Majors & Minors

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.

Major Requirements at Pitzer, Pomona, and Scripps

Claremont McKenna students can complete the major at Pitzer and Harvey Mudd students can complete an off-campus major. Download the updated brochure.

Eleven graded courses are required for the major.

  1. Six core courses:
    1. Asian American History (ASAM 125)
    2. Contemporary Asian American Issues (SOC 150AA)
    3. Communities course: approved field work in an Asian American community or internship with a Asian American community-based organization (ASAM 090)
    4. Theory and Methods (ASAM 115)
    5. Seminar in Applications, Analysis, and Future Directions in Asian American Studies (ASAM 190)
    6. Senior Thesis or Project: independent work with senior thesis/project adviser (ASAM 191)
  2. Breadth requirements and electives:
    Five courses in addition to the core courses listed above.  These courses should be selected in consultation with the IDAAS major advisor, and they must fulfill all the following requirements.  Core courses above may not be used to fulfill any breadth requirements, but all other courses may fulfill two or more requirements.  For example, a single non-core course might simultaneously fulfill the requirements for social sciences, gender and sexuality, and Asia and migration.  If courses are used to fulfill multiple requirements, students must take additional IDAAS courses to make a total of eleven courses for the major.  Consult list of approved courses for each requirement.
    • At least one IDAAS social sciences course
    • At least one IDAAS humanities course
    • At least one IDAAS gender and sexuality course
    • At least one approved non-Asian American ethnic studies course: e.g., comparative ethnic studies course, Africana Studies course, Chicano Studies course
    • At least one approved course related to Asia and migration, globalization, and/or imperialism.

Asian language courses are strongly recommended but not required.

Minor Requirements

For a Minor at Pitzer, Pomona, and Scripps
Six graded courses are required for the minor.

  1. Two of three IDAAS core courses: ASAM 125 (History), ASAM 090 (Community Studies), SOC 150AA (Contemporary Issues)
  2. Four IDAAS elective courses

For an Asian American Studies sequence at Claremont McKenna
Five graded courses are required.

  1. HIST 125/ASAM 125 Asian American History
  2. SOC 150AA (Contemporary Issues)
  3. Three approved Asian American Studies elective courses

For an Asian American Studies concentration at Harvey Mudd
A concentration includes at least four graded courses within Asian American Studies.

Course Descriptions

Here are the IDAAS courses, with course descriptions, listed in two ways:

Opportunities

Learn more about what IDAAS has to offer: