Majors & Minors | Asian American Studies

Welcome IDAAS Majors and Minors!

This page is a resource for current and prospective majors & minors to learn about program requirements, learning objectives, senior prizes, and available fellowships and internships.

Majors and Minors Requirements

The Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies of the Claremont Colleges (IDAAS) offers a rigorous, multidisciplinary major that emphasizes social justice, critical thinking, and innovative analysis of the history, society, and cultural production of Asians in the United States, within both multiracial American and transnational contexts.

The curriculum provides students with a comprehensive grounding in a range of thematic, theoretical, and methodological approaches within Asian American Studies. The major integrates theory and practice through community work, and sustained and focused inquiry in the senior project or thesis. In consultation with an IDAAS adviser, students take core interdisciplinary course in Asian American Studies and select appropriate courses in a range of disciplines throughout the five colleges.

IDAAS Learning Objectives

Majors in Asian American Studies will be able to:

understand the history and cultural production of Asians in the United States, within both multiracial American and transnational contexts;
understand how race as a social construction functions in the world;
understand how race intersects with gender, sexualities, and socio-economic class in the world;
understand how to carry out a research, creative project, or community-based project in Asian American communities;
understand ethical implications of research, creative projects, or community-based projects in Asian American communities.