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Courses
Current offerings:
Intimacy and Asian Migrations
AMST
211,EAST
251,
FGSS 204
Professor Nayan
Shah FALL
2006
Office: Ctr for the
Americas
115 Hrs: W 9:30-11 am; 4-4:30
p.m.
This seminar explores the history of
interracial and intercultural intimacy generated
by the migrations from Asia in the Americas, from the
nineteenth century to the present.
We will focus on social and sexual ties and the political practices and
cultural meanings
generated in the convergence of peoples through migration, imperialism,
capitalism and global transformations. We will
examine the fears and fascination
with marking racial, ethnic and national difference in intimate relations.
We will explore
the history of interracial marriage and controversies over government
legitimacy; the
cultural politics of intraracial or intraethnic reproduction; queer and
gender dissident
social ties and cultural spaces; and the perceived dangers and utopian
visions that
are harnessed to this tangle of race, gender and sexual identities and
practices.
The assignments, research activities, and class discussion will engage with
both
the theoretical and practical work of analyzing research questions, problems
and
methods in disciplines that explore the past including history, American
studies,
Asian Studies, gender studies, and ethnic studies.
Requirements
1)
Reading and Preparation: Students should come to the weekly seminar meeting,
having read all required reading and ready to raise questions and explore
conceptual
and research problems that emerge from the reading. In order to ensure
effective
learning, students are required to bring all reading (either books or
photocopies of reserve reading) to class, along with their own notes.
2)
Reading Response Papers: (4 papers) Each paper should be a 2-3 page typed
double-spaced response to the readings assigned for the week. Follow
INSTRUCTION SHEET FOR READING RESPONSE PAPERS for guidance on writing the
paper.
1st response paper:
All students are expected to write a response paper
for Week 2 (September 13)
2nd
response paper: Choose Week 3, 4, or 5 to write a response paper
3rd
and 4th response papers: Choose 2 times for Weeks 7, 8, 9, 10,
11 & 12
Bring two copies of the paper to class; one to hand in and the other
to refer to during class discussion. The paper is due promptly at the start
of the seminar.
**40% of your grade**
2)
Longer Paper:
(Friday December 1; 12
noon) A 20 page typed
double-spaced interpretive
paper on a topic based additional research combined with course readings
and/or historical documents. There will be a requirement of a paper
proposal and selected bibliography due
in class on November 1st. Details on the proposal
requirements and paper requirements will be available in early October.
Oral Presentation to the class will be part of the total grade for
this project.
**50% of your grade**
3)
Participation:
Careful reading of all the assigned reading and informed and active
participation in the discussion is crucial for the success of this seminar.
Therefore,
the quality of your class performance is an important element of your
overall evaluation.
**10% of your grade**
WHERE DO I GET THE READING?
All articles and book excerpts are
will be available on Electronic
Reserve or through links to
article retrieval services like JSTOR. Please check with the library
reserve webpage for further
details.
Students are expected to print out a copy
of this reading and bring your copy to class.
Required Books
are available for purchase at the bookstore.
David Eng and Alice Hom, Q&A: Queer in
Asian America
(Temple University Press, 1998)
Mary Ting Yi Lui, The
Chinatown Trunk Mystery: Murder,
Miscegenation, and Other Dangerous Encounters in Turn-of-the-Century New
York City (Princeton
University Press, 2004)
Eithne Luibheid, Entry Denied:
Controlling Sexuality at the Border (University of
Minnesota Press, 2002)
Martin Manalansan, Global Divas:
Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora (Duke University Press, 2003
Linda Espana Maram, Creating
Masculinity in Los Angeles's
Little Manila : Working-Class Filipinos and Popular Culture in the United
States (Columbia
University Press, 2006)
Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Doctor Mom Chung and
the Fair-Haired Bastards (University of
California Press, 2005)
Week 1 Sept 6 Introduction
Week 2 Sept 13 Theories of Intimacy,
Sexuality, Gender and Asian Americas
Lisa Lowe, “Intimacies on Four continents”
Ann Stoler (ed.) Haunted by Empire: Geographies of Intimacy in North
American History (Duke University Press, 2006) pp. 191-212
Ting, Jennifer P. “The Power of
Sexuality,” Journal of Asian American Studies 1, no. 1 (1998) 65-82
Jennifer Ting, “Bachelor Society: Deviant
Historiography and Asian American Heterosexuality” Gary Okihiro (ed.)
