Fall 2011 Courses

AAS R2A: Reading and Composition (Anna Leong)

Asian American Studies R2A is a course in critical thinking and writing in which students will gain a basic introduction to contemporary issues in the work of Asian American writers.  For this semester we will focus loosely on the theme of “war.” Under what circumstances, if any, can war be justified?  How might Asian Americans stand in a unique position when evaluating America’s military engagements?  More than anything, this course is devoted to your writing, so there will be a strong emphasis on learning to identify essay topics that interest you.  You will write extensively in order to give power to your voice through the written word. You will spend a great deal of time reading and revising student work, as well as considerable attention to the mechanics of argumentative prose.  To this end, you will learn how to analyze, with care and precision, such varied forms of writing as short stories, poetry, and novels.

AAS R2B: Reading and Composition (Anna Leong)

Asian American Studies R2B is a course in critical thinking and writing in which students will gain a basic introduction to contemporary issues in the work of Ethnic American writers.  For this semester we will focus loosely on the theme of “love.”  We will address many questions that have no predetermined answers.  For example, when we look at Asian American relationships in comparison to relationships of other ethnic groups, do we find specific patterns of behavior or conflicts?  What might these conflicts reflect in terms of Asian American/Ethnic American identity?  Are they influenced by immigration, national boundaries and/or culture?  More than anything, this course is devoted to your writing, so there will be a strong emphasis on learning to identify essay topics that interest you.  You will write extensively in order to give power to your voice through the written word. You will spend a great deal of time reading and revising student work, as well as considerable attention to the mechanics of argumentative prose.  To this end, you will learn how to analyze, with care and precision, such varied forms of writing as short stories, poetry, and novels.

AAS 20A: Introduction to the History of Asians in the U.S. (Michael Omi)

Depending on the historical period in question, Asian Americans have been envisioned in the popular imagination as either an insidious social and economic threat to the white race or as a “model minority” successfully assimilating into mainstream American society. This course examines how and in what ways Asian Americans have been racially constructed, through their interactions with and within social structures and prevailing ideologies of the time. The overall goal of the course is to understand how Asian American experiences have been shaped by and have shaped the broader contours of American history. It is also hoped that students’ proficiency in social science research methods, academic writing, and analysis will be enhanced.

AAS 121: Chinese American History (Harvey Dong)

This course will examine the history of the Chinese in the U.S. from the Gold Rush period in the mid-19th century to the present, with attention to the diversity and hybridity of the Chinese American population as the result of larger influences including colonialism, war and globalization, which have helped shape the Chinese diaspora.  Finally, the course will look at how the local Chinese American population played important roles in fighting for their rights in the past and present, and how they were thereby able to change their status in society and social political conditions within the U.S. itself.

AAS 122: Japanese American History (Jere Takahashi)

AAS 124: Filipino American History (Catherine Choy)

This course examines the Filipino American experience historically in order to highlight its past and present diversity, and to illuminate significant events and topics in U.S. and Philippine history and contemporary society.  Topics include consequences of the Spanish-American War on Filipino emigration; conditions in Hawaii and California and the need for Filipino labor; community development; changing relations between the U.S. and the Philippines; effects of the independence movement and World War II on Filipino Americans; and contemporary issues.

AAS 128AC: Muslims in America (Hatem Bazian)

The course traces Islam’s journey in America, beginning with an examination of the Columbus’ arrival, then moving toward the first exclusionary acts in the new colonies directed at Muslims of West and North African descent, early arrivals in the 16th century, and finally taking a look at narratives and documents referencing African Muslim slaves. Building on this early history, we deal with the emergence of identifiable Muslim communities throughout the US and focus on patterns of migration, the ethnic makeup of such communities, gender dynamics, political identity, and cases of conversion to Islam. We spend considerable time on the African American, Indo-Pakistani, and Arab American Muslim communities, since they constitute the largest groupings. Also, the course examines in depth the emergence of national, regional, and local Muslim institutions, patterns of development pursued, and levels of cooperation or antagonism. The course seeks an examination of gender relations and dynamics across the various Muslim grouping and the internal and external factors that contribute to real and imagined crisis. The course likewise seeks to conduct and document the growth and expansion of mosques, schools, and community centers in the greater SF Bay Area. Finally, no class on Muslims in America would be complete without a critical examination of the impacts of 9/11 on the communities, the erosion of civil rights, and the on-going war on terrorism.

