| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
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| ASIANAM 60B | INTRO TO ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES II | PAN, A. | 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 101 | GLOBAL DIASPORA & RACE | RADHAKRISHNAN, R. | Same as Soc Sci 177A. We are living in an age of intensive globalization and the diasporic movements of people. Thanks to technology the “global village” has become a reality. The near and the far have imploded into one another. A new global economy dependent on flexible capital has redefined the parameters of global labor and commodity production. The ideology of free trade seems to have transcended the sovereignty of nations and nation states. We now have multinational and transnational corporations that rely on outsourcing as the most profitable mode of production. But even as globalization is taking place as if it were a fait accompli (a done deal), there is furious resistance to globalizations from many perspectives. There is the suspicion that globalization is increasing the gap between rich and poor. In addition, there are gross disjunctures among the economic, the political, and the cultural versions of globalization. Despite the so-called tearing down of walls and boundaries in the name of a global worldliness, the policing of borders continues unabated; and racism and ethnocentrism and xenophobia are on the increase. Globalization seems to work on behalf of the interests of the developed nations and at the expense of the developing nations who are condemned to play a chronic game of catch-up.
The diasporic movement of people across the globe presents a parallel picture. As a result of movements, the very definition of home is changing rapidly as immigrant populations renegotiate the relationship between their original homes and their present locations. As they become citizens in their new locale, they are also subjected to racialization, minoritization, and cultural alienation. Issues such as multiculturalism, multilingualism, ethnic hyphenation, fusion and hybridity, assimilation and naturalization, identity politics, loss of authenticity, and the politics of representation take on a very special charge in the context of the diaspora. Just as in the context of globalization, here too, disjunctures and discontinuities play a crucial role as diasporic populations attempt to reconcile the history of their past with the history of their present. As they endeavor to translate their displacement into an emerging sense of belonging, diasporic subjects reconceptualize the relationship between individuality and collectivity, between the personal and the political, between the private and the public.
This objective of this course is to understand and analyze “globalization” “racialization,” and “diaspora” with reference to one other. The course package will consist of a variety of readings drawn from sociology, cultural studies, critical/literary theory, critical race theory, and political economy.
Format: Lecture and discussion sections with the TA. 1 take home exam, 1 short paper and 1 long paper.
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| ASIANAM 110 | HOME & AWAY CULTURE/LITERATURE | RADHAKRISHNAN, R. | Same as AfAm 118 and Com Lit 108. Is home a literal place, a territory, a state of mind? What does it mean to be “at home,” and how does such a feeling of security relate to “being at home in the world?” How do Home and the World replicate each other; or, do they? Is home a sovereign and normative space, or is it a space of non-discriminating, ever inclusive belonging? Can some one’s home become some other’s exile? Can home be the function of a regime such as Nationalism? What is the relationship between having a home and enjoying the privileges of citizenship? How do race, gender, immigration, ethnicity, and sexuality determine what is home and what is exile? What happens when one leaves one’s home and lives elsewhere? Can there be divided homes characterized by “double consciousness?” During these times of intensive diasporas, movements of peoples-goods-and ideas across boundaries and borders, how does home become a mere location, and location acquire the significance of home? Is a home more natural than a mere location? Are homes natural or are they imagined constructs? With these questions in mind, we will be analyzing a number of texts, some fictional and some theoretical, as they traverse home and away in an infinite series of arrivals and departures. Format: A combination of lectures, discussions, and class presentations. 1 take home examination, 1 short paper, and 1 long paper. Texts: Theorizing Diaspora, Ed. Anita Mannur, Salman Rushdie’s Imaginary Homelands, Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines, and Nadine Gordimer’s Burger’s Daughter. |
| ASIANAM 110 | LITERATURE OF SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORA | SHROFF, B. | Same as ComLit 108 and English 105. In this class we analyze the work of writers who are of South Asian ancestry living in North America and Britain. A central concern is how through literary and cinematic representations, spaces of “home” and “belonging” are negotiated through narratives of disjunctures and displacements. How do the literary and cinematic texts represent multiple and contradictorily organized spaces where new identities must be negotiated? How do writers and filmmakers construct and negotiate their identities in their own specific cultural context and also in the larger diasporic context? We analyze texts such as Jhumpa Lahiri's short stories The Interpreter of Maladies, Hanif Kureishi's screenplay My Beautiful Laundrette, and Agha Shahid Ali's poems The Half Inch Himalayas, among others. |
| ASIANAM 112 | CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICAN ART | CHIN DAVIDSON, J. | Same as Art Hum 101, ArtStu 100, and ArtHis 163. This course examines the development of Asian American artistic practice from the 1970s era of multiculturalism into the current era of globalist perspectives. Through a survey of visual images which includes historical representations of popular-media concepts of “Asia” in the United States, we will discuss the critical debates associated with the cultural category in order to provide the framework for looking closely at the important ways in which Asian artists have contributed to various genres and movements in American visual culture. The use of the Asian American rubric in the visual arts coincided with the growth of the multicultural category during the 1980s, and one of the primary questions we will address regards how artists serve as representatives of culture/nation and the polemics of this expectation. Readings will include an exploration of how Modern art was first classified as distinct from non-western cultural production, which is key to understanding the ongoing definitions for art and expression in the U.S. today. In addition to focusing on particular artists, artistic strategies, and social and political practices, an analysis of the emergence of global biennale exhibitions and the major Asia-Pacific exhibitions of the late twentieth century completes the inquiry of this course. Seminars revolve around slide presentations and analysis of images in relation to key texts. Course grading will be based on an assigned midterm in-class contribution and a final project. |
