Texts
Required Texts
Houston, Jeanne. Farewell to Manzanar. Ember, 2012. ISBN: 9780307976079. [Preview with Google Books]
Recommended Texts
Liu, Eric. The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker. Vintage, 1999. ISBN: 9780375704864.
| SES # | TOPICS / SESSION TYPE | KEY DATES |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1: Intro | ||
| 1 | Introduction to the Class |
Recommended ReadingsChua, Amy. "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior," Wall Street Journal, January 8, 2011. Yang, Wesley. "Paper Tigers," New York Magazine, May 8, 2011. Mervis, Jeffrey. "A Glass Ceiling for Asian Scientists?" Science 310, no. 5748 (2005): 606–7 and responses. |
| Week 2: Early Immigrants–The First Wave | ||
| 2 | Writing Exercise | No readings. |
| 3 | Discussion |
Takaki, Ronald. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. Little Brown and Company, 1998, pp. 21–75. ISBN: 9780316831307. [Preview with Google Books] Lee, Yan Phou. When I Was a Boy in China. University of California Libraries, 1887. [Preview with Google Books [Excerpt] Kang, Younghill. East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937. [Excerpt] Chew, Lee. "The Biography of a Chinaman." The Independent 55, no. 2829 (1903): 417–23. Kum, Sing. "Letter by a Chinese Girl." In Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present. Edited by Judy Yung, Gordon H. Chang, and I. Mark Lai. University of California Press, 2006. ISBN-13: 9780520243101 (Originally published in 1876.) [Preview with Google Books] Wing, Yung. My Life in China and America. H. Holt and Company, 1909. Shioya, Sakae. When I Was a Boy in Japan. Book on Demand, 1906. |
| Week 3: Chinese Exclusion | ||
| 4 | Lecture | No readings. |
| 5 | Discussion |
Harte, Bret. "Ah Sin: The Heathen Chinee." 1870. Letter of the Chinamen to Governor Bigler, April 1852. Rev. Gibson, Otis. "Chinaman or White Man, Which?" Reply to Father Buchard. Adegi Graphics LLC, 2011. ISBN: 9780543730299. Greene, George W. The Labor Agitators or, the Battle for Bread: The Party of the Future, the Workingmen's Party of California: It's Bird and Organization. It's Leaders and Its Purposes: Corruption in Our Local and State Governments. Venality of the Press. George W. Greene, 1879. Lee, Yan Phou. "The Chinese Must Stay." The North American Review 148, no. 389 (1889): 476-483. Chinese Equal Rights League. Appeal of the Chinese Equal Rights League to the People of the United States for Equality of Manhood. The League, 1892. American Federation of Labor. "Some Reasons for Chinese Exclusion: Meat Vs. Rice." 1901. Francisco, San. Gjerde, Jon. Major Problems in American Immigration and Ethnic History. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. ISBN: 9780395815328. ---. Samuel Gompers Racializes Chinese American Labor, pp. 275-277. ---. The Asiatic Exclusion League. The Asiatic Exclusion League Asians Cannot Be Assimilated, pp. 278-279. ---. Hao, Fu Chi. Chinese American Reprimands Americans for Anti-Chinese Attitudes and Law, pp. 280-281. Browse Chinese immigration files from the National Archives. |
| Week 4: Chinatown | ||
| 6 | Library Workshop | No readings. |
| 7 | Chinatown Field Trip |
Read ahead for Week 9 Tang, Joyce. "The Model Minority Thesis Revisited: (Counter) Evidence from the Science and Engineering Fields." Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 33, no. 3 (1997): 291–315. Woo, Deborah. "The State of Research on The Glass Ceiling." In Glass Ceilings and Asian Americans: The New Face of Workplace Barriers. AltaMira Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780742503359. [Preview with Google Books] The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Asian American and Pacific Islander Work Group (AAPI Work Group) Report, 2008. Jennifer, Berdahl L., and Min Ji-A. "Prescriptive stereotypes and workplace consequences for East Asians in North America." Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 18, no. 2 (2012): 141–52. |
| Week 5: Imperialism in the Philippines and the Migration of Colonials | ||
| 8 | Lecture Mini-workshop with Writing Advisor: Tips on Comparative Analysis | Film Clip: Dollar a Day, Ten Cents a Dance. Directed by Geoffrey Dunn and Mark Schwartz. Color, 29 min. 1984. |
| 9 | Presentations Group I |
Survey of Race Relations Archives OR |
| Week 6: World War II and the Japanese-American Internment | ||
| 10 | Lecture | In-class Film Clip: Unfinished Business. Directed by Steven Okazaki. Black and White / Color, 58 min. 1986. |
| 11 | Discussion |
Houston, Jeanne. Farewell to Manzanar. Ember, 2012. ISBN: 9780307976079. [Preview with Google Books] Excerpt from Okubo. Citizen 13660. University of Washington Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780295959894. [Preview with Google Books] |
| Week 7: Asian Americans in the Civil Rights Era | ||
| 12 | Lecture |
Uyematsu, Amy. Tachiki, Amy. Roots: An Asian American Reader. University of California La Asian Amer, 1971, pp. 9–13. ISBN: 9780934052061. |
| Week 8: The Second Wave: Post-1965 Immigration, Southeast Asian Refugees and Changing Community | ||
| 13 | Lecture | Film Clip: A. K. A. Don Bonus. Directed by Spencer Nakasako and Sokly Ny. Color. 65 min. 1995. |
| 14 | Presentations Group II |
Selections from: Freeman, James M. Hearts of Sorrow: Vietnamese-American Lives. Stanford University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780804718905. Welaratna, Usha. Beyond the Killing Fields: Voices of Nine Cambodian Survivors in America. Stanford University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780804721394. Chan, Sucheng, ed. Hmong Means Free: Life in Laos and America. Temple University Press, 1994. ISBN: 9781566391634. |
| Week 9: Model Minority or Invisible Minority? | ||
| 15 | Review lecture | No readings. |
| 16 | Discussion: I. The Pew Report and Responses |
Pew Research Center Report: "The Rise of Asian Americans." (PDF - 2.7MB) 2012.
