| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|
| ASIANAM 60A | INTRO TO ASIAN AM STUDIES I | LIU, J.M. | (Same as History 15C/Soc Sci 78A) The course will provide a survey of the history, social organization, and cultural representations of Asians immigrating to the United States prior to World War II. This course is open to all students and meets the Multi-cultural VII-A general education requirement. It is also the first of a three-quarter introductory sequence that is mandatory for students who want to major or minor in Asian American Studies. If you are not majoring/minoring in Asian American Studies, the sequence can be used to fulfill the Social Science general education breadth requirement. |
| ASIANAM 110 | LIT SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORA | SHROFF, B. | (Same as English 105) In this class we analyze the work of writers who are of South Asian ancestry living in North America and Britain. South Asian countries include India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan among others. A central concern is how through literary and cinematic representations, spaces of "home" and "belonging" are negotiated through narratives of disjuncture and displacements. How do the literary and cinematic texts represent multiple and contradictorily organized spaces where new identities must be negotiated? How do the writers construct and negotiate their identities in their own specific cultural context and also in the larger diasporic context? We explore interrelated themes such as assimilation, and the assertion of difference; ethnicity and multiculturalism; relationships with the "homeland"--both the adoptive country and the ancestral home(s); the distinct and multiple identities of immigrant, citizen, expatriates, conflicts between first and second generation immigrants and issues of religion, caste, class and gender within South Asian communities abroad. |
| ASIANAM 110 | ASIAN AM WRITING LIFESTORIES | YAMADA, M. | (Same as English 105/LJ 103) This course will focus on heightening an awareness of your cultural heritage(s) through reading about the history of your own particular culture(s) and writing about them filtered through your own experiences. You will be recovering personal memories and collecting and retelling family stories. You will begin by collecting fragments of images, memories, dreams and stories, a mixture of Asian (or other) and American cultures that you have been exposed to throughout your lifetime. Through interviews, you will collect stories from your parents, grandparents, and other members of the family and people who share your common background.
In addition to personal writings, you will collect materials that are connected in some way to your personal or family past, photographs, meaningful documents, stories told to you in your childhood, recipes of favorite foods, etc. Some research will be involved. Your personal stories will be put into historical/cultural/social context through research of your ancestral past. You may be collecting visual images of periods long past as well as myths and tales. You will explore the “signs of the times” by researching popular media and historical writings.
Information will be shared by discussion in class of assigned readings, lectures, possibly guest speaker, student presentations and audiovisual materials when available. |
| ASIANAM 114 | ASIAN AM FILM&VIDEO | MIMURA, G. | (Same as FlmSt 130/Soc Sci 179) “Asian American” and “Film and Video” may strike many as mutually exclusive terms, as Asian Americans are still only vaguely associated with films in the popular imagination, and more often as exotic background or obstacles to be overcome than as protagonists of the storyline. Indeed, the recent surge in mainstream depictions of Asian Americans – most prominently, Wayne Wang’s Joy Luck Club (1993) – seems to have materialized out of nowhere, and subsequently has been lauded as the inaugural moment of a new “minority” cinema. Yet Asian Americans have been present in Hollywood – on-screen, behind the camera, and in technical production – since the earliest days of the silent film era at the turn of the century. Further, Asian Americans have been active participants in the development of independent film and video since the late 1960s, most often against the grain of Hollywood’s culture industry.
The course seeks to restore some sense of this rich history by introducing selected media (documentary, fictional, experimental) and readings offering an array of viewpoints. While we will consider the formal aspects of media production and criticism, the focus will be on the politics of cultural representation, organized around such concepts as gender, sexuality, and class, as well as race and ethnicity. Also, while the majority of the work here is “Asian American” in a strict sense, we will be reviewing works from Asian Canadian and Asian British artists and critics. Indeed, several of the texts address issues that extend beyond the geopolitical, imaginary boundaries of the US or other nation-states. To this degree, the course will examine the changing realities of Asian diaspora communities – that is, of Asian subjects as they (we) become “global citizens” increasingly dispersed throughout the world system. |
| ASIANAM 141 | ASIAN AM PSYCH | STAFF | (Same as Psych 174A) This course is designed to facilitate an examination of the current research and literature on the cultural, societal, historical, and political influences on the psychological well-being and make-up of Asian Americans. Included in this indepth, critical overview are contextual issues surrounding Asian American psychological experiences, such as key historical and political issues; race and culture; racism and discrimination; worldviews, values, and beliefs; cultural conflicts; minority status; and the immigration experience. "Person" issues will also be explored, self-concept, self-identity, personality, interpersonal relationships, sexuality, and gender roles. The interface of between Asian Americans and major social institutions, such as the education system, the workplace, and mental health services, will also be examined. |
| ASIANAM 150 | THEORIZING DIASPORA | RADHAKRISHNAN, R. | These are days of extensive movements of peoples across boundaries, beyond their homes, across even and uneven terrains. Though the diasporic phenomenon is nothing novel in world history, what is new about it during these days of globalization and transnationalism is the pace at which the changes are taking place. Movement and perennial mobility have almost become integral to questions of identity and representation. Rather than be marked as the exceptional or the anomalous human condition, diasporas have emerged as substantive manifestations of human reality and experience. The purpose of this course is to explore the various meanings of the term “diaspora” in conjunction with the cultural politics of nationalism, the nation-state, assimilation, multiculturalism, Capital, migration, cosmopolitanism, double-consciousness, hybridity and hyphenation, tradition, modernity, race, class, gender, sexuality, the West and the non-West. Using the term diaspora both literally and as a metaphor for a variety of displacements (political, cultural, philosophical, intellectual, and aesthetic), we will be raising the following questions. What is “home” and what is a mere “location?” When does “home” become “location,” and when is location appropriated as “home?” Is there a “return to home,” or is “home” a state of mind? What are the tensions between a general theory of “diaspora” and particular experiences of the “diaspora” that take place under varying political and historical circumstances? What forms of thought and subjectivity, both individual and collective, have emerged under the aegis of “diaspora?” What is the connection between “theory” and “diaspora,” particularly in the context of intellectuality and cultural production?