| ASIANAM 114 | RACE, PERFORMANCE, DISPLAY | MIMURA, G. | Same as Flm&Mda 190. How have racial categories and ideologies been constructed through performance and display in the United States and other sites? This course considers racial formation through popular performances such as world's fairs, minstrelsy, film, fashion and political protests. Nineteenth-century colonial exhibits like museums and ethnographic entertainment contributed to the formation and commodification of culture. However, we will pay particular attention to how racialized subjects use performance and display to challenge dominant ideologies of racial and cultural difference and engage in forms of social and political mobilization. Screenings include counter-ethnographic films by Coco Fusco, Marlon Riggs and Marlon Fuentes; _Dave Chappelle's Block Party_; _Flower Drum Song_; and clips from _Da Ali G Show_, _24_ and other TV shows. Required readings include three books: James Luna's _Emendatio_(Smithsonian 2006), John Leland's _Hip: The History_ (Harper 2005) and Steve Grody, _Graffitti LA: Street Styles and Art_ (Abrams 2007); as well as articles available via eReserves. |
| ASIANAM 114 | ASIAN AM LITERATURE / FILM ADAPTATIONS | SHROFF, B. | Same as ArtsHum 101, ComLit 143, and English 105. This course analyzes the historical context within which Asian American texts have been adapted into films. There is a vast body of Asian American Literature but very few texts have been adapted to cinema since issues of audience and market are primary considerations. A historical context demonstrates how representations of Asian Americans have changed from the stereotypical images in the 1920s to self-representations by Asian American writers and filmmakers in contemporary times. We analyze different literary genres such as novels and dramas and short stories, for example Jhumpa Lahiri's novel, The Namesake Le Ly Hayslip's memoir When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, David Henry Hwang's drama, M. Butterfly and Philip Kan Gotanda's drama, The Wash. Cinematic adaptations/versions of literary texts sometimes retitle and reconstruct texts as suitable for a mass audience such as Heaven and Earth directed by Oliver Stone, and others such as Hot Summer Winds directed by Emiko Omori based on two Hisaye Yamamoto short stories, Seventeen Syllables and Yoneko's Earthquake. We employ literary and film theory in reading the novels and plays to analyze language, structure, characterization and historical representation. We also discuss how the literary form translates into a visual medium, and the modifications of story/plot and characterization for the screen--for instance, how dramas lend themselves to screen adaptation more easily than do novels. We interrogate the strengths of each medium such as the scope of the fictional framework, and the spatio-temporal capabilities of the cinematic medium. |
| ASIANAM 115 | CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICAN DRAMA | LU, J. | Same as Drama 123. This course examines several post-1960 dramatic and performance works created by Asian American artists, such as, Phillip Kan Gotanda, David Henry Hwang, Naomi Iizuka, Ginu Kamani, Ralph Peña, and Lan Tran, taking into account the historical and cultural contexts in which these productions emerged. We will look at how these different artists attempt to represent themselves and their experiences with dignity, how they preserve old traditions and create new ones, and at how these practices reflect different aspects of the relationships between the United States and various Asian countries, and between different ethnic groups in the U.S. This course will require you to write two short papers, and also includes a field trip to see Voices From Okinawa at East West Players, and the opportunity to do a dramatic performance if you wish. |
| ASIANAM 150 | FOOD AND IDENTITY | CHEN, Y. | Same as Hist 190. The course uses food as a vehicle for understanding changes in both the U.S. since the early twentieth century and ethnic/immigrant communities and individuals. While trying to measure the transformation of the nation, we will take a look at the issues under discussion from both global and local perspectives. In so doing, we will take a close look at individual cuisines and communities, such as Chinese Americans and their culinary traditions. We will also investigate the impact of ethnic food on ethnicity. Topics will include the following: national and individual identity, cultural authenticity, social memory; perceptions/representations of food in the public sphere; food activities in the private sphere; myths and science about food; consumption patterns and volumes; and research methodological issues. A research paper; small projects. |
| 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 161 | RACIAL/ETHNIC COMMUNITIES | LIU, J. | Same as Soc Sci 175B. This course will examine different conceptions of how racial and ethnic communities are formed and maintained as well as the conditions that enable these communities to continue to exist. Contemporary Chinese, Korean, South Asian, and Khmer communities will be looked at to determine the applicability of these varying conceptions. Although the focus
is primarily on various Asian American communities, comparison to African American and Latino communities will be made when appropriate.
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| ASIANAM 164 | ASIAN AM COMP RACIAL | HUYNH, TU. | Same as Soc Sci 179. The aim of this class is to work towards a more nuanced understanding of how “races” and racial identities were formed and re-structured as integral parts of the development of the modern world system. Using material from various academic disciplines, we will begin from a global historical perspective and interrogate common assumptions that underpin theories of, but also form the link between, “races.” We will then examine the different articulations of racial identities in time and space, taking into consideration issues of power, development, and resistance. |
| ASIANAM 200B | CONTEMP ISS ASAM ST | VO, L. | |
| ASIANAM 290 | DIRECTED RESEARCH | MIMURA, G. | |
| ASIANAM 290 | DIRECTED RESEARCH | FUJITA-RONY, D. | |