AMST 125
Introduction to Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies Spring 2021 (also offered Fall 2020)
Division II Difference, Power, and Equity
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

This course covers topics and approaches salient to contemporary Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Studies as an interdisciplinary field of scholarship and activism. Drawing on primary source documents, scholarship, visual media, and creative work, we will look at cross-racial solidarity and organizing, anti-Asian exclusion and xenophobia, war and refugee communities, public and mental health, and immigration histories and experiences. We will ground our inquiry in the social movements from which the field emerged in the late-1960s and 1970s, then move on to address foundational terms for Asian American and Pacific Islander scholars, such as race, citizenship, queerness, empire, transnationalism, and Indigeneity. Throughout the course we will stay attentive to overlapping histories between AAPI and Native, Indigenous, Black, and Latinx people and communities. Students will also have a number of opportunities to practice analytic writing, do creative work, engage in personal reflection, and participate in community building.
The Class: Format: seminar; This course will be conducted remotely. International students should contact the professor by email if interested.
Limit: 12
Expected: 12
Class#: 4662
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: Weekly: an average of 50 pages of reading and/or watch a documentary film; view a pre-recorded mini-lecture made by the professor; submit 200-300-word responses to readings and a 75-100-word discussion question; participate in synchronous class discussions or synchronous small-group discussions with the professor. Three free passes on these assignments. 3x per semester: 3-page writing or creative assignments, including letter writing, interviewing a classmate, analyzing a passage from a historical document, or close reading a scene from a film or story. Final: Each student will participate in a class-wide final project.
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: If over enrolled: first-year students, AMST majors, or graduating students without prior experience with the topic
Distributions: Division II Difference, Power, and Equity
DPE Notes: This course defines "Asian," "Asian American," and "Pacific Islander" as categories of social difference created through historical conditions (e.g. migration, imperialism) that change over time. These terms also refer to forms of personhood with racial, national, and ethnic meaning determined by unequal distribution of power and resources. Students in the course are asked to understand, engage, and articulate these differences, historical, and social process.
Attributes: AMST Comp Studies in Race, Ethnicity, Diaspora

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