Course: |
ANTH 363 Asia and America: Imperial Formations |
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Professor: |
Naoko Kumada |
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CRN: |
90556 |
Schedule: |
Thur 2:00 PM - 4:20
PM Olin 301 |
Distributional Area: |
SA Social Analysis |
Class cap: |
12 |
Credits: |
4 |
Cross-listed: American Studies; Asian Studies; Global &
International Studies
The Atlanta shooting and the sharp
increase in anti-Asian violence have taken racial politics in the US to a new
level. These attacks echo the anti-China rhetoric spread by mainstream and
social media, corporations, and policymakers. Taking an anthropological
approach, this course attempts to offer historical, cultural, and geopolitical
contexts for understanding the racial tension surrounding Asian communities in
the US and abroad today. It takes into account the long-standing historical and
systemic factors in US society as well as new global challenges brought by the
pandemic and the rise of China. Seeing the US as an empire, the course explores
how its imperial formations and practices shaped, and were shaped by, Asia and
its interactions with Asia. It examines how America continued its westward
capitalist and militarist expansion, shifting its frontier as it added
territories, colonies, and military bases across the globe, in the islands in
the Pacific and Asia (Hawaii, Samoa, Marshall Islands, Okinawa, and Diego
Garcia). Moving beyond the clear-cut boundaries of sovereign nation-states, we
explore layered forms of sovereignty, nationhood, and (extra)territoriality
between Asia and America. Topics include racial and gendered forms of Asian
labor and migration (‘coolies’ and ‘prostitutes’), the practices of building
and maintaining US military bases, America’s wars on Asia (the Philippines,
Vietnam), and local responses. This course is part of the
Racial Justice Initiative, an interdisciplinary collaboration among
students and faculty to further the understanding
of racial inequality and injustice in the United States and beyond. This course is part of the Racial Justice
Initiative, an interdisciplinary collaboration among students and faculty to
further the understanding of racial inequality and injustice in the United
States and beyond.
Course: |
ARTH 398 Converging Cultures: Diasporic Artists in the United
States |
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Professor: |
Tom Wolf |
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CRN: |
90246 |
Schedule: |
Wed 2:00 PM - 4:20
PM Olin 301 |
Distributional Area: |
AA Analysis of Art |
Class cap: |
15 |
Credits: |
4 |
Cross-listed: American
Studies; Asian Studies
The point of departure for this seminar will be an exhibition I am
curating for the Samuel Dorsky Museum at the State University of New York at
New Paltz. The exhibition will feature
works by three artists: Winold Reiss,
Aaron Douglas, and Isami Doi—a European American, an African American, and an
Asian Pacific Islander. Reiss and
Douglas were instrumental in creating the visual culture of the Harlem
Renaissance in the 1920s and Doi, who studied with Reiss at that time,
eventually returned to Hawai’i to become one of the most important artists in
the place of his birth.
The seminar will
consider how these artists reflected their inherited cultures in their art
while being active in the United States in the first half of the Twentieth
century. In a broader context we will
also examine questions of identity in the works of American artists such as
Joseph Stella, from Italy, the Soyer brothers, from Russia, Isamu Noguchi, from
Japan, and several others. Complex issues
about artists who repeatedly portrayed people of ethnicities other than their
own will be raised, and the mechanics of putting together the Reiss, Douglas,
Doi exhibition will be discussed.
Students will present two short talks to the seminar, and submit a
midterm and final paper.
