important development in Yale's non-Western trend. "Faculty and students talked about ways to develop an ethnic studies program at Yale which, unlike earlier generations of ethnic programs which focused on ethnicity in the United States, would involve the cutting edge and most interesting scholarship in ethnic studies, which is in transnational and immigration studies," Professor Michael Denning, ER&M director of undergraduate studies, said. "It is intended to have strong comparative and international aspects to it and to draw on faculty working on other parts of the world. Gaps in those areas obviously create gaps in our program."

Certainly there are gaps. But even the Administration says something must--and will--be done. "The strength of offering in what might be called Eurocentric areas of study is largely a result of Yale history, but we should remember that it would be very shortsighted to weaken or slash our strengths in those areas," Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, said. "That said, a great university would want to offer everything interesting or important to study, and as Yale's sense of the relevant world changes, the curriculum changes with it."

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