Course Descriptions

Nostalgic images of the nuclear family in the United States present us with the picture of a father, mother, and biologically conceived son and daughter all living in a single family home. As a social institution, the family has experienced many changes in contemporary U.S. society. This course is designed as an introduction to alternative family systems in the United States contextualized in a Post-WWII framework. Asian Americans will serve as our central focus to survey the development of alternative families. The course addresses the historic, more traditional forms of Asian immigration and quickly moves into the ways globalization, transnationalism, imperialism/occupation, mixed race, modern reproductive technologies, and transracial adoptions complicate our understanding of the contemporary family. Examples include transnational Filipino families and caregivers, surrogate motherhood, and South Korean adoption beginning in the Cold War stretching to more contemporary practices in China. This course will incorporate interdisciplinary texts, media sources, and documentary films. A major topic of this course will be to analyze how issues of race and ethnicity inform identity. Additionally, we will explore the ways family formation is situated in history, politics, military engagements, and imperialism. Throughout the course we will also investigate how gender, kinship, and transnationalism intersect and shape our understanding of transracial and transnational families. Many people have different experiences with family formation and this course will examine them through an analytical and critical lens.Throughout the semester this course raises many questions. Examples include but are not limited to: What does it mean to be an immigrant? How are family structures complicated by larger global issues? How does transracial adoption change our understanding of what it means to be “American” or “Asian America?” This class provides a space to examine questions, interpret materials, exchange ideas, and gain an increased understanding of contemporary alternative family formation.

With the emergence of food studies as an academic discipline, it has become clear that food is not just an essential ingredient of human survival, it is fundamental to culture, human imagination and creative-aesthetic expression. Food is not just a private concern or a matter of personal taste, it has always been and continues to be a site of social power. This is especially true for Asian Americans. On the one hand, food has been used to racialize and stereotype Asian-Americans. On the other hand, food has become one of the most important cultural threads of Asian American literature, films and other popular cultural forms, and has gained increasing visibility in the mainstream publishing market and media in recent years. Most students have come across Asian food cultures within the cultural and culinary cultures of the United States. This class will enable them to understand that process and how that contributes to a diverse national food culture by examining cultural texts that deal explicitly with food and its relationship to cultural identities and social formations. All the readings for this class are devoted to the interactions between Asian-Americans with the dominant society through food and how such interactions contribute to complex social identities.

This course will serve as an introduction to American politics and critical race theory, with a focus on the Asian American community. Against the backdrop of the 2012 presidential election, students will gain an understanding of the American political process, and the historic and contemporary role of Asian Americans within that process. We will explore whether and how factors such as race, religion, transnationalism and socio-economic and immigration status affect political participation.

For Asian American studies majors only. Supervised, student-derived research in Asian American studies. May be repeated for credit when the research projects vary.

Prerequisite: Rhetoric and Writing 306 and consent of the director of the Center for Asian American Studies.

Restricted enrollment; contact the department for permission to register for this class.

Instructor:  Lee, J            Areas:  V / G

Unique #:  35655            Flags:  Cultural Diversity, Writing,

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  AAS 320            Computer Instruction:  n/a

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: This course examines the memoir as a narrative of personal and community identity. We will read and discuss literary and nonfiction texts that encompass a wide range of Asian American experiences that deal with issues of race, gender, sexuality, class, immigration, foodways, geographical location, and national belonging. The relationship between memory and narrative will be the focus of the course, and some of the questions we will attempt to answer are: how particular is the experience of this author and can it be applied to other Asian American communities/individuals? What kinds of memories or events are often included in Asian American memoirs? Why are certain episodes selected for inclusion in a memoir and others not?

Texts: (potential reading list) May-lee Chai, Hapa Girl; Edith Eaton, “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of a Eurasian”; Jane Furiya, Bento Box in the Heartland; Bich Nguyen, Stealing Buddha’s Dinner; Eric Liu, The Accidental Asian; Jade Snow Wong, Fifth Chinese Daughter; Mitsuye Yamada, Camp Notes and Other Poems.

Requirements & Grading: Essay #1: 15%; Essay #2: 15%; Revision of Essay #1 or #2: averaged into original grade; Essay #3: 20%; Essay #4: 25%; Class participation: 10%; Weekly writing quizzes: 15%.

Cross listed with J349T/RTF 331

Course Description

What are social media doing to us? And we to them? Drawing on literatures from media studies, sociology, communication, and management, this course invites students to engage in critical analysis of the causes, patterns, and consequences of using social media in a global context. Building on cases from diverse cultures and nations, the course provides a rich comparative perspective. The course has three components.

*We start with major debates on the role of communication and media technologies in network society, globalization, and transnationalism.

* In the second part, we focus on how macro social forces and institutions such as state and market shape the development of social media and other new communication technologies. We explore how social inequalities and cultural differences affect digital divides.

* In the third part, we investigate how social media and other new technologies have facilitated changes in politics, organizations, networks, as well as media and culture.

