Course Minors

Students will be admitted to the minor after having completed at least two Asian Studies courses in different departments with grades of B or better. The Asian Studies minor in course consists of five course credits, distributed as follows:

Geographic Breadth

Coursework must cover more than one region of Asia. This can be accomplished by taking at least two courses that are pan-Asian or comparative in scope or by taking at least one full course on a country that is not the principal focus of a student's program.

Disciplinary Breadth

Asia-related courses must be taken in at least two departments outside of the disciplinary major. Only one course may overlap the Asian Studies minor and the disciplinary major.

Temporal breadth

At least one course focusing on the Premodern or Early Modern (before 1900) Eras, and at least one course on the Modern (after 1900) Era must be completed. This requirement can be fulfilled by taking at least two courses that examine substantial material on both the Premodern/Early Modern and Modern Eras.

Intermediate and Advanced Work

At least 2 credits of work must be completed at the intermediate or advanced level.

Asian Language Study

Asian-language study is not required, but courses in Asian languages may count toward the course minor. For languages offered at Swarthmore (Chinese and Japanese), courses above the first-year level may count toward the minor.  The language requirement may be waived at the discretion of the Asian Studies coordinator in cases of demonstrated advanced oral and written proficiency in an Asian language relevant to a student's area of geographic focus.

For Asian languages not offered at Swarthmore, courses at the entry level may count toward the minor if at least the equivalent of 1.5 credits is earned in an approved program.