Courses

Course ID	Title	Offered
AAS 1100	Introduction to Asian American Studies This interdisciplinary course offers an introduction to the study of Asian/Pacific Islanders in the U.S. This course will examine, through a range of disciplines (including history, literary studies,&nbsp;film/media, performance, anthropology, sociology), issues and methods that have emerged from Asian American Studies since its inception in the late 1960s, including the types of research questions and methods that the study of Asians & Pacific Islander peoples in the U.S. as well as politics and historical relations in the Asia/Pacific region have to offer. In this course, we will pay particular attention to the role of culture and its production in documenting histories, formulating critical practices, and galvanizing political efforts. Topics and themes include: war & empire; queer & feminist lives and histories; refugee, adoptees, transnational families, and other forms of kinship & belonging; anti-Asian violence; settler colonialism and postcolonial critique. Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, SCD-AS) (CA-AG, D-AG, LA-AG) Full details for AAS 1100 - Introduction to Asian American Studies	Spring.
AAS 2043	Asian American Oral History This seminar will explore Asian American history through the methodology of oral history. Students will read Asian American historical scholarship that has relied on oral history methods, but they will also engage with theoretical and methodological work around the use of oral sources. Students will develop, research, and present oral history projects. Themes include power and knowledge production, the role of oral history in documenting the Asian American past, and local and family histories as avenues through which to explore oral history methods. Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS, SCD-AS) (D-AG, HA-AG) Full details for AAS 2043 - Asian American Oral History	Spring.
AAS 2295	Orientalism and East Asia This course explores the evolution of Orientalism, focusing on how East Asia has been perceived in the West and in East Asia. By analyzing a range of cultural and literary works spanning the genres of travelogue, poetry, fiction, film, opera, photograph, painting, illustration, etc., the course critically examines the Orientalist dichotomy between the West and the non-West and analyzes the internalization of Orientalism in East Asia in constructing the marginalized other. In addition, through a combination of reading, writing, and in-class discussion, the course investigates the historical conditions surrounding the production and dissemination of Orientalist representations of East Asia and their relevance in the contemporary world. Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS) Full details for AAS 2295 - Orientalism and East Asia	Spring.
AAS 3020	Asian Americans and Popular Culture This course examines both mainstream representations of and independent media made by, for, and about Asians and Asian Americans throughout U.S. cultural history. In this course, we will analyze popular cultural genres & forms such as: documentary & narrative films, musical theatre & live performance revues, television, zines & blogs, YouTube/online performances, karaoke & cover performances, stand-up comedy, and popular music. Employing theories of cultural studies, media studies, and performance studies, we will discuss the cultural, discursive, and political impact of these various popular cultural forms and representations from the turn of the 20th century to the present. Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, SCD-AS) Full details for AAS 3020 - Asian Americans and Popular Culture	Spring.
AAS 3885	Race and War in History: Workers, Soldiers, Prisoners, Activists Across twentieth-century history, race and war have been dynamic forces in shaping economic organization and everyday livelihoods. This course will approach labor and working-class history, through a focus on global war as well as 'wars at home.' Racial and warfare events often intersect—in the histories of presidents and activists, business leaders and industrial workers, CIA agents and police, soldiers and prisoners, American laborers abroad and non-Americans migrating stateside. In this course, we'll consider how race and war have been linked—from the rise of Jim Crow and U.S. empire in the 1890s, to the WWII 'Greatest Generation' and its diverse workplaces, to Vietnam and the civil rights movement, to the Iraq wars and immigrant workers, to debates about what has been called a 'military-industrial complex' and a 'prison-industrial complex'. Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS) (HA-AG) Full details for AAS 3885 - Race and War in History: Workers, Soldiers, Prisoners, Activists	Spring.
AAS 4567	Speculative East Asias We will examine cultural productions by East and Southeast Asians and their diasporas that imagine speculative, science fictional, magical realist, weird realist, or otherwise non-realist worlds. Paying particular attention to the legacies of militarism and empire, we will consider how imaginaries of East Asia are entangled with the U.S.-led Cold War system, the post-Cold War dominance of finance capitalism, and climate change. Tracking connections between diverse regions and peoples, we will explore how Asians and Asian diasporas dovetail in their visions of historical memory, present-day crisis, and future possibilities. These speculative worlds will prompt us to reflect on the world we live in now and the histories we have inherited. Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG) Full details for AAS 4567 - Speculative East Asias	Fall or Spring.
AAS 4699	Mapping the Black Pacific(s): Afro-Asian Encounters This seminar investigates the emergent concept of the Black Pacific, an area that scholars across multiple disciplines in recent years have begun to shed new light on. This course is designed to encourage an exploration of various methods including autobiography, video, film and others. This seminar seeks to examine the histories of African descendants to Asia via the Pacific rim and consider the ways in the varying concepts of Blackness itself may look different if we center our gaze on the trans-Pacific world. The term "Mapping" in the course title is in response to the often-overlooked encounters between peoples of African and Asian descent and the presence of African descendants in this region. Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG) Full details for AAS 4699 - Mapping the Black Pacific(s): Afro-Asian Encounters	Spring.
AAS 4950	Independent Study Independent reading course in topics not covered in regularly scheduled courses. Students select a topic in consultation with the faculty member who has agreed to supervise the course work. Full details for AAS 4950 - Independent Study	Fall, Spring.
AAS 6100	Graduate Proseminar in Asian American Studies Full details for AAS 6100 - Graduate Proseminar in Asian American Studies
AAS 7200	Directed Graduate Individual Study Individualized readings and research for graduate students. Topics, readings, writing requirements, and the number of course credits to be determined through consultation between the student and the faculty supervisor. Full details for AAS 7200 - Directed Graduate Individual Study	Fall or Spring.
AAS 7300	Directed Graduate Group Study Independent study course in which a small group of students works with one member of the graduate faculty. Topics, readings, writing requirements, and the number of course credits to be determined through consultation between the students and the faculty supervisor. Full details for AAS 7300 - Directed Graduate Group Study	Fall or Spring.