Letter to Pew Research Center–Asian American / Pacific Islander Policy Research Consortium, June 22, 2012. Association for Asian American Studies Response to the Pew Center Report: "Rise of Asian Americans." 2012 Peterson, W.
Okihiro, Gary Y. Margins and Mainstreams: Asians in American History and Culture. University of Washington Press 1994, pp. 140–47. ISBN: 9780295973395. [Preview with Google Books] Suzuki, Bob H. Tang, Joyce. "The Model Minority Thesis Revisited: (Counter) Evidence From the Science and Engineering Fields." Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 33, no. 3 (1997): 291–315. National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education, Woo, Deborah. "The State of Research on The Glass Ceiling." In Glass Ceilings and Asian Americans: The New Face of Workplace Barriers. AltaMira Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780742503359. [Preview with Google Books] The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Asian American and Pacific Islander Work Group (AAPI Work Group) Report, 2008. Berdahl, Jennifer L., and Min Ji-A. "Prescriptive Stereotypes and Workplace Consequences for East Asians in North America." Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 18, no. 2 (2012): 141–52. Room for Debate: "Fears of an Asian Quota in the Ivy League," New York Times, December 19, 2012. Hsu, Andrea. Asian-Americans Face Dilemma in Debate Over Affirmitive Action. NPR. November, 21, 2012. Advancing Justice materials on Fisher v. UT Austin. Recommended ReadingsWoo, Deborah. United States Glass Ceiling Commission. "The Glass Ceiling and Asian Americans." (PDF) 1994. |
| Week 10: Asian Americans in Asia | ||
| 17 | Special Lecture: Asian Americans Working in Asia, Professor Edward J. W. Park | Park, Edward J. W. "Racial Ideology and Hiring Decisions in Silicon Valley." Qualitative Sociology 22, no. 3 (1999): 223–33. |
| 18 | Writing Workshop | No readings. |
| Week 11: Second Wave Immigrants–Korean Americans, Small Business, and Inter-Ethnic Relations | ||
| 19 | Guest Lecture: Prof. Min Song | No readings. |
| 20 | Discussion |
Park, Edward J. W. "Friends or Enemies?: Generational Politics in the Korean American Community in Los Angeles." Qualitative Sociology 22, no. 2 (1999): 161–75. Park, Kyeyoung. "The Gravitation to Small Business." Chapter 3 in The Korean American Dream: Immigrants and Small Business in New York City. Cornell University Press, 1997, pp. 36–70. ISBN: 9780801483912. [Preview with Google Books] ———. "The Re-Invention of Affirmative Action: Korean Immigrants' Changing Conceptions of African Americans And Latin Americans." Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development 24, no. 1–2 (1995): 59–92. ———. Forum: "Use and Abuse of Race and Culture: Black- Korean Tension in America." American Anthropologist 98, no. 30 (1996). Film: Kim-Gibson, Dai Sil, Christine Choy, and Elaine Kim. Sa-I-Gu. 1993. |
| Week 12: Second Wave Immigrants–South Asian Americans, Ethnic Identity and the Second-Generation | ||
| 21 | Guest Lecture: Prof. Pawan Dhingra | No readings. |
| 22 | Discussion |
Maira, Sunaina."Youth Culture, Citizenship and Globalization: South Asian Muslim Youth in the United States after September 11th." Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 24, no. 1 (2004): 219–31. ———. "Identity Dub: The Paradoxes of an Indian American Youth Subculture (New York Mix)." Cultural Anthropology 14, no. 1 (1999): 29–60. Dhingra, Pawan. "Committed to Ethnicity, Committed to America: How Second-Generation Indian Americans’ Ethnic Boundaries Further their Americanisation." Journal of Intercultural Studies 29, no. 1 (2008): 41–63. ———. "Hospitable to Others: Indian American Motel Owners Create Boundaries and Belonging in the Heartland." Ethnic and Racial Studies 33, no. 6 (2010): 1088–107. (Recommended) Prashad, Vijay. "Of the Origin of Desis" and "Of Antiblack Racism." In The Karma of Brown Folk. University of Minnesota Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780816634392. [Preview with Google Books] |
| Week 13: New Immigrants, New Identities | ||
| 23 | Discussion and Thesis Presentation | Liu, Eric. Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 in The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker. Vintage, 1999. ISBN: 9780375704864. |
| Week 14: New Immigrants, New Identities | ||
| 24 | Thesis Presentations | Toyota, Tritia. Envisioning America: New Chinese Americans and the Politics of Belonging. Stanford University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780804762427. [Excerpts] |
| 25 | Writing Workshop | No readings. |
| Week 15: Final Week | ||
| 26 | Final Revised Paper Due | No readings. |