Course: |
CHI 403 Beyond China: Chinese Literature in the Diaspora |
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Professor: |
Li-Hua Ying |
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CRN: |
90202 |
Schedule: |
Tue 10:20 AM - 12:40
PM Olin 309 |
Distributional Area: |
FL Foreign Languages and Lit |
Class cap: |
15 |
Credits: |
4 |
Cross-listed: Asian Studies
This course is an introduction to modern and contemporary Chinese
literature focusing on Chinese cultural spheres beyond the People's Republic
and Taiwan. We will read Chinese diasporic literatures along a transnational
itinerary, analyzing poetry and fiction hailing from Southeast Asia, Europe,
and the U.S. At each location, Chinese immigrants must confront a multiethnic
and multicultural society of layered histories and politics and find their own
voice in their new home. The authors we will study, Yu Dafu, Zhang Ailing, Bai
Xianyong, Nie Hualing, Li Yongping, Huang Jinshu, Gao Xingjian, Yang Lian, Ma
Jian, Yan Geling, etc., each in their unique ways, have to confront issues such
as exile and alienation, conceptions about being Chinese, understanding of the
self and other, and the ways to narrate belonging and cultural identity. While
examining their writings through close reading, we will learn to think critically
about topics such as globalization with its impact on literary production and
dissemination, the processes of cultural contact, and the representations of
transnational experiences. This course fulfills Difference and Justice
requirements as it deals with Chinese literature in a global context, focusing
on unpacking the thorny problems of race and ethnicity, prejudices and
discrimination, nationalism, and translational experiences. Prerequisite: three
and more years of college Chinese language instruction or with the approval of
the instructor. Taught in Chinese.
Course: |
PS 323 Migration Citizenship and Work |
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Professor: |
Sanjib Baruah |
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CRN: |
90026 |
Schedule: |
Mon 2:00 PM - 4:20
PM Olin 310 |
Distributional Area: |
SA Social Analysis |
Class cap: |
15 |
Credits: |
4 |
Cross-listed: Asian
Studies; Human Rights
Large-scale migration has long been integral to global processes that have
shaped the modern world. The modern history of international migration begins with
European colonization of large parts of the New World, Africa and Asia. The
forced migration of millions of Africans to the Americas is also a legacy of
this era. Flows out of Europe had dominated international migration until the
early twentieth century. The direction
began to change only in the middle of that century when Africa, Asia, and Latin
America became a growing source of international emigration. Starting with a historical overview of
international migration, the course will focus on the modern territorial order
of formally sovereign states, which is premised to a significant extent on the
disavowal of migration. Since employment eligibility is tied to citizenship
status, significant segments of the work force in many countries are now undocumented.
Course: |
WRIT 216 Contemporary Asian American and Asian Diasporic
Poetics |
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Professor: |
Jenny Xie |
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CRN: |
90387 |
Schedule: |
Mon Wed 2:00 PM - 3:20
PM Olin 308 |
Distributional Area: |
PA Practicing Arts |
Class cap: |
12 |
Credits: |
4 |
Cross-listed: American Studies; Asian Studies; Literature
When Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers arrived on the U.S.
literary scene in 1974, it was both manifesto and provocation, inflaming what are
still-ongoing debates over the borders, sensibilities, obligations, and
political allegiances of the "Asian American writer." Since the
entrance of Aiiieeeee and the beginnings of the Asian American Movement in the
late 1960's, Asian American poetry has expanded to cover vast political and
aesthetic terrain, though knotted questions remain over what designating a work
as "Asian American" allows us to see and understand. In this course,
we'll examine the aesthetic heterogeneity and capaciousness of this slippery
category through the lens of contemporary AAPI and Asian diaspora poets who
write in invigoratingly diverse modes, forms, styles, and visions. How do
contemporary AAPI poets innovate poetically to address evolving concerns of the
AAPI community? How do works by these poets deepen or destabilize our
understanding of race and racialization? Course readings will include the
poetry of Nellie Wong, Garrett Hongo, Theresa Cha, Bhanu Kapil, Rajiv Mohabir,
Monica Youn, Solmaz Sharif, John Yau, Sarah Howe, Sally Wen Mao, Monica Sok,
Hieu Minh Nguyen, and more. The class will also feature writings by Anne Anlin
Cheng, Timothy Yu, Dorothy Wang, and Cathy Park Hong as critical frameworks for
our conversations around race, form, and intersections between politics and
aesthetics. In tandem with the course texts, students will write their own
poetry, and engage in interdisciplinary modes of response. This course is open
to all students with an interest in AAPI poetry and poetics, along with larger
discussions around race and poetic innovation.