| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|
| ASIANAM 60A | INTRODUCTION TO ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES I | LIU, J. | Same as HIST 15C, SOC SCI 78A. The course provides an interdisciplinary survey of the history, social organization, and cultural representations of Asians immigrating to the United States prior to World War II. Topics to be discussed include: early globalization, immigration patterns, the impact of Asians on the emergence of the notion of nonwhiteness in the American race relations, community development, institutionalized racism and resistance. 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 111 | PACIFIC RIM, CHINA & CHINESE AMERICA | CHEN, Y. | Same as HIST 152. The Pacific Rim is becoming a most visible and most important center of economic and socioeconomic activities of the world. This class seeks to understand the historical development of an important segment of the Pacific Rim: the growing Sino-American interactions. It will trace the roots of that development back to the 19th century so that we can better appreciate the scope of such interactions today. Topics include the following: the initial contact between China and America before the 20th century and its significance; China's struggles in trying to remain relevant in early 20th-century world affairs and in dealing with its internal problems; turning points late in the 20th century; China's current economic, political and social interactions with the United States; the implications of such interactions for individuals, especially Chinese Americans; the changing meaning of being Chinese and American. Recent discussions of the Pacific Rim have not paid adequate attention to its historical roots; they have tended to focus either on the cultural or economic aspects. In this class, we will try to combine the economic and cultural perspectives in an effort to have historically grounded understanding of this significant phenomenon. One short paper and one research paper. |
| ASIANAM 111 | ASIAN AMERICANS, THE U.S., AND WAR | FUJITA-RONY, D. | Same as HIST 152. The course will explore the history of Asian Americans through the role of militarism with a focus on the twentieth century. Topics of discussion will include U.S./Asia relations and U.S. interests in the Pacific region. We also will examine the impact of these issues on politics, culture, and the economy. Requirements will include a five-page paper, a midterm exam, a final exam, a small group project, and regular class participation. |
| ASIANAM 115 | ASIAN AMERICAN THEATRE | LEI, D. | Same as DRAMA 122. Asian American Theatre is an introduction to the history and development of Asian American theatre and drama. Besides play analysis, special attention will also be paid to the history and politics of Asian American identity and experience, as well as to aspects of theatrical performance. Active participation in class discussion is mandatory and involvement in Asian American theatre (whether as performer or as spectator) is highly encouraged. Tests, papers, performance reviews and group performance projects are all part of the requirements. |
| ASIANAM 116 | ASIAN AMERICANS AND POP CULTURE | BALANCE, C. | Same as FLM&MDA 130. This course considers popular representations of and cultural productions by Asian Pacific Americans and Asians in the Americas from the late 19th century to the present. Employing theories of cultural studies, queer/feminist studies, media studies, and performance studies, we will discuss vital ways to contextualize the presence of Asian/Pacific and Asian /Pacific Americans in U.S. popular culture. Popular culture mediums examined include: political cartoons, visual art, film/television, music, blogs/websites, performance art and theatre. |
| ASIANAM 137 | ASIAN AMERICAN LABOR | FUJITA-RONY, D. | Same as HIST 152A. This course will explore the history of Asian Americans and work from the nineteenth century to the present. Topics of discussion will include migration, colonialism, family, social organization, work culture, and activism. Requirements will include a five-page paper, a midterm exam, a final exam, a small group project, and regular class participation. |
| ASIANAM 143 | RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS OF ASIAN AMERICANS | MAZUMDAR, S. | Same as SOCIO 136, REL STD 120. 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 analyzes 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. |
| ASIANAM 151E | JAPANESE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | LIU, J. | Same as SOC SCI 178E. This course will examine the history, culture, and contemporary experiences of Japanese Americans from an interdisciplinary perspective. Specific topics to be covered include patterns of immigration, the social construction of community, acculturation and identity issues, internment, intergenerational relations, and political participation. All these discussions will take into consideration contrasts among Japanese Americans on the mainland and in Hawaii. |
| ASIANAM 151K | FILIPINO AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | BALANCE, C. | Same as SOC SCI 178K. This course looks at the history of Filipino America through the rubrics of performance and popular culture. By thinking through these forms, we will consider the politics of categories such as history, memory, and cultural citizenship and how they are utilized in and by historical and contemporary cultural productions. This course focuses on three major themes within Filipino/Filipino American history: empire/war, labor/migration, and culture/imaginaries. Equal attention will be paid to cultural forms, artists, and aesthetics developed in the Philippines and the United States as an ongoing exchange. Popular culture mediums to be discussed include: theatre, dance, popular music, blogs/websites, and everyday performance. |
| ASIANAM 164 | TRANSNATIONALISM: RACE, GENDER, SEXUALITY | RADHAKRISHNAN, R. | (Same as ENG 105) The purpose of this theory driven seminar is to lay bare the semantics of the prefix, “trans.” How is transnationalism different from multi-nationalism and inter-nationalism? Are there elite transnationalisms and subaltern transnationalisms? Is nationalism transcended or naturalized through transnationalism? What are the relationships among transnationalism, globalization, cosmopolitanism and diasporas? Who are the peoples of transnationalism and who are its heads of state? How is cultural transnationalism related to political and economic transnationalisms? How does transnationalism rearticulate the relationship between people and place, space and place, place and location, living and telling, knowing and acting, being and thinking? How are race, gender, and sexuality re-territorialized by the discourse of transnationalism? We will be paying particular attention to the concept of “scattered hegemonies” as developed by postmodern feminists in their complex endeavors to conceptualize transnationalism in conjunction with the emancipatory performances of gender and sexuality. We will also be focusing on the powerful contributions made by ethnic and critical race theorists to our understanding of the formation of contemporary subjectivity. Theories of space-articulations of location and subject-positionality, “post-ality”: how do these discourses function conjuncturally in the production of the “transnational being?” Is transnationalism an ideology; and if so, what sorts of political practices does it enable? Who are its subjects and agents? Who are the “we” under transnationalism?
These are the questions that constitute our agenda as we traverse a wide range of interdisciplinary readings drawn from feminist theories, theories of gender and sexuality, postmodernism-poststructuralism-postmarxism-and-postcoloniality, cultural studies, political theory, literature, and psychoanalysis. |
| ASIANAM 290 | DIRECTED RESEARCH | MIMURA, G. | |
| ASIANAM 290 | DIRECTED RESEARCH | FUJITA-RONY, D. | |