New undergraduate collaborative humanities seminar will explore feminism across Asia

By Gregory Kimbrell

A pair of faculty members from the Departments of East Asian Studies and Anthropology will team up in fall ’25 to teach a new, experimental course for undergraduates: “Transnational Feminist Knowledge Production and Practices: Perspectives from East and West Asia.”

Professors Lingzhen Wang (East Asian Studies) and Nadje Al-Ali (Anthropology) will bring their respective research methods and expertise into dialogue to explore contemporary forms of feminism in Asia, with special attention to their historical and cultural underpinnings. “This is a major opportunity,” says Wang, “not only to foster cross-regional dialogue, but to decolonize dominant studies of gender and feminism, which focus on the U.S. and Europe. Students will be paving the way for future transnational studies at Brown and beyond.”

Portrait of Lingzhen Wang — Lingzhen Wang (East Asian Studies)

Portrait of Nadje Al-Ali — Nadje Al-Ali (Anthropology)

Wang and Al-Ali’s course is the latest to be made possible by the Cogut Institute’s collaborative humanities undergraduate course award. The award extends the research that informs Wang and Al-Ali’s teaching by providing each with $10,000 supplementary research funds. It also provides for course development funds to enhance student learning and facilitate pedagogical experimentation.

“ Students will be paving the way for future transnational studies at Brown and beyond. ”

Lingzhen Wang Professor of East Asian Studies

Courses developed under the aegis of the award specifically foreground the collaborative, interdisciplinary practices in humanities research that are needed by scholars today for contributing to and shaping complex, often global discussions of critical issues. Throughout Wang and Al-Ali’s course, students will work in small groups (ideally across disciplinary and regional interests and expertise) on collective research projects. “We aim for students to reflect critically,” says Al-Ali, “on the limitations of individual disciplines and academic interests in order to appreciate and leverage the unique perspectives they can contribute to collaborative work in our interconnected world today.”