ASIANAM Course Descriptions for 2016-2017

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Spring Course Descriptions
CourseTitleInstructorDescription
ASIANAM 53ASAM &COMP RACE RELKIM, C.Analyzes the Asian American experience in comparative perspective, which includes comparisons of different ethnic and racial groups, and across gender and class. Possible topics include labor, economy, politics, migration, nation, popular culture, gender, family, sexuality, and multiraciality.
ASIANAM 54ASAM STORIESLEE, J.Examines stories from Asian American communities through literary texts and other media. Selected themes may include the following: dislocation/relocation, finding/inventing a usable past, poetics/politics in language, identities/ethnicities.
ASIANAM 111PAC RIM: CHINA&AMECHEN, Y.Introduction to important themes in the history of people of Asian ancestry in the United States from the nineteenth century to the present.
ASIANAM 114ASNAM DOCUMTRY PRACCHO, J.Topics include histories of Asian American film and video, including documentaries, experimental, short subjects, feature-length independent film, and other forms of cinematic expression. Explores issues of identity (national, racial, gendered, among others).
ASIANAM 143RELIGIOUS TRAD ASAMMAZUMDAR, S.Studies the religious traditions of Asian Americans, focusing on the transplantation of religious institutions, establishment of sacred spaces, celebration of religious holidays, socialization of children, as well as birth, marriage, gender relations, death, family.
ASIANAM 150AMERCN WAY OF EATNGCHEN, Y.Analyzes a variety of themes in Asian American Studies—identity, history, culture—from various interdisciplinary perspectives in humanities, arts, social sciences.
ASIANAM 150BOLLYWOOD FILMSHROFF, B.This course examines how the global reach of popular Hindi-language cinema of India referred to as Bollywood film creates new representations of nationalism and national narratives. Increasing travel, changing modes of life and material expansion even within India and within the Indian diasporas have generated transnational and international movements of people, media and commodities and Bollywood is a major player in these movements and markets.

The masculinist space of nation as represented in older films is transformed as gender and sexuality intersect with social categories of class and particularly caste and religion. As an increasingly transnational and global product,  Bollywood’s glittering, glitzy dance and song routines reconstruct femininity and masculinity, gender and sexuality, and family identities in ways that attempt to challenge patriarchal,  and nationalist discourses. Selected films include The Lover Wins the Bride, Monsoon Wedding and My Name Is Khan.


ASIANAM 151CKOREAN AMER EXPERCHO, J.Explores the factors that have distinctly shaped the Korean American experience, including patterns of racial domination, the profile of immigrant flow, immigrant roles in the urban political economy, politics in Korea, and the role of the church.
ASIANAM 151DVIET AMER STUDIESLE-HUYNH, N.This course will explore the major issues affecting Vietnamese Americans in the United States. The seminar covers a wide range of topics starting with the Vietnam War to refugee migration to acculturation issues. Contemporary subjects for discussion include the challenges of transnational marriage, mixed-race identity and political representations.  Students will be expected to develop their critical thinking skills not only by learning about specific issues but also by making important connections among them. 

The scholarship on Vietnamese American community is rather limited, so more needs to be recorded and documented about their history.  Toward this end, a major component of this course is an oral history each student will complete with a Vietnamese American elder.  Students are trained in oral history methodology and will conduct and process (transcribe, translate, and index) one oral history interview to donate to Viet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History Project, which will be archived in the UCI Libraries Orange County & Southeast Asian Archive Center.
ASIANAM 163POL ASAM WMNS FILMSHROFF, B.This course analyzes the work of selected Asian American films and videos made by women. We explore the politics and poetry of each filmmaker’s vision, through diverse genres such as documentary, personal essay, experimental and feature films. The films expand boundaries of the nation and assert spaces of cultural and dissenting citizenship through the film medium, as they address the interconnected issues of history, memory, race, gender, sexuality and the negotiation of hybrid identities. Selected films include work by Renee Tajima, Emiko Omori, Debbie Lum, and Nisha Ganatra among others.
ASIANAM 168ANIMAL RIGHTSKIM, C.Examines animal rights/welfare movement’s efforts to transform moral, practical, and legal standing of nonhuman animals in contemporary U.S. Explores intersection of racism, sexism, and speciesism informed by theories of race and ethnicity, including Asian American Studies.
ASIANAM 200BCONTEMP ISS ASAM STLEE, J.
ASIANAM 200CCOMMUNITY LEADERSHIP & SOCIAL CHANGEBALANCE, C.Asian American Studies (AAS) 200C: Community Leadership & Social Change

This course will introduce students to models of community-engaged learning and leadership that are central to the field of Asian American Studies. The course assignments, lectures, discussions, and guest speakers are designed to expose students to the histories of social movements and organizing in Asian American Pacific Islander communities; community-based organizing models; contemporary community issues; and Southern California-based non-profit organizations, including organizations designed to preserve and present the history and culture of Asian American Pacific Islanders. The readings, drawn from academic research, journalistic reports, policy-oriented studies, and websites, will presents students with a variety of research approaches and presentation models.  At the end of the course, students will develop an action plan for a proposed community-based research project.
ASIANAM 290DIRECTED RESEARCHBALANCE, C.
ASIANAM 290DIRECTED RESEARCHFUJITA-RONY, D.
ASIANAM 290DIRECTED RESEARCHKIM, C.
ASIANAM 290DIRECTED RESEARCHLEE, J.
ASIANAM 290DIRECTED RESEARCHVO, L.
ASIANAM 290DIRECTED RESEARCHLEE, J.
ASIANAM 290DIRECTED RESEARCHWU, J.