Privileging Positions: The Site of Asian American Studies (University
of Washington Press, 1995), pp. 271-280
Sylvia Yanagisako, “Transforming
Orientalism: Gender, Nationality and Class in Asian American Studies,” in
Naturalizing Power, ed. by Sylvia Yanagisako and Carol Delaney (New
York: Routledge, 1995), pp. 275-298.
Eithne Lubheid, Introduction, p. ix-xxvii;
Chapter 1 Entry Denied, pp. 1-30; Chapter 2 Blueprint for Exclusion,
pp. 31-54; Chapter 3 Birthing a Nation
Nancy Cott, Public Vows (Harvard
University Press, 2001) Intro and Chapter 6 p. 1-12; 132-155 + notes
Janet Jakobsen, “Sex +Freedom=
Regulation: Why?” Social Text No 84-85 (Fall 2005) p. 285-308
Week 4 Sept 27
Chinatown Fantasies, Fears
and Vulnerable Lives
Wu, Judy Tzu-Chun. “Asian American History
and Racialized Compulsory Deviance,” Journal of Women’s History 15,
no. 3 (2003): 58-62
Lui, Mary Ting Yi. The
Chinatown Trunk Mystery: Murder,
Miscegenation, and Other Dangerous Encounters in Turn-of-the-Century New
York City. (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2005)
Nayan Shah, Contagious Divides
Chapters 3
Recommended:
Jew, Victor. “‘Chinese Demons’: The
Violent Articulation of Chinese Otherness and Interracial Sexuality in the
U.S. Midwest, 1885-1889,” Journal of Social History 32, no. 2 (2003):
389-410
Joan Wang, “Race, Gender, and Laundry
Work: The Roles of Chinese Laundrymen and American Women in the
US, 1850-1950” Journal of American Ethnic History 24 No 1 (Fall 2004) p.
58-99
John Kuo Tchen, New York before Chinatown
(Johns Hopkins University Press,
2000)
Week 5 Oct 4 Politics of National
and Natural Belonging
Leti Volpp, “Divesting Citizenship: On
Asian American History and the Loss of Citizenship
Through Marriage” UCLA Law Review December 2005 53 UCLA pp 405-483
Devon Carbado, “Racial Naturalization”, American Quarterly (2005) pp. 41-66
Siobhan B. Somerville, “Notes Toward a
Queer history of Naturalization”, American (2005) Quarterly pp. 67-84
Recommended
Martha Gardner, The Qualities of a
Citizen, Women, Immigration and Citizenship, 1870-1965, (Princeton
University Press, 2005) Chapter 1
Todd Stevens, “Tender Ties: Husbands
Rights and Racial Exclusion in Chinese Marrigage Cases, 1882-1924” 27
Law and Social Inquiry 271, 300 (2002)
Cermak, Bonni. “Race, Honor, Citizenship:
The Massie Rape/Murder Case,” in Merril D. Smith ed. Sex Without Consent:
Rape and Sexual Coercion in
America. (New York: New York
University Press, 2001)
Rosa, John P. “Local Story: The Massie
Case Narrative and the Cultural Production of Local Identity in Hawai’i,”
Amerasia Journal 26, no. 2 (2000): 93-115
Pamela Haag, Consent: Sexual Rights and
the Transformation of American Liberalism (Cornell University Press, 1999),
Chap 6 “Race Lust in Paradise”…p. 143-176
Week 7 Oct 18
The Perils of Same-Sex Intimacies
Nayan Shah, “Between Oriental Depravity”
and Natural Degenerates”: Spatial Borderlands and the Making of Ordinary
Americans” American Quarterly September 2005, pp. 703-725
Gordon Brent Ingram, “The Uses of Trial
Dossiers on Consensual Male Homosexuality for Urban Research, with Examples
from Twentieth-Century British Columbia” GLQ: 10.1 (2003) 77-110
Recommended:
Peter Boag, Same
Sex Affairs, Intro , Chapters 1, 2,3, pp. 1-124
Samuel R. Delaney, Times Square Red,
Times Square Blue
Week 8 Oct 25 Commercial Culture and
Subcultures
Linda Espana Maram, Creating
Masculinity in Los Angeles's Little Manila : Working-Class Filipinos and
Popular Culture in the United States (Columbia University Press, 2006),
read introduction and focus on Chapters 2-4
Recommended:
Cressey, Paul Goalby. The Taxi-Dance
Hall: A Sociological Study in the Commercialized Recreation and City Life.
