CCS 501 is part of a two-semester Interdisciplinary Seminar in Chinese Studies intended for M.A. and Ph.D. students from all disciplines. Disciplinary departments create barriers between shared problems, methods, and sources. ISCS is designed to recover and highlight the connecting links of Chinese Studies: the multidimensional study of China encompassing all social groups and the entire range of human experience, from literature and the visual arts to politics and economics. There are no formal prerequisites, except permission of the instructors.

CCS 501 will introduce graduate students to current issues in social scientific studies of China, emphasizing different methodological approaches drawn from multiple disciplines. The course will address four common themes — family and social organization, poverty, social stratification and social mobility, and political economy — that intersect the multiple social science disciplines. Each class will discuss one or more disciplinary approaches to a common subject through class discussion of exemplary studies of China. We will discuss the existing state of the field on each subject and emphasize the different research design and data available for such studies.