Spring 2016 Courses

ASAM 082/SOC 082AA. Racial Politics of Teaching.
K. Yep, PZ, TR 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
This class examines how race and ethnicity are constructed in schooling from sociological, linguistic, and ethnic studies standpoints. Specifically, we will discuss how race and ethnicity are constructed in schooling and ways teachers/educators may refine their pedagogies in relation to race and ethnicity. Students will do a research project.

ASAM 085. Health Inequities: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
K. Yep, PZ, TR 1:15-2:30 p.m.
This interdisciplinary course explores select issues in Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community health from a socio-ecological perspective. Through participatory teaching strategies, we will explore contemporary issues affecting health of underserved Southern California AAPIs through presentations from local physicians, policy makers, and community activists. Community project.

ASAM 086. Social Documentation and Asian Americans.
K. Mak, HMC, W 1:15-4:00 p.m.
Viewing of films and other documentary forms by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) for critique and discussion. Basic instruction in use of digital video technology to document social issues relevant to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Community- project.

ASAM 105. Zines, Creativity, Community.
T. Honma, PZ, W 2:45-5:30 p.m.
This course examines do-it-yourself (DIY) politics through independently produced zines. We will focus on Asian American and queer zine subcultures to understand various aspects of contemporary media, including: production and consumption, representation and self-expression, identity-construction and place-making, creativity and resistance, and the relevance of print in an increasingly digital world.

ASAM 111. Pacific Islanders and Education.
K. Vaughn, PO, TR 9:35-10:50 a.m.
This course will explore various topics within Indigenous education. Through a variety of mixed methods, this seminar will examine previous and current educational policy and its affects on diverse Indigenous peoples. It will also examine education as a tool for empowerment, resistance, and healing within varied Indigenous communities. Course topics covered include: Native/Indigenous epistemology, decolonizing methodologies, settler colonialism, cultural reclamation, and critical pedagogy. In addition to the course materials, students will engage in service learning by partnering with the Saturday Tongan Education Program (STEP). Participating in STEP will allow students to actively participate in an Indigenous educational initiative that directly relates to the course content and discussions.

ASAM 125. Asian American History from 1850 to the Present.
E. Gonzalez, HMC, TR 4:15-5:30 p.m.
This survey course examines the history of Asian immigrant groups and their American-born descendants as they have settled and adjusted to life in the United States. We will explore issues such as the experience of immigration, daily life in urban ethnic enclaves, and racist campaigns against Asian immigrants. Throughout the course, we will ask how these issues relate to a larger history of American nation-building and diplomatic relations with Asia.

ASAM 128. Body Art in the Diaspora.
T. Honma, PZ, MW 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Course introduces students to various body modification practices, with particular focus on regional developments in Asia, Pacific, and America. Key issues include: identity and community formation; agency, power, and social control; colonialism and post-colonialism; cultural property and appropriation; global circulations of bodies, aesthetics, and labor.

ASAM 130. Science, Technology, Asian America.
T. Honma, PZ, M 2:45-5:30 p.m.
This course explores the implications of Western science and technology on the Asian American experience. By interrogating how science has been defined in the “West” in relation to “non-Western” peoples, we will explore questions related to epistemology, racialization, migration, education, professionalization, and research, and the political stakes therein.

ASAM 160. Asian American Women’s Experiences.
Staff, SC, F 1:15-4:00 p.m.
This course is an interdisciplinary examination of Asian and Pacific Islander American women.  It will examine the history and experiences of Asian American women in the United States.  The class will include both lecture and discussion and will cover various issues, such as gender roles, mass media stereotypes, Asian women’s feminism, and the impact of sexism and racism on the lives of Asian American women through education, work, and home life.

ASAM 187. Art, Activism, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders.
Staff, SC, R 7:00-9:50 p.m.
This course will focus on the role that different artistic forms including but not limited to music, fine arts, street art, and poetry, have played in social justice work. The participatory course analyzes the transformative power and potential of art within the context of Asian American social movements seeking transformative social and political changes. The course will put students directly into contact with the performance and display of Asian American art events, and seek to integrate their active participation in these events as a means to develop both creative outlets as well as critical thinking.

ASAM 190b/191PO. Asian American Studies Senior Thesis.
Students will work with one or more faculty on original thesis research toward completion of senior thesis.

ENGL 054. Asian/American Literature Since 2000.
J. Jeon, PO, MW 1:15-2:30 p.m.
This course examines Asian/American literature published after 2000, three decades after the initial Asian American Movement. Students will read texts in multiple genres (fiction, poetry, graphic novels, drama) with an eye toward interrogating the emergent issues that come with the changing sociopolitical terrain of the new millennium.

HIST 134. Empire and Sexuality.
C. Johnson, PZ, MW 2:45-4:00 p.m.
The construction of gender and sexuality was central to British and French imperialism. This course examines the formation of genders in colonial Asia and Africa from the 18th through the early 20th-centuries. We will look at men and women, colonizers and colonized and hetero- and homosexualities in order to understand the connections between gender, sexuality, race and power. Themes will include gendered discourses that defined political authority and powerlessness; the roles that women’s bodies played in conceptualizing domesticity and desire; and evolving imperial attitudes toward miscegenation, citizenship and rights.

JPNT 177. Japanese and Japanese American Women Writers.
L. Miyake, PO, TR 2:45-4:00 p.m.
The course will examine the writings of classical/modern Japanese/Japanese American women writers within their local/global settings focusing on what they wrote, why they wrote, and where they wrote. The course will also explore how local/global gender and race politics inform these writings—and their reception—and look at the ways these formulations (which have crossed back and forth across the Pacific from the earliest Japanese immigration to the U.S. through international exchanges to this day) continue to fashion the writings of these women writers.

MS 101PZ. Asian American Media In Communities.
M. Ma, PZ, WF 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
This course focuses on the exhibition and distribution of Asian American independent media, and explores how it can mobilize, educate, and empower communities. Students will engage in service-learning projects in collaboration with local non-profit community partners. Through these collaborations, they will design and execute events in diverse communities based on programs from the Asian Americans in Media (AAIM) Film Festival, curated by the students in MS 100: Asian Americans in Media. Students will also engage in a parallel trajectory studying Asian American film festivals and media organizations, as well as theories of social change and case studies on community building. Prerequisites: MS 049, 050, 051, ASAM 090, HIST 125, or SOC 150. Although it is not required, students who have taken MS 100 will be given priority for enrollment.

PSYC 153AA. Asian American Psychology.
S. Goto, PO, TR 1:15-2:30 p.m.
Introduces students to the salient psychological issues of Asian Americans. Taking into account the social, cultural, and historical context of the Asian American experience, this course addresses values and cultural conflict development, acculturation, marriage and gender roles, vocational development, psychopathology, and delivery of mental health services.