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1932)
McBee, Randy
D.
Dance Hall Days: Intimacy, Leisure among
Working-Class Immigrants in the United States.
(New York: New York University Press, 2000)
Mumford, Kevin
J.
Interzones: black/white sex districts in
Chicago and New York in the Early Twentieth Century.
(New York: Columbia University Press,
1997), Chapter
Rhacel Salazar Parrenas, “White Trash
Meets the Little Brown Monkeys” Amerasia vol 24, no 2 (summer 1998),
pp. 115-134
Week 9 Nov 1 Regulating Intimate
Ties and Shaping Domesticity
Leti Volpp American Mestizo: Filipinos and
Antimiscegenation Laws in California,
33 UC Davis L. Rev.(2000)
p. 795-835
Nayan Shah "Adjudicating Intimacies in
U.S. Frontiers" Ann Laura Stoler (ed) Haunted By Empire: Geographies of
Intimacy in North American History (Durham: Duke University Press,
2006)
Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Doctor Mom Chung and the
Fair-Haired Bastards (University of California
Press, 2005), Chapter 1, pp. 9-22, Skim Chapters 2-4, 23-85
Recommended
Dara Orenstein, “Void for Vagueness: Mexicans and the Collapse of
Miscegenation Law in California”
Pacific Historical Review vol 74, no 3 (August 2005) pp. 367-408
Peggy Pascoe,
“Miscegnation Law, Court Cases and Ideologies of Race in 20th Century
America” Journal of American History vol 83, no 1 June 1996 pp.
44-69
Nayan Shah, Contagious Divides, Chapter 4
Week 10 Nov 8 Fictive Kinship
Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Doctor Mom Chung and the
Fair-Haired Bastards (University of California
Press, 2005), Chapters 6-9, pp. 86-154; Chap 11, pp. 170-84
Rachel Lee Chapter 1“Fraternal Devotions: Carlos Bulosan and the
Sexual Politic of America” in ,
pp. 17-43, 156-160
Recommended:
Erika Lee, At America’s Gates: Chinese
Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943 p. 189-243, 284-292
Daniel Y. Kim, “On
the Strange Love of Frank Chin” in Q&A pp. 270-303
Week 11 Nov 15 Family Revisions and
Social Futures
Karen Leonard, Making Ethnic Choices
(Temple University Press), Chapter 4-6; p. 62-122; Notes, pp. 245-265
Henry Yu, “Tiger Woods Is
Not the End of History: or, Why Sex across the Color Line Won’t Save Us
All.” The American Historical Review Vol. 108, No. 5, Dec. 2003, pp.
1406-1414.
Arissa Oh, “A New Kind of Missionary
Work: Christians, Christian Americans and the Adoption of Korean GI
Babies, 1955-1961” Women’s Studies Quarterly 33 no 3-4(2005) p. 161-188.
Recommended:
Barbara Posadas, "Mestiza Girlhood:
Interracial Familes in Chicago's Filipino American Community" in Making
Waves: Writings By and About Asian American Women, ed. Asian
Women United, pp. 273-282
Roland B. Tolentino, “Bodies, Letters,
Catalogs: Filipinas in Transnational Space.” Social Text 48, Vol. 14,
No. 3, Fall 1996. 49-76
Yu, Henry. “Mixing Bodies and Cultures:
The Meaning of America’s Fascination with Sex between ‘Orientals’ and
‘Whites’” in Martha Hodes ed. Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in
North American History. (New York: New York University Press, 1999)
David A. Hollinger, “Amalgamation and
Hypodescent: The Question of Ethnoracial Mixture in the History of the
United States.” The American Historical Review Vol. 108, No. 5, Dec.
2003, pp. 1363-1390.