Grading

Class Participation 20% (includes mini assignmnet, 10%  and class presentation 10%)

Research practices 30%

Final Project 50% (includes proposal 10%, presentation 20%  and final paper 20%))

Instructor:  Shingavi, S            Areas:  V / G

Unique #:  35550            Flags:  Global cultures

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  AAS 320, ANS 361, ISL 372            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: This class will consider how fiction from the post-9/11 era (widely called the “Global War on Terror”) has produced a particular vision of Islam and Muslims that both reproduces and challenges the ideology of Islamophobia and refines and critiques prior understandings of Muslims. We will be interested in thinking about the deployment of Islam in political rhetoric; depictions of Islam and Muslims in popular culture; debates about Islam that have entered national life in the US; and novelistic representations of Islam over the last decade.  We will be particularly interested in understanding how ideas about religion intersect but do not overlap with ideas about race, and how the question of opportunities for Muslim women has become a contemporary preoccupation.

Texts: Readings will include: Edward Said’s Covering Islam; Junaid Rana’s Terrifying Muslims; Fawzia Afzal-Khan; John Updike; Martin Amis; Mohsin Hamid.

Requirements & Grading: Midterm exam – 25%; Final exam – 30%; Course blog (250 words weekly) – 15%; Short research essays (4, 2 pages each) – 20%; Participation – 10%.

Description

This interdisciplinary course explores the histories, cultures, and experiences of im/migration to the U.S. by examining cultural productions (literary and visual narratives and texts) alongside legal discourses (legislation, federal court cases, legal scholarship) and historical analyses.  Informed by critical race theory, ethnic studies, and cultural studies scholarship, we will pay particular attention to the tensions between the legal discourses and practices that seek to regulate and manage im/migrants and the cultural productions that expose and articulate the limits and contradictions of the law.  Some questions we will consider through the semester include: What are defining encounters that have shaped im/migrant lives and cultures?  How do cultural studies inform our understanding of what it means to be an im/migrant under U.S. law?  How have im/migrants challenged notions of U.S. nationhood and legal regimes? 

We will begin by considering what is at stake in looking at cultural and legal texts together within a comparative ethnic studies frame.  The course then examines the closing and opening of U.S. borders to regulate the entry of im/migrants, giving particular attention to the case of Chinese Exclusion—the first racially/ethnically based prohibition on immigration.  We will also pay close attention to the relations between capitalism/labor and nation.  The course concludes by considering questions of naturalization and the limits of citizenship, particularly in light of recent “crises” over immigration.

Requirements

Attendance and Participation in class and on Blackboard website: 10%

Collaborative Presentations: 10%

Accompanying paper on presentation material (4 pages): 10%

Paper 1 (5 pages):  25%

Peer Review and Major Revision of Paper 1: 10%

Paper 2 (7-8 pages): 35%

Possible Texts

Mae Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America

Maxine Hong Kingston, Chinamen

Fae Myenne Ng, Bone

Chang-Rae Lee, Native Speaker

Josefina Lopez, Real Women Have Curves

John Mraz and Jamie Vélez-Storey, Uprooted: Braceros in the Hermanos Mayo’s Lens

Films

Frieda Lee Mock, Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision

Stephanie Black, H-2 Worker

Robert Kenner, Food, Inc.

Robert Rodriguez, Machete

Additional book chapters, articles, and legal primary source documents.

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing, Cultural Diversity

Description

The spread and growth of consumer capitalism has coincided with the migration and integration of immigrants into American society.  As immigrant lives become transformed by commercial culture, they also actively sustain it.  This course will approach the study of consumer culture by examining its emergence as a force that defines modern American society and trace its developments and current manifestations throughout the world.  We will study the theories of consumption as well as investigate the roles immigrants play in the making and re-making of commercial culture, examining both processes of production and consumption.  We will attempt to answer questions such as:  How do ethnic and racialized Americans negotiate work and leisure?  How do immigrants engage with and partake in America’s capitalist consumer culture in light of race, class, and gender differences?  How do people of color construct identity around consumption and material accumulation?  What kinds of “markets” exist for consumerism to thrive?  How does race and ethnicity function in a consumer driven society?  Exploring various sites of consumer and popular culture such as the movies, amusement and theme parks, and more contemporary consumer activities such as food, fashion, shopping, and cyberspace, we will consider how consumer culture and the very act of consumption define American life.                      

