Fall 2021 Courses

ANTH 156 PO. Comparative Muslim Societies in Asia.
M. Bilal Nasir, PO, R 12:45-3:45 p.m.
Course surveys and analyzes the wide diversity found among Muslim communities and Islamic societies. The course also looks at issues of the requirement of the pilgrimage, the centrality of the mosques, the finding of Muslim mates in many non-Muslim areas and religio-political movements.

ASAM 085. Health Inequities.
K. Yep, PZ, M 2:30-5:15 p.m.
The World Health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. This participatory course will consider this whole-person definition across the human life course using a range of sociological, political science, and Asian American Studies principles and perspectives. In addition to drawing from Asian/American/Pacific Islander/Desi American (A/APIDA) communities, major topics will include the structure of health care systems in the United States and globally, doctor-patient interaction, social and cultural influences on health and disease, and social disparities in the distribution of health and quality health care. Includes community engagement project outside of class time.

ASAM 088. Thich Nhat Hanh: Interdependence, Ecology, and Healing.
K. Yep, PZ, W 2:30-5:15 p.m.
This course is an introduction to the relationship among Thich Nhat Hanh’s Engaged Buddhism, ecology, and society. In doing so, it provides Thich Nhat Hanh’s perspective on ecological and social thought and an ecological and social perspective on healing from environmental factors in Asian and Asian diasporic communities. We will explore how Asian and Asian diasporic Buddhists view nature and the environment to address healing in the context of historical trauma such as the war. Through critical pedagogies and community engagement project with a partner in Vietnam and in California, we will explore the meaning and value of this way of viewing and interacting with the natural world to create healing from ecological social determinants of health. This class counts toward the Intercultural Studies, Social Responsibility Praxis, and Asian American Studies – Communities requirements. This course is a discussion class and your preparation for class discussion is critical to its success.

ASAM 094. Community Health.
K. Yep, PZ, M 2:30-5:15 p.m.
The World Health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. This participatory course will consider this whole-person definition across the human life course using a range of sociological, political science, and Asian American Studies principles and perspectives. In addition to drawing from Asian/American/Pacific Islander/Desi American (A/APIDA) communities, major topics will include the structure of health care systems in the United States and globally, doctor-patient interaction, social and cultural influences on health and disease, and social disparities in the distribution of health and quality health care. Includes community engagement project outside of class time.

ASAM 110. Science, Race, and Social Change.
T. Honma, PZ, W 2:30-5:15 p.m.
This course examines the relationship between technoscientific discourses and US racial discourses, addressing questions such as: how have science and race co-constituted each other; how do technoscientific innovations create and exacerbate racial inequalities; how have community-led social movements transformed science; how do historically marginalized groups reimagine technoscientific research and its uses. Our course objective will be to think broadly about the implications of scientific research, particularly within the interconnected legacies of US imperialism, militarism, diasporic migration, and global geopolitics. Central to our investigation is the goal of uncovering ways in which to practice a more just, equitable people-centered science.

ASAM 136. Filipinx Diasporic Poetics.
T. Honma, PZ, W 2:30-5:15 p.m.
This course examines the relationship between art and revolution, with a focus on the aesthetics and poetics of the Filipinx diaspora, including but not limited to literature and poetry, visual and sonic cultures, and the art of protest itself. Throughout these investigations, we will explore the role that imagination and creativity play in Filipinx community politics. We will build upon poet and labor activist Carlos Bulosan’s formulation regarding the revolutionary ontology of the Filipinx diaspora and how contemporary artists and cultural workers revise and expand upon the Marxian revolutionary consciousness of Bulosan’s manong generation.

ASAM 190A. Asian American Studies Senior Seminar: Applications, Analysis, and Future Directions.
S. Goto, PO, TR 12:45-2:00 p.m.
This is the capstone seminar for senior Asian American Studies majors (minors optional). The seminar is designed to bring seniors together to discuss and assess their understanding of Asian American Studies practice and theory at the Claremont Colleges and beyond. We will engage in minor research activities, read & analyze provocative books and articles, and revisit key issues & controversies.

FGSS 188E. The Queer Transpacific: Sinophone Cultures and Race/Ethnicity in Asian America.
J. Cheng, SC, TR 2:30-3:45 p.m.
This course draws together emergent scholarship in transpacific studies and sinophone studies with Asian American studies and queer studies. It attends to how the hemispheric Americas and Asia Pacific regions have been shaped by the United States and China, respectively and concomitantly. We trace overlapping histories of U.S.-European interventions into Asia Pacific, Pacific militarizations, Chinese empire, and modern Chinese nation-state building led by Han ethnonationalisms. Focusing on transpacific crossings and the production of “sinophone cultures” in history, popular culture, science, and tourism, this course applies queer analyses to investigate how the U.S. and China produce one another as analogous “others.”

GWS 162. Decolonizing Gender and Sexuality in Asian/America.
N. Duong, PO, W 12:45-3:45 p.m.
Through an analysis of historical and contemporary Asian American and Pacific Islander literature, film, performance, art, and popular culture, this course emphasizes a wide range of engagements with gender and sexuality that disrupts binary thinking on the topic. Students will examine the formation of Asian American genders and sexualities alongside histories of racialization, migration, and labor that span East, South, and Southeast Asian, as well as Pacific contexts.

PSYC 155. Seminar in Ethnic Minority Psychology and Mental Health.
W. Hwang, CMC, MW 2:30-3:45 p.m.
This course examines the roles and influences of ethnicity, race, and culture on psychology and mental health.  Students will learn about intergroup dynamics, racism and White privilege, ethnic identity development, acculturation and immigration, ethnic differences in the expression of distress, differential patterns and barriers to help-seeking, mental health disparities, and ethnocultural issues that influence treatment processes.

SOC 073. Asians in America: Model Minority and Perpetual Foreigner.
A. Junisbai, PZ, W 2:30-5:15 p.m.
What is the contemporary Asian American experience? How does Asian America look when we take into account differences in ethnicity, class, gender, and generation? This course offers a sociological examination of what it means to be Asian American today. Topics include immigration, assimilation, demographic trends, ethnic identity, discrimination, socioeconomic mobility, gender, and relationships with other groups. By exploring the structures that shape Asian American experiences and Asian American challenges to those forces, the course encourages students to consider their own role in transforming US society.

SOC 150AA. Contemporary Asian American Issues.
H. Thai, PO, M 12:45-3:45 p.m.
Survey of contemporary empirical studies focusing on Asian American experiences in the U.S. and globally; major themes include race, class, gender, sexuality, marriage/family, education, consumption, childhoods, aging, demography, and the rise of transmigration. Readings and other course materials will primarily focus on the period since 1965.

THEA 001G. Acting for Social Change.
J. Lu, PO, MW 12:45-3:15 p.m.
Acting for Social Change is an introduction to the fundamentals of acting, drawing upon different techniques such as psychological realism and physical theatre. Students will perform a self-written monologue, a documentary monologue transcribed from a live interview, and a two or three person scene from a play. They will also be introduced to Playback Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed, two forms of theater that are applied commonly today to create dialogue, heal conflict and trauma, and build community.