IDAAS Courses for First Year Students

The Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies at the Claremont Colleges (IDAAS) offers a rigorous, multidisciplinary program of study 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.

First year students are encouraged to take “ASAM125 HM: Intro to Asian American History” and “SOC150AA: Contemporary Asian American Issues.”

For fall 2024, the following courses are open to first year students:

  • ASAM 070 PO Surveillance: An Introduction;
  • ASAM 082 PZ Racial Politics of Teaching;
  • ASAM 089 PZ Embodied Learning, Pedagogies of Belonging, and Qi Gong;
  • ASAM 090 PZ Asian American and Multiracial Community Studies;
  • ASAM 123 HM Pacific Islander History and Culture Through Life Writing;
  • ASAM 125 HM Intro to Asian American History;
  • ASAM 161 CM The Care Work of Asian Women;
  • ASAM 179R HM Popular Culture and the Pacific Islands;
  • SOC 126 AA Immigration and the Second Generation; and
  • THEA 001G Acting for Social Change.

The following Asian American Studies courses are regularly offered and are also open to first-years without prerequisites. These include:

  • ASAM 126 HM Intro to Pacific Islander History;
  • ASAM 142 PO South Asian American Studies;
  • ASAM 160 SC Asian American Women’s Experiences;
  • ASAM 175 PZ Asian American Comics: Racial Politics;
  • ASAM 189A Music in Asian America;
  • ENGL 161 SC The Futures of Asian/America;
  • MS 100 PZ Asian Americans in Media;
  • MUS 126 SC Music in East Asia and its American Diasporas;
  • SOC 150AA Contemporary Asian American Issues.

Both ASAM125 and SOC150 are survey courses that introduce students to major theories, methods, and foundations to the field. Students who take either or both of these courses will be well-prepared to take upper division courses. These courses are also excellent preparations for analytical thinking, critical thinking skills, and communications across the curriculum. Both courses are required for the Asian American Studies major.