AAS 138: Asian Popular Culture: Gender, Sexualities, and Racialization in South Asian (Indian) Cinematic Discourses (Huma Dar)

We will explore the cinematic representations of the complex intersections and co-formations of race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, religion and nationality, class and caste, as they mesh to construct our knowledge of India: the nation with the largest film industry in the world. As an entry point into such an exploration, we will pay special attention to Urdu-Hindi films of India, commonly called Bollywood films and usually considered the “national cinema” of India, via thematically deconstructing the ambiguous and ambivalent racialized representations of the Muslim minorit(ies). Through careful readings of films, a novel, and visual and theoretical texts, we will first unpack the trope of the Muslim “tawa’if” or the courtesan/whore – a counterfoil both to the chaste and virginal normativity of the “good” Hindu woman, and to the “oppressed” Muslim woman, sheathed in burqas, and in need of “liberation” from the “hypersexualized and dangerous” Muslim man. We will interrogate the media images of the Muslim or Islamized prostitute as a locus of anxiety for the dominant discourses, as well as a convenient tool to suppress those anxieties, and contextualize the discussions with readings from history, critical feminist race & ethnic studies, and the synopses of recent events in India and Kashmir, especially considering the links to transnational Islamophobic rhetoric pre- and post 9/11. During the course of our exploration and interrogation of Bollywood films and their national and transnational reception(s), we will develop a critical framework that will also help us discuss ways in which the media representations of disempowered and marginalized ethno-racialized groups could be made more just.

AAS 141: Law in Asian American Communities (Tom Fleming)

In this class, we will seek to understand and critically analyze the law and how it affects Asian American communities.  We will examine selected legal principles in the United States Constitution as well as in state and federal statutes, and the case law interpreting such principles.  Further, we will explore racialization vis-à-vis certain legal areas such as national security, immigration, profiling, hate speech/crimes, criminal law, labor and employment, education, and affirmative action.  We will investigate not only the relationship between law and race, but also that of law and class, gender, politics and economics.

AAS 144: Religions of Asian America (Christopher Chua)

The approach of this course is interdisciplinary, and we will employ tools from the disciplines of sociology, history, and religious studies, among others, in our attempt to construct an understanding of the religions of Asian America. In addition, the approach is rooted in an ethnic-studies perspective, which foregrounds the agency of racial/ethnic communities. As we explore the varieties of Asian American religious communities, we will challenge the commonly held view of an American religious landscape dominated by white mainline Protestantism and will revisit three recurring themes related to Asian American religion in each of our units of study:  variety, imbrication in a range of social formations and social dynamics, and dynamism.

AAS 171: Asians in Film and Video (Elaine H. Kim)

Roughly chronological introduction to cinematic works by and about Asian Americans and to social and cultural issues viewers might infer from them. The first one-third or so of the course will provide opportunities to analyze Hollywood narratives about Asians and Asian Americans from the silent film era to the present, with some attention to the roles Asian Americans have played in them. The rest of the course will attempt to trace the parameters and topographies of Asian American cinema from the 1970s to the present. What stories do Asian American filmmakers tell? Why and how do they tell them? How might we become more thoughtful and perceptive visual media viewers? What would we like to see on the silver screen, and what part might we play in bringing forth these images and stories?

AAS 181: Chinese American Literature (Fae Myenne Ng)

Fathers in Chinese American Literature. We’ll read works about traditional Fathers from China and wildly non-traditional Fathers in America.  We’ll consider the forces that formed the Confucian father and explore how war and revolution transformed him.  We’ll discuss the cultural, political, and economic costs of immigration.  What traits are discarded on the cultural crossing to America? What attributes are developed to insure survival in the new land?  We’ll read about the China born Father’s struggles in raising sons and daughters and also about those that their American-born children and grandchildren face. We’ll study how writers use technique and native knowledge to redefine Fathers and familial love in literature.

AAS 190.2: Chinese Americans in Science and Technology (Ling-Chi Wang

If you are a science or engineering student or a student in Asian American Studies interested in knowing more about Chinese American contributions in science and technology in the U.S., this is the course that will help you understand and become involved in planning a national conference on the same subject. Chinese Americans are aware of their significant presence in science and engineering, but most do not know the degree of their presence in each discipline and above all, what contributions they have made toward American global preeminence in science and technology today.  This course welcomes students interested in the subject and invites their participation an ambitious project that will lead to comprehensive documentation and critical assessment of Chinese American contributions to science and technology in the U.S.  The course will also provide a historical background about how Chinese Americans came to establish their strong presence in all scientific disciplines, what have been their experiences in science and engineering, what contributions they have made, and most importantly, how their contributions can be documented and assessed.