Asian and asian diaspora studies

The Minor in Asian and Asian Diaspora Studies is designed for students interested in the language, history, politics, and culture of Asia and/or the Asian diasporas. In consultation with the minor advisor, students may focus their coursework on a subregion of Asia, on one of the Asian diasporas, or design their program to offer a comparative study across different regions and/or cultural groups. The goal of the minor program is to provide balanced coverage of language, humanistic and social science offerings on the region, and to expose students to comparative perspectives. The minor consists of six subjects (at least three of which must be MIT subjects), arranged in four areas of study: Subjects about Asia and the Asian diaspora, as well as subjects in Asian languages, are also available from Harvard University and Wellesley College through cross-registration. Students must receive permission from the minor advisor prior to registering for a class at another institution. Five of the six subjects taken for the minor may be counted toward the eight-subject HASS Requirement. Of these five, at most one may count toward the distribution component of the HASS Requirement. Of the six subjects required for the minor, at least four cannot be counted toward a major or another minor. The language requirement can be satisfied by taking two intermediate (Levels III and IV, or Very Fast Track equivalent) subjects in an Asian language. Students with proficiency at this level are encouraged to take two more advanced language subjects, such as 21G.105 Chinese V (Regular): Discovering Chinese Cultures and Societies and 21G.106 Chinese VI (Regular): Discovering Chinese Cultures and Societies or 21G.505 Japanese V and 21G.506 Japanese VI. Alternatively, they may take two more subjects from Areas II, III, and IV . In cases where the student is specializing in an Asian country where English is one of the official languages, in an English-speaking region of the...