Enchanting Asian Social Landscapes

The study of social landscapes already exists as a discipline within the social sciences. Undertaken by sociologists, geographers, urban planners, architects, and historians, it is a developed multidisciplinary field of study. Thus, the basic approaches to the field are well-established and taught at many graduate schools. But teaching this established
field with a focus towards developing a new body of Asia Pacific Studies posed a challenge to this author and the students who came to study at APU. After muddling through various experimentations at curriculum design, the course came to a definitive framework of teaching and guiding students to write papers that could incorporate the existing social landscape theoretical perspectives and developing the new Asia Pacific Studies.