UNIT 1: ASIAN AMERICANISM AND THE PROBLEM OF THE COLOR LINES
February 12 – Race, the Color Line, and Black-Asian Connections.
Due: Feb 12 online reflection
- W.E.B. Du Bois
- Vijay Prashad (2001) Karma of Brown Folk, “Preface” and Chapters 1-2, pg. 1-20
- Cedric Robinson (1983) Black Marxism, “Chapter 1: Racial Capitalism,” pg 9-28
In Class: Watch documentary American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs
Optional Event: Asian American Studies Speaker Series ~ February 15, 4:30-6:00 pm in 100 Jones Hall ~ Maile Arvin
February 19 – Keywords: The Model Minority, Allyship, and Asian American Studies
Due: Thesis statement for workshop; Reflection on Feb 12 class, Feb 19 online reflection,
The Model Minority Myth:
- Claire Jean Kim (1999) “The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans,” pg. 105-138
- Susan Koshy (2001) “Morphing Race into Ethnicity: Asian Americans and Critical Transformations of Whiteness,” pg. 153-194
Allyship
- (2015) “A Critique of Ally Politics”
- Nazia Kazi (2017) “#NoWallNoBan: Muslims and Latinx as Enemies of the State”
Asian American Studies
In Class: Finish documentary American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs and thesis statement workshop
February 26 – The Pacific Question
Due: Paper outline for workshop; Analytical paper due Friday, March 2 at 5pm in McCosh 42
- Kehaulani Kauanui (2004) “Asian American Studies and the Pacific Question,” p. 123-143 (Read Chapter 7 of attached PDF)
- Epeli Hau‘ofa (1994) “Our Sea of Islands,” pg. 2-17
- Kornel Chang (2012) Pacific Connections, 1-53
Optional Event: Asian American Studies Speaker Series ~ March 1 at 4:30-6:00 pm in 100 Jones Hall ~ Jasbir Puar
UNIT 2: HISTORIES OF WAR
March 5 – The Turn of the Century.
Due: Reflection on Feb 26 class, March 5 online reflection
*Note: No office hours this week
- Vincente Rafael (2000) “White Love,” pg. 19-51
- Mae Ngai (2014) Impossible Subjects, “Introduction” and Chapter 2, pg. 1-14, 56-90 (Also, skim Chapter 1)
- Nayan Shah (2005) “Between ‘Oriental Depravity’ and ‘Natural Degenerates,’” pg 703-725
March 12 – World War II.
Due: Thesis statement for workshop; Reflection on March 5 class, March 12 online reflection
Guest Speaker: Carol Smith
- Mae Ngai (2004), Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America, Chapter 3-5: pg. 91-201
- Ruth Wilson Gilmore (2009) “Race, Prisons, War,” pg. 73-87
Sample New Yorker profiles (read at least two):
- Ariel Levy (2016) “Ali Wong’s Radical Raunch”
- Rachel Aviv (2016) “Surviving Solitary” (Profile of Albert Woodfox)
- Claudia Roth Pierpont (2014) “A Raised Voice” (Profile of Nina Simone)
- Lahr (2016) “Viola Davis’s Call to Adventure”
March 19 – Spring Break
March 26 – The Cold War and Proxy Wars
Due: Paper outline for workshop; Analytical paper due Friday, March 30 at 5pm in McCosh 42
- Robeson Taj Frazier. The East is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination, Chapter 1: “Ruminations on Eastern Passage,” pg. 37-71
- Nguyễn Khắc Viện (2013), Viet Nam: A Long History, Chapter 9, pg. 292-343
- Max Hastings (2018), “Wrath of the Centurions:” Review of My Lai: Vietnam, 1968 and the Descent into Darkness by Howard Jones
- Grace Cho (2006) “Diaspora of Camptown: The Forgotten War’s Monstrous Family,” pg. 309-331
UNIT 3: GEOGRAPHIES OF IMPERIALISM, PROXIMITY, AND RESISTANCE
April 2 – Geographical re-orientations
Due: Reflection on March 26 class, April 2 online reflection
Guest Speaker: Nhan Ngo
- Edward Said (1979) Orientalism, p. 31-55
- Martin Luther King (1967) “Beyond Vietnam”
- Frantz Fanon (1961) “On Violence,” pg. 1-52
April 9 – Defining War
Due: Draft of personal profile due April 13, 2018
Guest Speaker: April Chou and Tara Ohrtman
*Note: No office hours this week
- Lê Thi Diem Thúy (2003) The Gangster We Are All Looking For
- Baghdad Burning (2006-2013) The Blog of a Girl from Iraq
- Carl Von Clausewitz (1832) On War, pg. 75-89
April 16 – Geographies of Proximity and Resistance
Due: Profile piece, Friday, April 20 Friday, at 5pm in McCosh 42
- Eric Tang (2015) Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in the New York City Hyperghetto, “Introduction,” Chapter 3-4, page 1-27, 77-113
- Glenn Omatsu (2000) “The ‘Four Prisons’ and the Movements of Liberation: Asian American Activism from the 1960s to 1990s,” pg. 60-97
- Jennifer Pan (2015) “Beyond the Model Minority Myth”
Optional Event: Asian American Studies Speaker Series – April 19 at 4:30-6:00 pm in 100 Jones Hall – Allan Punzalan Isaac
April 23 – Workshop of Dr. L’s Manuscript: Island on the Axis
Due: Reflection on April 16 class, April 23 online reflection
Optional Event: Asian American Studies Speaker Series ~ March 1 at 4:30-6:00 pm in 100 Jones Hall ~ Helen Zia
April 30 – Popular Education Presentations
May 7-9 in the afternoon – Office hour appointments (optional)
Friday, May 18 at 5pm, via email: Final Paper Due
