Asian American Studies: AAS

Lower-Division Courses

AAS X01. Introduction to Asian American Studies.

Introduces the interdisciplinary study of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans in the United States. Explores key concepts, including immigration history, identity and community formation, cultural representation, and the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality.

AAS X02. Immigration and Ethnicity.

Examine the changing population of the United States from colonial times to present.

AAS X03. Introduction to the Asian Diaspora.

Examine the global dispersal of Asian populations from the mid-1800s to the present.

AAS X10. Introductory Topics in Asian American Studies.

An introduction to Asian American studies through a variety of disciplines.

AAS X10.1. Psychological Perspectives on Asian American Identity.

Examines the unique culturally-influenced psychologies of various Asian American groups, including such concepts as identity formation, enculturation, assimilation and resistance, and racial and psychological normativity.

AAS X10.2. Race, Politics, and Identity in Asian America.

An introduction to Asian American politics. Subjects include the American political process, and the historic and contemporary role of Asian Americans within that process.

AAS X10.3. Mixed Race Identities.

Analyzes the historical and contemporary significance of issues of race" and "mixing" in a North American context. Subjects include the situation of "mixed race" people throughout United States history; historical policies that have shaped racial formation in the United States; comparative conceptions of "mixed" people transnationally; and racial, ethnic, and cultural identity.

AAS X10.4. Asian American Creative Arts.

Issues and identities shaped by issues of race, ethnicity, gender, immigration status, and family dynamics. These subjects are explored through production of literary, artistic, performance, or other creative projects.

AAS X10.5. Race, Immigration, and Family.

Introduction to family systems in the United States in a post-WWII framework with a central focus on Asian Americans. Students will investigate how gender, race, and ethnicity intersect and inform our understanding of the institution of the family.

AAS X10.6. Asian American Film History.

AAS X12. Introduction to Asian American History.

Introduces students to the national and transnational histories of Asian Americans in the United States. Explores a wide range of themes related to the Asian American experience.

AAS X14. Asian American Literature and Culture.

Explores how authors and artists over the course of the past century have imagined what it means to be Asian American. Covers a diverse range of Asian immigrant histories and the formation of Asian American identities according to ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and citizenship.

AAS X18Q. Supervised Research.

Supervised, student-derived research in Asian American studies.

AAS X19S. Topics in Asian American Studies.

This course is used to record credit the student earns while enrolled at another institution in a program administered by the University's Study Abroad Office. Credit is recorded as assigned by the study abroad adviser in the Center for Asian American Studies. University credit is awarded for work in an exchange program; it may be counted as coursework taken in residence. Transfer credit is awarded for work in an affiliated studies program.

Upper-Division Courses

AAS X20C. Contemporary Asian American Novels.

AAS X20D. Asian American Media Cultures.

Examine popular and critical roles, representations, and politics of Asian Americans in U.S. media including Hollywood cinema, U.S. network and cable television, Asian American independent film, and online media.

AAS X20F. Documenting Difference.

Explore the theory, history, practice and poetics of minority documentary, as well as the related fields of oral history and archiving with a particular emphasis on Asian American examples.

AAS X20G. Race, Internet, and Social Media.

Explores the critical, theoretical and practical analysis of race and new media.

AAS X20J. Japanese Popular Culture: Anime, Manga, and the Otaku.

Examine a wide variety of Japanese popular media within the historical context during which these unique cultural forms developed. Focus on the popular manga and anime Japan has exported since becoming an economic superpower in the 1980s, the utopian/dystopian expression in Japanese sci-fi narratives of this era, and the complex interplay of gender and technology in the new post-human societies these narratives envision.

AAS X20K. Theorizing the Human.

Trace the continuities and transformations in constructions of populations as more or less human, from settler-colonial conquest to the post-Trump era. Examine what logics mark racialized populations as disposable during the colonization of the Americas, and which systematically condition racialized subjects to a state of enduring siege.

AAS X25C. The Chinese in Diaspora.

Explores narratives of migration, race, ethnicity, and a wide range of experiences of acculturation and assimilation from the perspective of a sending society--China--which has one of the longest and most diverse histories of sending people overseas. Over the last millennia, Chinese have migrated around the world and made homes under a great range of adversity and opportunity, producing many stories of human differences and commonalities.

AAS X25D. The Chinese in the United States.

History of the Chinese in the United States from their first arrival in significant numbers during the California Gold Rush of the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

AAS X25E. Taiwan: Colonization, Migration, and Identity.

Explores issues of ethnicity, empire, and modernization in East Asia from the sixteenth century to the present, as seen through encounters between Taiwan and aborigines, Han Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese, the imperial Qing, Japanese, mainland Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and the United States.

AAS X25F. The Two Koreas and the United States.

The political, social, and cultural relationship between North and South Korea, and between the Koreas and the United States, since 1945.

AAS X25G. History of the Southeast Asian Diaspora in the United States.

