Class Syllabus

Sept 4 Introduction to course
  Chan: Asian Americans (8-9)
Sept 6 Section: Color of Fear
   
Sept 11 Who are Asian Americans? How has race been constructed?
 
Sept 13 Section
   
Sept 18 History of Migration, Diaspora, and Labor -GUEST-
  FILM: Ancestors in the Americas
 
  • Shukla, "New Immigrants, New Forms"
  • Chan, Asian Americans (1-2)
  • Okihiro, Margins and Mainstreams (1)
  • Wong, "Denationalization Reconsidered"
  • Louie, "Chineseness Across Borders"
  • Sassen, "Economic Internationalization: The New Migration in Japan"
Sept 20 Section
   
Sept 25 Settlers, Communities, and Ideas of Nationhood
  GUEST: Fay Chew Matsuda
  FILMS: Sewing Woman, Chinatown
 
  • Chan, Asian Americans (4-5)
  • Balibar and Wallerstein, Race, Nation, and Class excerpt
  • Kwong, Forbidden Workers excerpt
  • Gamalindo, Flippin Filipino excerpts
  • Anderson, “Cultural Hegemony”
  • Miriam Ching Louie, Immigrant Asian Women in Bay Area Garment Sweatshops: "After Sewing, Laundry, Cleaning and Cooking, I Have No Breath Left to Sing"
Sept 20 Field trip: Chinatown. Urban settlements, creation of urban spaces.
   
Oct 2 Historical significance of Asians in America; Education and Race, Roots of Asian American Studies as a Discipline -GUEST-
  FILM: Honk if you love Buddha
 
  • Okihiro, Margins and Mainstreams (4-6)
  • Murase, "Ethnic Studies"
  • "Opening the American Mind"
  • Espiritu, Asian American Women and Men (1)
Oct 4 Section
   
Oct 9 Asian American Identity
  GUEST: Gene Awakuni
  FILM: Chan is Missing
 
  • Espiritu, Asian American Women and Men (5-6)
  • "Lost & Found"; "Chan is Missing" articles
Oct 11 Section: Identities and Taboos within Asian America/Return to Grace*
   
Oct 16 Recentering Women GUEST: Meena Alexander
  FILMS: Slaying the Dragon, Miss India Georgia
 
  • Chan, Asian Americans (6)
  • Alexander, Shock of Arrival excerpt
  • "Asian Guys on a Roll"
  • Okihiro, Margins and Mainstreams, (3)
  • This Bridge Called My Back excerpts
  • Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?"
Oct 18 Section
   
Oct 23 Sexuality -GUEST-
  GUESTS: Calvin Chin and Janet Kim
  FILMS: Out in Silence & Not A Simple Story
 
  • Takagi, "Maiden Voyage"
  • Ting, "Power of Sexuality"
  • Shah, "Sexuality, identity, and the uses of history"
  • Han, "Asian American Gay Men's (dis)Claim on Masculinity" ®
Oct 25 Section: M Butterfly (and accompanying critical readings)
 
  • Kondo, "M Butterfly"
  • Loo, "M Butterfly"
  • Chang, "M Butterfly"
   
Oct 26
FIRST PAPER DUE
   
Oct 30 Multiracial America and cultural boundaries
GUEST: John Torok Hayakawa
  FILMS: Mixed Feelings, Searching for Go-hyang, Passing Through* (Korean)
 
  • Nakashima, "An Invisible Monster"
  • Weisman, "The Tiger and His Stripes"
  • Williams-Leon, "Convergence of Passing Zones"
  • "Asian Women, Caucasian Men"
Nov 1 Section: Families and Dating. Kelly Loves Tony* (Laotian)
   
Nov 6
BREAK
   
Nov 8 Anti-Asianism, Violence, and Conflict
  GUEST from Asian American Legal Defense Fund
  FILM: Sa-i-gu
 
  • Elaine Kim, "Home is Where the Han Is"
  • Omi & Winant, "LA Race Riot"
  • "National Audit on Anti-Asian Violence"
  • Vincent Chin readings
Nov 13 Section: Historical continuity, 19th c. roots; relationship between economic and cultural conflict
   
Nov 15 Popular Culture GUEST: Sunaina Maira
  FILMS: Bhangra Wrap*
 
  • Maira, “Henna and Hip Hop”
  • Mukhi, Sunita Sunder, Doing the Desi thing: performing Indianness in New York City excerpt
  • Tricia Rose, “Style Nobody Can Deal With: Politics, Style, and the Postindustrial City in Hip Hop”
  • Lee, Yellowface excerpt
Nov 20 Section: GUEST: Henry Tang
   
Nov 22
BREAK
   
Nov 27 Model Minorities, Professionalization of Asian America, the second wave of Asian Immigration
  GUEST: Indofunk
  FILMS: a.k.a. Don Bonus
 
  • Okihiro, Margins and Mainstreams (2)
  • Espiritu, Asian American Women and Men (4)
  • Wang, “Race, Class, Citizenship, and Extraterritoriality”
  • “American Attitudes Towards Chinese Americans”
  • Wen Ho Lee readings
  • Findings of Committee of 100
Nov 29 Section
   
Dec 4 Asian American activism, political involvement
  GUEST: Eric Tang, Eating Welfare
 
  • Eating Welfare readings
  • Takeda, "One Year After the Sit-In"
  • Lowe, "Power of Culture"
Dec 5 Poetry slam, final readings (Friends invited to come listen!)
   
Dec 6 GUEST: LinYee Yuan, SPEaK
   
Dec 11
FINAL PAPER DUE