Requirements

Attendance, in-class writing, quizzes, and discussion participation     15%

20 thought-provoking discussion questions     15%

Take-home midterm exam     20%

Short Research Paper (5-7 pages)     20%

Final Research Project  (8-10 page paper)     30%

Possible Texts

Janet Davis, The Circus Age

Elizabeth Chin, Purchasing Power

Lisa Sun-Hee Park, Consuming Citizenship

Bich Minh Nguyen, Stealing Buddha’s Dinner

Course Reader

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing, Cultural Diversity

This course seeks to explore the intersections of race, class, and culture in contemporary and historical discourses of sartorial and bodily practices and performances of fashion and beauty.  Reading through a body of contemporary feminist scholarship and methodologies, we will investigate how class and gender shape definitions of beauty and why beauty is mapped on to the racialized body. By examining practices of beautification and style in popular and visual culture such as beauty pageants, fashion trends, makeovers, and body modification, we will ask, for example, how are beauty ideals defined?  What systems of power are they a part of and how are these modes of power sustained?  We will study the ways in which feminists have grappled with these debates that reflect broader ideological, cultural, and social processes.  We will also analyze the political and cultural implications of fashion and beauty as industries on the global market.  What impact do these practices have on gender relations and feminist discourse? How have feminized practices of consumption responded to transforming flexible economies under globalization?  We will work toward theorizing fashion and beauty culture in our contemporary world.

Requirements

Attendance, in-class writing, quizzes, and discussion participation                  15%

20 thought-provoking discussion questions reflecting readings collected for entire semester                  15%

Take-home midterm exam                                    20%

Creative Group Assignment w Description/purpose paper component (5-7 pages)                                    20%

Final Research Project  (8-10 page paper)                   30%

Texts

Susan Douglas, The Rise of Enlightened Sexism:  How Pop Culture Took Us from Girl Power to Girls Gone Wild 

Thuy Linh Tu, The Beautiful Generation:  Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion 

Miliann Kang, The Managed Hand:  Race, Gender, and the Body in Beauty Service Work

Brenda Weber, Makeover TV:  Selfhood, Citizenship, and Celebrity

Selections from

Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar:  The Making of America’s Beauty Culture

Geoffrey Jones, Imagined Beauty:  A History of the Global Beauty Industry

Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight:  Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body

Elizabeth Haiken, Venus Envy:  A History of Cosmetic Surgery

Peg Zeglin Brand, Beauty Matters

Bonnie Adrian, Framing the Bride:  Globalizing Beauty and Roman in Taiwan’s Bridal Industry

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing, Cultural Diversity

This course will examine the history of American empire, and the migrations and immigrations produced by that history, from a comparative and transnational perspective.  The course will pay particular attention to the expansion of American influence in Asia, as well as Asian migration to and from the United States, and the issues of race, gender, class and national identity that arose as a result of those movements.  We will also examine how the history of empire have changed and challenged notions of citizenship and belonging, often expressed in racialized and gendered terms.

Course Description:

In a self-proclaimed “nation of immigrants” such as the United States, our narratives of migration, race, and ethnicity emphasize themes of acculturation and assimilation symbolized by the metaphor of the “melting pot.”  In this class, we will explore experiences of migration, adaptation, and settlement from the perspective of a sending society--China--which possesses one of the longest and most diverse histories of sending merchants, workers, artisans, diplomats, missionaries, and so forth, overseas.  Over the last millennia, Chinese have migrated around the world and made homes under a great range of adversity and opportunity, producing many fascinating stories of encounters with difference and the building of common ground. Drawing upon this rich set of narratives, some questions that we will consider include the following.  As ethnic Chinese have moved and settled in so many places among such diverse societies, what is Chinese about the Chinese diaspora? What kinds of skills and attributes have helped Chinese to become arguably one of the most successful migrant groups? What do Chinese share in common with other migrant groups? How do Chinese adapt their identities and cultures to different circumstances?  What can Chinese experiences of migration contribute to contemporary debates and conceptions of migration?

 Description

This course is an exploration of how social characteristics of individuals—race, class, gender, sexuality, (dis)abilities —affect their capacities to enter specific labor markets. Over the course of the semester we will sociologically unpack what work means, the creation of labor markets, and finally, how race and employment are interrelated. Jobs are gender segregated; and in all of this, race matters. We will critically examine work over the 20th and 21st centuries through a gendered, racial lens to get at how race and gender work in the labor market. The purpose of this course is to sociologically examine concepts such as labor markets, globalization, care work, sex work, and gender/ racial segregation of the work place. This course is cross-listed with Asian American Studies and Women’s Studies.

The readings are organized around key questions/ issues, which form course modules. These course modules are the following:

1)    What is labor?

2)    What are labor markets?

3)    How are race, labor and citizenship tied?

4)    Gender and work

5)    Case study: Garment work

6)    Case study: Caring work

7)    Case study: Surrogacy

Readings

Course package

Grading and Requirement

Class attendance

Attendance to class is mandatory.  You may miss up to two classes, without affecting your grade.  Subsequently, for every class you miss your grade will fall by 1/2 a grade.  For example, if you miss four classes, you grade will change from an A to a B.

Participation: 20%

Four Short Papers: 80%

For Asian American studies majors only. Supervised, student-derived research in Asian American studies. May be repeated for credit when the research projects vary.

Prerequisite: Upper-division standing, Rhetoric and Writing 306, and consent of the director of the Center for Asian American Studies.

Restricted enrollment; contact the department for permission to register for this class.