| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|
| ASIANAM 60C | INT ASIA AMR ST III | LEE, J. | Same as SOC SCI 78C. Take a cursory glance at recent critical work on Asian American Studies, and you’ll notice immediately how often the term “Asian America” appears, as if such a formation actually exists. Less a claim to take actual territory from the United States than a broad appeal to grant Asians a place at the American table of citizenship and national belonging, the literature of Asian Americans can be productively read alongside persistent yet often divergent, even contested, visions of Asian America. This course is designed to trace one such trajectory in the creation and recreation of Asian America through literature. Paying special attention to the political, economic, and social constraints during the time of their production and reception, we will examine how Asian American literary work both reflected and transformed the social protocols of their day, and in doing so helped to reimagine what it means to be “Asian,” or “American,” and everything else in between. Writers may include Edith Eaton (Sui Sin Far), Carlos Bulosan, John Okada, Maxine Hong Kingston, Chang-rae Lee, Jhumpa Lahiri and Nina Revoyr.
Students will be evaluated through weekly assignments in discussion section, a midterm and a final exam. |
| ASIANAM 110 | FILIPINA/O AMER LIT | FUJITA-RONY, D. | This class will introduce students to the field of Filipina/o American literature through examining personal narratives, fiction, poetry, and other forms of literary expression. Themes will include nationalism, migration, community, and family. Requirements will include a 5-page paper, midterm, final, and active class participation. |
| ASIANAM 117 | SEXLTY ASAM FLM&VID | SHROFF, B. | This course analyzes sexuality and gender roles in specific social, historical and political contexts represented in selected Asian and Asian American films and videos. We will examine how patriarchy polices borders and boundaries of feminine and masculine constructions especially in the context of colonialism and nationalism. Different representations of male, female, lesbian and gay sexuality as depicted in selected films and readings explore how the body becomes a contested terrain for various manifestations of desire. Our study will also include an analysis of various sexual and social roles and definitions such as daughter, son, wife, mother and issues of gay parenting. |
| ASIANAM 132 | COMP MINORITY POLIT | AHMED, Z | This course examines the political experiences of African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans in the United States from roughly 1950 to the present. We focus on how each group has pursued political empowerment via both conventional channels and social movements. |
| ASIANAM 150 | ASAM WMN HEALTH III | TRIEU, S. | This is the final installment of a 3-quarter course that provides intensive training in social science research methods within the context of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) women and public health. Students will continue to learn about API women’s health issues both locally and nationally. Students use research findings as a foundation to develop campus and community projects and campaigns. Students are expected to share project strategies and findings with students, family members, community-based organizations, policymakers, funders and governmental entities. This is done through presentations, fact sheets, educational forums and other methods that students identify at local, statewide or national venues. Lastly, students will have an opportunity to work in groups on preparing a manuscript to be submitted to a peer-review journal. |
| ASIANAM 151C | KOREAN AMER EXPER | CHO, J. | We will investigate the question how do Korean Americans affect the world, and how does the world influence Korean Americans? Our study will look at transnational factors that compel Korean Americans to work in global, local, material, and imagining arenas of the Korean “nation.” The first half of the course introduces ethnographic research, studies of pre-immigration racial identity, history of U.S.-Korea relations, and issues of religion, gender, and family, in connection to our core reading on Korean American students in the university. The second half examines contemporary racial formation, political organizing, adoptee social movements, and imagining the future of Korean American community through emerging cultures.
Class meetings will primarily be dedicated to discussion and small group work, with occasional screenings and guest speakers. |
| ASIANAM 151D | VIET AMER EXPER | DANG, T | This course examines Vietnamese American identities and communities through a sustained critique of United States imperialism and analysis of the wars in Southeast Asia that spurned the mass migration of over1 million Vietnamese to America since the 1970s. Drawing from interdisciplinary scholarly research, literary works and visual media, this course aims to equip students with a critical and transnational framework for engaging Vietnamese American experiences. Foregrounding war and imperialism as primary catalysts for their migration to the US, we will explore how Vietnamese Americans have been made subject to US racial formation before and after their arrival in the US. Most importantly, we seek to understand how they craft their own lives through their memories of the homeland as well as their struggles to belong in America. Karin Aguilar-San Juan has suggested that Vietnamese American community formations historically stand at odds with Asian America because of the refugee status that forbids an explicit critique of the US nation-state, accounting for the higher levels of political conservatism in Vietnamese America than in the generally more liberal Asian America. We will explore the nuances of community politics in order to seek new strategies for forging productive alliances |
| ASIANAM 167 | ASAM & AFAM RELATNS | FUJITA-RONY, D. | Same as AFAM 117, HISTORY 152. This course will explore the comparative and often connected history of Asian Americans and African Americans in the United States, with particular emphasis on the contemporary era. Themes will include labor, community formation, political mobilization, and cultural expression. Requirements will be a 5-page paper, midterm, final exam, and engaged class participation. |
| ASIANAM 200B | CONTEMP ISS ASAM ST | BALANCE, C. | This seminar examines the concept of “Asian American” as a form of cultural critique. We investigate the ways that always-already domestic and transnational features of Asian America—emerging in the late 1960s at the crossroads of anti-war and civil rights movements—challenge prevalent models of citizenship and racialized belonging. Reading texts from Asian American cultural studies, we focus on how literary works, legal discourse, and performances (both staged and everyday) alternatively trace histories of U.S. war and empire in Asia. Course requirements include active participation in class discussion, bi-weekly reading responses, in-class presentations, and a final paper. |
| ASIANAM 201 | MULTICULTURALISM | KIM, C. | This course examines the rise of multiculturalist discourse in the U.S. as well as the varied responses that it has provoked from critics in different positions on the political spectrum. The course focuses on the following questions: Who has asserted multiculturalist claims and why? What is the proper relationship between racial/ethnic/religious/cultural minorities and the majority in American society? Should group differences be minimized, tolerated, or promoted in a liberal democracy? Does equal treatment entail treating different groups differently or subjecting them to identical treatment? What is the relationship between cultural difference and other forms of difference (racial, ethnic, gender, religious, species)? How have cultural claims been used and misused in struggles between dominant and subordinate groups? Is multiculturalism an appropriate and effective tool for fighting racism? Is multiculturalism a strategy for achieving social change, a social control strategy for managing diversity, or a justifying cover for oppressive traditional practices? What does multiculturalism mean in the post-9/11 era? |
| ASIANAM 290 | DIRECTED RESEARCH | BALANCE, C | |
| ASIANAM 290 | DIRECTED RESEARCH | FUJITA-RONY, D | |