AAS 1100

Introduction to Asian American Studies

This interdisciplinary course offers an introduction to the study of Asian/Pacific Islanders in the U.S. This course will examine, through a range of disciplines (including history, literary studies,&nbsp;film/media, performance, anthropology, sociology), issues and methods that have emerged from Asian American Studies since its inception in the late 1960s, including the types of research questions and methods that the study of Asians & Pacific Islander peoples in the U.S. as well as politics and historical relations in the Asia/Pacific region have to offer. In this course, we will pay particular attention to the role of culture and its production in documenting histories, formulating critical practices, and galvanizing political efforts. Topics and themes include: war & empire; queer & feminist lives and histories; refugee, adoptees, transnational families, and other forms of kinship & belonging; anti-Asian violence; settler colonialism and postcolonial critique.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, SCD-AS) (CA-AG, D-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for AAS 1100 - Introduction to Asian American Studies

Spring.

AAS 2043

Asian American Oral History

This seminar will explore Asian American history through the methodology of oral history. Students will read Asian American historical scholarship that has relied on oral history methods, but they will also engage with theoretical and methodological work around the use of oral sources. Students will develop, research, and present oral history projects. Themes include power and knowledge production, the role of oral history in documenting the Asian American past, and local and family histories as avenues through which to explore oral history methods.

Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS, SCD-AS) (D-AG, HA-AG)

Full details for AAS 2043 - Asian American Oral History

Spring.

AAS 2295

Orientalism and East Asia

This course explores the evolution of Orientalism, focusing on how East Asia has been perceived in the West and in East Asia. By analyzing a range of cultural and literary works spanning the genres of travelogue, poetry, fiction, film, opera, photograph, painting, illustration, etc., the course critically examines the Orientalist dichotomy between the West and the non-West and analyzes the internalization of Orientalism in East Asia in constructing the marginalized other. In addition, through a combination of reading, writing, and in-class discussion, the course investigates the historical conditions surrounding the production and dissemination of Orientalist representations of East Asia and their relevance in the contemporary world.

Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS)

Full details for AAS 2295 - Orientalism and East Asia

Spring.

AAS 3020

Asian Americans and Popular Culture

This course examines both mainstream representations of and independent media made by, for, and about Asians and Asian Americans throughout U.S. cultural history. In this course, we will analyze popular cultural genres & forms such as: documentary & narrative films, musical theatre & live performance revues, television, zines & blogs, YouTube/online performances, karaoke & cover performances, stand-up comedy, and popular music. Employing theories of cultural studies, media studies, and performance studies, we will discuss the cultural, discursive, and political impact of these various popular cultural forms and representations from the turn of the 20th century to the present.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, SCD-AS)

Full details for AAS 3020 - Asian Americans and Popular Culture

Spring.

AAS 3885

Race and War in History: Workers, Soldiers, Prisoners, Activists

Across twentieth-century history, race and war have been dynamic forces in shaping economic organization and everyday livelihoods. This course will approach labor and working-class history, through a focus on global war as well as 'wars at home.' Racial and warfare events often intersect—in the histories of presidents and activists, business leaders and industrial workers, CIA agents and police, soldiers and prisoners, American laborers abroad and non-Americans migrating stateside. In this course, we'll consider how race and war have been linked—from the rise of Jim Crow and U.S. empire in the 1890s, to the WWII 'Greatest Generation' and its diverse workplaces, to Vietnam and the civil rights movement, to the Iraq wars and immigrant workers, to debates about what has been called a 'military-industrial complex' and a 'prison-industrial complex'.

Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS) (HA-AG)

Full details for AAS 3885 - Race and War in History: Workers, Soldiers, Prisoners, Activists

Spring.

AAS 4567

Speculative East Asias

We will examine cultural productions by East and Southeast Asians and their diasporas that imagine speculative, science fictional, magical realist, weird realist, or otherwise non-realist worlds. Paying particular attention to the legacies of militarism and empire, we will consider how imaginaries of East Asia are entangled with the U.S.-led Cold War system, the post-Cold War dominance of finance capitalism, and climate change. Tracking connections between diverse regions and peoples, we will explore how Asians and Asian diasporas dovetail in their visions of historical memory, present-day crisis, and future possibilities. These speculative worlds will prompt us to reflect on the world we live in now and the histories we have inherited.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for AAS 4567 - Speculative East Asias

Fall or Spring.

AAS 4699

Mapping the Black Pacific(s): Afro-Asian Encounters

This seminar investigates the emergent concept of the Black Pacific, an area that scholars across multiple disciplines in recent years have begun to shed new light on. This course is designed to encourage an exploration of various methods including autobiography, video, film and others. This seminar seeks to examine the histories of African descendants to Asia via the Pacific rim and consider the ways in the varying concepts of Blackness itself may look different if we center our gaze on the trans-Pacific world. The term "Mapping" in the course title is in response to the often-overlooked encounters between peoples of African and Asian descent and the presence of African descendants in this region.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for AAS 4699 - Mapping the Black Pacific(s): Afro-Asian Encounters

Spring.

AAS 4950

Independent Study

Independent reading course in topics not covered in regularly scheduled courses. Students select a topic in consultation with the faculty member who has agreed to supervise the course work.

Full details for AAS 4950 - Independent Study

Fall, Spring.

AAS 6100

Graduate Proseminar in Asian American Studies

Full details for AAS 6100 - Graduate Proseminar in Asian American Studies

AAS 7200

Directed Graduate Individual Study

Individualized readings and research for graduate students. Topics, readings, writing requirements, and the number of course credits to be determined through consultation between the student and the faculty supervisor.

Full details for AAS 7200 - Directed Graduate Individual Study

Fall or Spring.

AAS 7300

Directed Graduate Group Study

Independent study course in which a small group of students works with one member of the graduate faculty. Topics, readings, writing requirements, and the number of course credits to be determined through consultation between the students and the faculty supervisor.

Full details for AAS 7300 - Directed Graduate Group Study

Fall or Spring.

Courses by semester

Courses for Spring 2025