Description

Spend a summer in Chiang Mai, the cultural heart of Thailand famous for its temples, enduring traditions, jungle-covered mountains complete with hill-tribe villages and elephants. Chiang Mai combines the best of Thailand as a modern city with great shopping and nightlife but also a place that has kept alive the traditions and customs of this diverse and fascinating culture.

This intensive multi-disciplinary summer program will not only be of interest to students in Asian studies but also those interested in globalization, democratization, gender and sexual identity, fine arts, human rights, migration and economic development. It will allow students to gain a deeper understanding of Thai and Southeast Asian culture and how their own academic interests play out in the region. Students will have the unique opportunity to "tailor" their summer experience in the region by selecting an elective in their academic discipline or personal area of interest.

This program can be taken as a three week (3 credits) or six week (6 credits) experience. While we strongly encourage all students to undertake the full program of 6 weeks, we also understand that due to individual situations some students may not be able to participate in the longer program. As a result the program has been designed as two 'stand-alone' independent 3-week modules.

The first 3-week module offers a course that focuses on Thailand. This course "Cultural Foundations of Thai Society," while offering a fascinating insight into Thailand, also serves to provide the background or context for the courses offered in Module 2. While not a compulsory pre-requisite for courses in Module 2, students will find the subject helpful for a deeper appreciation of the material covered in the second course.

The second 3-week module allows students to choose from a list of 7 different programs across many academic disciplines.

* Module 1 Course Offering from Payap University

Course Title: Cultural Foundations of Thai Society (3 credits)

This course introduces students to Thailand through a general survey of topics on Thai culture and society. The course combines classroom lecture and discussion with a variety of field experiences in Chiang Mai and Northern Thailand. It will focus on the changes and continuity of cultural practices and the major institutions of the country. Themes to be analyzed include history, religion, gender, customs, and identity. The course explores both explore empirical and normative questions about Thailand and emphasizes issues of cultural relativism and cross-cultural evaluation.

Students should be prepared for challenging individual and group activities outside the classroom. The course includes field trips and a short-term village homestay which provides an enriching insight into many different walks of life in Thailand. The program schedules some weekend activities but provides plenty of free time to meet Thai students at Payap and make new friends in Chiang Mai.

* Module 2 Course Offerings from Payap University

Course 1: Women and Buddhism in Thailand

This course will explore the religious lives of lay women and female renouncers in various Buddhist societies, particularly Thailand. We will begin by examining stories by and about women in early Indian Buddhism. This will entail an analysis of early Buddhist views on sexuality and spirituality and an analysis of the sacred biographies of early Buddhist nuns. We will then turn our attention to stories about women's religious lives in the various schools of Buddhism. We will explore stories about female bodhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhism, yoginis and tantric adepts in Vajrayana Buddhism, and powerful goddesses and laywomen in the Theravada tradition. Lastly, we will examine some of the contemporary issues concerning women and Buddhism, including the relatively low status of contemporary Buddhist nuns, the call to restore the bhikkhuni (fully ordained nun) order in Thailand, and the role of women in new Buddhist movements.

Course 2: Queer Thailand: Culture, Society & Sexual Identity

Gays, Girls, Gender Bending, and Gambling. Thailand is a country of many paradoxes. As a Buddhist Kingdom with the world's longest reigning monarch, Thailand somehow harmoniously balances contemporary sexual freedoms with traditional values. Known around the world as a "Gay Paradise," Thailand provides an excellent location to study and explore variant gender identities and expressions -- a kind of "Asian Mystique"-- which challenges many from the West.

As anyone who comes to Thailand soon discovers, gender and sexuality are in a constant state of change as fluid, contingent and adaptable performances. Androgyny permeates and possibilities abound. Globalization, tourism, technology, and the information society have all impacted Thailand in recent decades to create a fascinating space within which to explore reformed, emergent and traditional expressions of gender and sexuality. It is within this gendered space of "Queer Thailand," with its many myths and mystiques, that this course journeys.