AAS X25J. South Asian Migration to the United States.

Examine the South Asian diaspora in the United States.

AAS X25K. Refugees in Twentieth-Century United States.

Explores the history of refugees in the twentieth century, with special attention to the United States and its engagement in the international arena of refugee politics.

AAS X25L. Global Economies: Asia and the United States.

Examines key trends in the economies of the United States and Asia, with emphasis on the links between these two major trading blocs.

AAS X25M. Political Economy of Development in Postwar Korea.

Explore the political economy of South Korean development during the postwar period. Examine the history, society, and culture of South Korea. Discuss compressed modernity, developmental state, social movements, gender politics, financial crisis, urbanization, migration, and recent globalization of Korean popular culture.

AAS X25N. Asian American Jurisprudence.

Examine the historical development of United States law and its relationship to Asian Americans, and of Asian American jurisprudence as an independent field of legal scholarship.

AAS X25O. Greater China and United States Economic Relations.

Explore contemporary interconnections between the United States and Greater China. Examine economic frameworks (for example, state-led, market-led, mixed, etc.); the economies of the PRC including Hong Kong as well as Taiwan and the Chinese diaspora; and linkages such as investments, supply chains, tech transfer, non-profit cooperation, and the globalized workforce.

AAS X29S. Topics in Asian American Studies.

This course is used to record credit the student earns while enrolled at another institution in a program administered by the University's Study Abroad Office. Credit is recorded as assigned by the study abroad adviser in the Center for Asian American Studies. University credit is awarded for work in an exchange program; it may be counted as coursework taken in residence. Transfer credit is awarded for work in an affiliated studies program.

AAS X30C. Racism and Antiracism.

Examines the theories and definitions of racism across several fields: anthropology, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and gender/sexuality studies. Also includes a section that focuses on anti-racist activism, particularly within people of color and immigrant communities.

AAS X30D. Blacks and Asians: Race and Social Movements.

Examines the relations between Asians and Blacks in the United States.

AAS X30E. The Sociology of Race and Work.

Critical examination of work in the United States over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries through a gendered, Asian American lens, using a comparative race perspective. Subjects include the sociological examination of concepts such as labor markets, globalization, care work, and gender/racial segregation in the workplace along with the ways race and gender shape how and where individuals are fitted into the workplace, how skills are evaluated, and how labor markets emerge.

AAS X30F. Transnational Korea.

Recent and contemporary manifestations of the Koreas in the world and the world in the Koreas. Subjects include labor and marriage migration, educational sojourning, transnational adoption, tourism, international sport, corporate expatriation, and media flows.

AAS X30G. Urban Unrest.

Analysis of the roots of urban unrest, exploring a range of origins: joblessness, state violence, white flight, backlash against civil rights gains, new immigration, and interracial strife. Beyond race and class, subjects include exploring unrest as a mode of pushing the normative boundaries of gender and sexuality in public space. Course material will draw from film, literature, history, geography, and anthropology.

AAS X30I. Asian Diaspora on Indigenous Lands.

Explore Indigenous and Asian entanglements and solidarities on Turtle Island (North America) and the Pacific. Examine settler colonialism, racial capitalism, war and militarism, racism and power, and environmental change.

AAS X30J. Asian Mobilities.

Explore alternative research methods and spatialities, in an attempt to produce new understandings of how people live in an increasingly mobile world.

AAS X30K. Asian Americans in the South.

AAS X30L. Anthropology of the Himalayas.

Examine the history and culture of the Himalayan region, including Northeast India, sections of Pakistan and Afghanistan, Tibet, and especially Nepal.

AAS X30M. Reproductive Justice and Race.

Examine the links between reproductive care and social inequality, and explore reproductive outcomes for women in the context of social justice.

AAS X30N. Migration Crisis.

AAS X35. Topics in Asian American Studies.

AAS X35.1. Bridging Community Through Service Learning.

Explores culture in community life and how it affects the collaboration of service providing entities. Through service learning, students will take what they learn in the classroom and apply those theories and techniques within the community. Special emphasis will be given to the understanding of the Asian/Asian American community and multiculturalism in community services.

AAS X58Q. Supervised Research.

Supervised, student-derived research in Asian American studies.

AAS X77. Capstone Seminar.

AAS X78. Community Internship.

Supervised internship in a community, civic, or government organization or program that facilitates the economic, political, and social development of the Asian American community.

AAS X79. Conference Course in Asian American Studies.

Supervised individual study of selected problems in Asian American studies.

AAS X79H. Honors Tutorial Course.

Supervised individual reading for one semester, followed by a semester of research and writing to produce a substantial paper on a specific topic in Asian American studies.

Graduate Courses

AAS X81. Topics in Asian American Studies.

Theoretical and methodological training through key texts in Asian American studies.

AAS X91C. Conference Course.

Designed to expand the graduate student's opportunity for individual consultation. Complements courses fulfilling the Asian American studies graduate portfolio.

Professional Courses