AMST 125
Introduction to Asian American Studies Fall 2023
Division II Difference, Power, and Equity
Cross-listed AAS 125

Class Details

Who or what constitutes the term “Asian American”? Leading with this provocation, this course offers an introductory survey of the interdisciplinary field of Asian American Studies, tracing its formation and evolution from the 1960s onward. Focusing on an array of foundational texts, cultural production, and primary sources central to the discipline, we will ask who has been included/excluded from this category and analyze the shifting constructions of Asian Americans from the nineteenth century to the present in tandem with other markers of difference. Over the course, we will study how these constructions have been shaped not only relationally through other racial formations but also by overlapping systems of power, including settler colonialism, U.S. war and empire, capitalism, and globalization within and beyond the U.S. Additionally, we will examine how this term has been undone and remade via political activism, visual and performance art, media, and contingent spaces.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 20
Expected: 18
Class#: 1548
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: weekly readings, class discussions, weekly discussion posts, in-class presentation, midterm paper, and a final paper or creative project
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: If over enrolled: first-year students, AAS concentrators or prospective concentrators, AMST majors or prospective majors
Distributions: Division II Difference, Power, and Equity
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
AAS 125 Division II AMST 125 Division II
DPE Notes: This course examines "Asian" and Asian American" as categories of racial difference constructed through various structures of power. Students in the course are asked to unpack how constructions of this difference have changed over time and produced uneven power relations and access to resources.
Attributes: AAS Core Electives
AAS Gateway Courses
AMST Comp Studies in Race, Ethnicity, Diaspora

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