This course will include an introduction to gender/queer theory and proceed to use case studies of gender performance in Thailand to provide a fascinating comparative study for Gender/Sexuality/Women's Studies students and/or others with open minds that wish to explore this topic. Although previous coursework in gender studies will prove helpful, it is not a prerequisite for this class. Fieldtrips and interaction with Thai LGBTQ students and the activist NGO community will enhance classroom learning.

Course 3: Dictatorship and Democratization in Southeast Asia (Political Science)

Dictatorship has long been prevalent in the countries of Southeast Asia. Some countries in the region are in the process of democratization. This course looks at why some countries in Southeast Asia are moving toward pluralism while others seem at a standstill. To what extent does democracy contend with autocracy? To what extent do countries in Southeast Asia even possess a democracy relative to other countries in the world? Exactly how consolidated is pluralism today and how imbedded are civil liberties in the region? What accounts for insurgencies in Southeast Asia? What is the situation of Southeast Asian ethnic minorities? What is the role of the military in Southeast Asia? How developed are electoral systems and political parties in the region? How protected are human rights? This course will study these questions.

Course 4: Globalization and Social Change in Southeast Asia (Sociology)

This course explores the dynamism of Southeast Asia with special attention to the interplay between social change and development in an era of increasing globalization. Major themes include the region's post-Cold War economic boom and crisis, debates over development, globalization, and cultural responses to globalization. Emphasizing the comparative method, the course accentuates the diversity of experiences in Southeast Asia, not only from country to country and from one political system to another, but also between urban and rural areas, older and younger generations, and the differing religious contexts within and between countries. Course includes site visits within Thailand and requires students to develop papers from field observations and study.

Course 5: Sustainable Development in Southeast Asia (ecology/environmental focus)

Sustainable Development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs within the confines of Southeast Asia and specific to the Greater Mekong Sub-region. This multi-disciplinary program integrates the social science disciplines of geography, sociology, political science, economics and law with natural science. Students will be introduced to the complexities of development processes and problems in the Mekong Sub-region, which result from the impact in changes in cultural and political movements, government legislation, economic and trade relations, resource use and health issues. A highlight of this program will be a 7-day field excursion to Yunnan Province in southern China. Yunnan and Guangxi provinces are now considered to be part of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region and this will allow students to compare southern China and Northern Thailand. The trip to China from Chiang Saen (east of Chiang Rai) will be by boat. This experience demonstrates the importance of the Mekong River and the connections between southern China and SE Asia.

Course 6: Living Arts: Thai Dance and Music

This course is a study of the musical traditions of Thailand that involve dance, drama, religion and social structure as well as some comparative perspectives of cultures in Asia that are related to music. This is achieved through an exploration of the origins and traditions of Thai drama and dance. Students will learn a variety of traditional Thai dances, and will perform in full costume. The course also explores the ancient art of playing traditional Thai musical instruments. This involves instruction on playing positions, the fundamentals of Thai music and Thai notation, tuning, and scales. Discussion on comparative perspectives of the various traditional musical instruments, songs, ritual practices, and the development of music of Thai ethnic groups will round out this very interactive study experience.

Course 7: Globalization and Economic Development in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia has emerged, during the last decades of the 20th century, and continues in the early part of the 21st century, as an important player in the global arena. The nations in the region encompass the whole spectrum of economic development and political ideologies, ranging from the wealthier to the poorest country, from the most populous Muslim state to the small landlocked, from established market system to ones undergoing transformation from central planning to private market, from democracies to one-party states. This course is designed to provide the students with a survey of the countries in this strategically important region. It begins with a basic overview of the political and economic history of the area. The course then proceeds to examine the underlying causes of this economic emergence. It will also investigate some issues that are relevant to the whole region, including the reliance on tourism as a development strategy, the role of the state sector, and the cause and consequence of the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990's. While the focus of the course is on economics, other aspects of the process known as globalization will also be examined.