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 |
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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 |
Chew, Lee. "The Biography of a Chinaman." The Independent 55, no. 2829 (1903): 417–23.
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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.
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.
---. 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.
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 |
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Week 7: Asian Americans in the Civil Rights Era | ||
12 | Lecture |
Uyematsu, Amy.
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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:
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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.
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,
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.
———. "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)
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Week 13: New Immigrants, New Identities | ||
23 | Discussion and Thesis Presentation |
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Week 14: New Immigrants, New Identities | ||
24 | Thesis Presentations |
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25 | Writing Workshop | No readings. |
Week 15: Final Week | ||
26 | Final Revised Paper Due | No readings. |