Expectations and Requirements: Participation, 2 papers (Short and Long) and a Take Home Examination. |
| ASIANAM 150 | RELIGIOUS TRAD ASAM | MAZUMDAR, S. | (Same as Sociology 139) This course is an introduction to the religious traditions of Asian Americans. It examines how religious beliefs and practices affect the lives of Asian Americans. It focuses on the transplantation of religious institutions, the establishment of sacred spaces such as churches, mosques and temples, the celebration of significant religious holidays and the socialization of children into their religious identity. It also analyses the importance of religion in life cycle rites such as birth, marriage and death, and the role of religion in the structuring of gender relations and family. Students will required to do three reaction papers on the assigned readings (15% of the grade) and in-class writing assignment (15%) as well as take a midterm (30%) and a final exam (40%). |
| ASIANAM 151D | VIET AMER EXPER | PHAM, C. | (Same as Soc Sci 178D) An introduction to the study of the Vietnamese in America from the exodus of this new group of Asian American from Southeast Asia after the Vietnam War to their resettlement in the United States. Topics such as wars and revolution in Vietnam, the different waves of Vietnamese refugees, admission and resettlement, adjustment to new life, the Vietnamese community, Vietnamese American literature and poetry etc. will be discussed. Final grade will be based on a term paper, midterm, and final exam. |
| ASIANAM 151K | FILIPINO/AMER EXPER | FUJITA-RONY | (Same as History 152A/Soc Sci 178K) This course will explore the history of Filipina/o Americans in the United States with particular focus on the twentieth century. Major topics will include colonialism, labor, migration, family, and culture. Requirements will include a five-page paper, a mid-term exam, and a final exam, as well as regular participation in section. |
| ASIANAM 161 | RACIAL/ETHNIC COMMUNITIES | LIU, J. | (Same as Soc Sci 175B) This course will examine how racial and ethnic communities are formed and maintained as well as under what conditions these communities will continue to exist. While the focus is primarily on various Asian American communities, a comparison will be made with African American and Latino communities. |
| ASIANAM 162 | ASIAN AMER WOMEN | VO, L. | (Same as Soc Sci 177B/ WS 155) This course focuses on the intersection of ethnicity, race, class, gender, generation, and sexuality in the lives of Asian American women. We will analyze the historical and contemporary cultural, social, political, and economic forces that shape their life experiences in the United States and in transnational communities. In this regard, we will consider the diversity of their ethnic experiences and the commonalities of their social histories. Additionally, our focus is to discover the voices and agency of women from the various ethnic groups, in order to understand how they are critically and creatively responding with strategies of resistance, social change, and coalition-building. Students will examine conceptual frameworks that link theory to concrete individual and collective experiences. Course requirement will include a mid-term, short paper, and research project. |
| ASIANAM 190A | ASIANAM HONORS I | VO, L. | The Honors Seminar in Asian American Studies provides an opportunity for outstanding students to develop their research skills through an intensive study of a topic that is of special interest to them. This three-part seminar sequence is designed to allow undergraduates to pursue field research and complete an honors thesis on a topic of their choice under the guidance of the Department of Asian American Studies faculty members. Research projects can involve a combination of library research, historical research, literary review, cultural analysis, exploratory ethnographic interviews, participant observation, or systematic data collection. The first part of this seminar sequence will introduce students to a range of key methodological issues in Asian American Studies. Prerequisite: Students must qualify and be approved in order to be in the course. |
| ASIANAM 200A | THEORY & METHOD ASAM STUDIES | MIMURA, G. | This course examines major theoretical and methodological issues in Asian American Studies. Topics include the social construction of race and identity, the intersection with class, gender and sexuality, and qualitative approaches to research. It will also serve to introduce students to AAS faculty and their work. Prerequisite: graduate standing. |
| ASIANAM 250 | LITERATURE, THEORY, & CALL OF THE OTHER | RADHAKRISHNAN, R. | (Same as Eng 210) The purpose of this seminar is to submit the theme of Alterity and the binary epistemic regime it exemplifies to rigorous critique. The Self-Other grid as the structuring principle of human self-understanding has a long and problematic “omni-history.” Philosophers, theorists, artists, and writers have negotiated this problematic with varying degrees of success and frustration. For a variety of world-historical reasons, this theme has become urgently significant in the last few decades. Alterity has been legitimated as a major theme in a variety of discourses such as psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, ethics, nationalist, diasporan, and transnational studies. I am hoping, with your help, to bring together some of the most exciting debates about the Self-Other problematic in Theory with literary practices that have struggled with the same issue in the name of aesthetic representation, and narrative authority. In this seminar we will be elaborating the Self-Other problematic on a variety of registers: the ethical, the political, and the epistemological. What does it mean to be interpellated by the Other? What is all the fuss over the distinction between the big O and the lower case o? Is the obsession with the Self-Other binary structure the metier of the dominant discourse? What is the relationship between a purely allegorical celebration of Alterity and the historical problems of various “selves” and “others” that are situated co-evally in a world structured in dominance? How does the Self-Other theme emerge in the context of Racism, Patriarchy, Colonialism, linguistic representation, Madness, Anthropology? These are some of the questions that will resonate through the course as we dive fearlessly into Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground, Nadine Gordimer’s Burger’s Daughter, Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior in active conjunction with readings from Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mikhail Bakhtin, Edward Said, Johannes Fabian, and Martin Heidegger. |