| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|
| ASIANAM 60B | INTR ASIA AMR ST II | MIMURA, G. | (Same as Soc Sci 78B) This class will cover the major issues affecting Asian Americans in the post-World War II era, particularly in regard to race, class, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. Topics will include labor, immigration, colonialism, community formation, public policy agendas, political participation, education, and cultural production. The requirements will be a mid-term, a final exam, and participation in discussion section. |
| ASIANAM 100W | RSCH METH/FIELD RES | VO, L. | This seminar will introduce students to a range of key methodological issues in Asian American Studies. The readings are organized around questions, approaches, and critiques that will help students develop technical skills in qualitative research and analysis, as well as examine how researchers have studied the demographic transformations, economic restructuring, and political changes that shape social relations. We will gain a critical understanding of some of the theoretical, empirical, and ethical challenges posed by scholarly research in the humanities and social sciences. In addition, we will discuss "voice" which can refer to literal, direct forms of expression such as interviews, personal testimonies, and oral histories; and more broadly, as well to forms of symbolic representation such as photographs, videos, and other cultural texts. Students are required to complete a fieldwork research project, a presentation, and short writing assignments. |
| ASIANAM 115 | ASIANAM PERFOR/WRI | UYEHARA, D. | Participants will explore and create performance and narrative that responds to the Asian/Pacific American experience. Course includes ensemble and individual theater games and visual projects as well as take-home assignments. Participants are encouraged to create truthful work from their unique perspective, work that does not fall back on convenient answers to ethnicity, class, and gender issues. Grades are based on weekly presentations and discussions, assigned readings, essays, and one final presentation. A willingness to learn, regular and prompt attendance are mandatory. This is an intensive workshop, so be prepared to work hard and reap the benefits. Workshops led by performance artist and writer Denise Uyehara. |
| ASIANAM 132 | COMP MINORITY POLIT | KIM, C.J. | (Same as Pol Sci 124C/Af Am 151) This course examines the political experiences of Blacks, Latinos, and Asian Americans in the United States in a comparative light. The course reaches back to the nineteenth century, but it focuses primarily upon the postwar period (roughly 1950 to the present). Central themes include the following: How have racial formation processes shaped the definition of each racial group as a political actor and the political opportunities and constraints facing each group? What moderate and radical political agendas have been articulated by each racial group? How has each racial group pursued empowerment through conventional political channels? Through extra-systemic means? With what success? What role does panethnicity play in facilitating collective political action within each group? How do transnational or diasporic identities shape racial politics within the United States? What happens when different group struggles for empowerment intersect or collide? |
| ASIANAM 150 | ASIANAM ED & SCHOOL | STAFF | This course is designed to introduce students to the major issues facing Asian Americans in their education and schooling experiences of K-16 through the social scientific and historical perspectives. This year, the class aim to explore Asian American education issues in the context of mainstream education as well as minority education. The main objectives of the course are: to expose students to a broad literature on Asian American education and schooling experiences; to help students understand Asian American education from historical contexts; to get students familiar with the theories and methods that help students examine the current issues of the Asian American education in depth from a social scientific perspective; to help students further their knowledge of Asian American education in terms of differences of inter-group and intra-group; and to help students prepare to educate Asian American students with better understanding. |
| ASIANAM 150 | ASIANAM & POP CLT | MIMURA, G. | (Same as Comp Lit 103) Do Asian Americans have a stake in popular culture? Why and how? Since the 1960s, Asian Americans have been producing distinct and exciting popular cultures that challenge racism, create new experiences of leisure, and advance democratic values. We will examine the relationship between Asian Americans and popular culture in several areas: image culture, popular music, high and low fashions, street cultures, and shopping malls. Grading is based on the following: attendance and participation 20%, midterm 40%, and final 40%. |
| ASIANAM 150 | ETHNC FOOD&IDENTITY | CHEN,Y. | (Same as Hist 190) The course explores the significance of food for understanding social and cultural changes. It will be focused primarily on American history and society since the early 20th century but will take a global comparative perspective at the same time. Topics will include how to apply different perspectives in our effort to appreciate the most basic part of our life, food; the relationship between the nation and national cuisine; representations of food as a window through which to understand society; nutrition; myths and science about food, and development of Chinese food in America. Mid-term, a final, and a short paper. |
| ASIANAM 151J | CHINESE AMER EXPER | LIU, J. | (Same as Soc Sci 178J) This course examines the political economy of large-scale Chinese migration to the United States from the 1850s onward. Attention will focus on the patterns of Chinese migration and their ramifications for community development, economic participation, identity formation, and the articulation of racial issues within the U.S. legal/political system. The latter topic involves examining the experiences of Chinese Americans in relation to other Asian American groups and to non-Asian groups. As the course is interdisciplinary in focus, both social science/history and literary texts will be used. |
| ASIANAM 171A | COMPAR INTL MIGRAT | LIU, J. | (Same as Sociol 179) This course examines key concepts in international migration through the study of Asian immigration to Australia, Canada, and the United States, primarily after World War II. Subjects to cover include international migration theory, diasporic perspectives, demographic composition and its ramifications, and multiculturalism. |
| ASIANAM 190B | ASIANAM HONORS II | RADHAKRISHNAN, R. | In the second of the three-part honors sequence, students work closely with a Faculty Advisor on their chosen research project. Emphasis is given to the writing process. At the end of the quarter, students are to complete the first draft of their thesis. Prerequisite: Asian American Studies H190A. |
| ASIANAM 200B | CONTEMP ISS ASAM ST | VO, L. | (Same as Hist 202) This course examines the interrelations between history, theory, and race in the aftermath of the twentieth-century decolonial movements, offering an account of race through post-colonial and postnationalist approaches in comparative, multiregional contexts. It also consider the interventions made by transnational feminist and racialized queer critiques. Course requirements include active participation in seminar discussions (20%); one in-class presentation (20%); and a seminar paper (60%). Course prerequisite: graduate standing. |
| ASIANAM 201 | TRANSLATION SEMINAR | RADHAKRISHNAN | (Same as ComLit ) “Translating America to Itself” was a successful national conference organized last year at UCI by the Department of Asian American Studies. The polemical thesis behind the title was that a dominant formation such as America, before it presumes to translate itself to other cultures and languages, has to acknowledge the reality that it does not make much sense to itself. When does translation become an absolute prerequisite for intelligibility and the transmission of intelligibility? Are some realities transcendent of the labor of translation, whereas others depend on translation and translatability? What are the ontological and epistemological assumptions about Self and Other that inform any project of translation? Does any work make perfect sense to itself before its meaning becomes possible in another language? What are some of the differences between dominant and subaltern/postcolonial theories of translation? What is a literary, and what is a non-literary translation? These are some of the questions we will be pursuing in this seminar. We will be looking at the term “translation” both in a literal sense, and, as Gayatri Spivak would have it, a “concept-metaphor.” There will be room to analyze the complexities of specific projects as well to theorize “translation” more speculatively and allegorically. The course texts would be the Venuti and the Trivedi-Bassnet readers. Students are invited to bring their particular translation interests and projects that could well become part of the syllabus. The presiding ethic of the course would be, to quote from Jacques Derrida: “We only ever speak one language. We never speak just one language.” |