Week 12 Nov 29 Queer Mobilities and
Diasporic Collusions
Martin Manalansan, Global Divas: Filipino
Gay Men in the Diaspora (Duke University Press, 2003, , Chapters 1, 2, 4,
and conclusion, p.21-61, 89-125
David Eng, “Out Here and Over There: Queerness and Diaspora
in Asian American Studies.” Social Text
52/53
(Autumn-Winter 1997): 31-52.
Gayatri Gopinath, Impossible Desires:
Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures (Duke University Press,
2005), Intro, p. 1-28; Chapter 6 Nostalgia, Desire, Diaspora, p. 161-186
Recommended
Nayan Shah, “Sexuality, Identity, and the
Uses of History.” In D. Eng and A. Y. Hom eds. Q & A: queer in Asian
America,
Temple University Press, 1998.
Jee Yuen Lee, “Toward a Queer American
Diasporic History” Q&A, pp. 185-209
Chandan Reddy, “Asian Diaporas,
Neoliberalism and Family: Reviewing the Case for Homosexual Asylum in the
Context of Family Rights” in Social Text No 84-85 (Fall 2005)
David L. Eng, Racial Castration
(Duke University Press, 2001), pp. 104-136 + 242-249
Jasbir Puar and Amit Rai, “Monster,
Terrorist, Fag: The War on Terrorism and the Production of Docile
Patriots” Social Text no 72 (2002) p. 117-148
Recommended
Leti Volpp, “The Citizen and the
Terrorist” UCLA Law Review 49 (2002)
Muneer Ahmed, “Homeland Insecurities:
Racial Violence the Day after Steptember 11” Social Text no 72
(2002) p. 101-115
Past offerings:
spring 2006
Diaspora and
Transnationalism:Theory & Narrative
AMST 212 SP
This seminar is a part of a
four-year project supported by the Freeman Asian/Asian American Initiative
grant to further develop the study of Asia and the Asian diaspora at
Wesleyan University. This seminar will explore the inter-related themes of
diaspora and transnationalism in the Asia Pacific. It is now clear that
Asian migrants form diasporic networks and engage in transnational practices
and relationships that may ebb and flow, but tend to persist over time and
space. How migrants make their own transnational histories, and how
historians construct diasporic narratives will be examined in depth through
newly published case studies that represent the diversity of Asian
experiences across the Americas and across the Pacific.
MAJOR READINGS
Azuma, E., BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES: RACE,
HISTORY AND TRANSNATIONALISM
Choy, C. C., EMPIRE OF LOVE
Yuh, Ji-Yeon, BEYOND THE SHADOW OF CAMPTOWN
Liu, Haiming, THE TRANSNATIONAL HISTORY OF A CHINESE FAMILY, (Rutgers 2005)
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Case study research paper, 25-30 pp.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
Attendance and participation required.
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed
Area Dept: SBS AMST Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE
SECTION 01
Instructor(s):
Hu-DeHart,Evelyn
Times: ...W... 01:10PM-04:00PM; Location: TBA
Reserved Seats: (Total Limit: 15)
Special Attributes:
Curricular Renewal: Reading Non-Verbal Texts
Permission: Permission of Instructor Required
POI forms will be distributed by the instructor during the browsing period
of pre-registration and must be submitted to the Registrar's office prior to
the on-line registration appointment
Syllabus:
Prof. Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Freeman Visiting Professor
Office: Center for the Americas
Office Hours: Tuesdays, Noon-6 PM; Wednesdays 9-Noon, and by Appointment by
Email:
ehudehart@wesleyan.edu
and/or Evelyn_HuDeHart@brown.edu
This seminar is part of a four-year
project supported by the Freeman Asian/Asian American Initiative to further
the study of Asia and the Asian diaspora at Wesleyan University. As
Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos and other Asians migrate across the
Pacific to many points in the Americas, they create far-flung co-ethnic
communities to form “diaspora,” sustained by “transnational” practices and
relationships with the homeland and each other. We will examine how
diaspora and transnationalism are theorized, and focus on how key Asian
migrant groups in the Americas make their own transnational histories, and
how historians construct diasporic narratives.
This course originates in the American Studies program, and because of its
trans-Pacific and trans-America orientation and coverage, it is crosslisted
with East Asian and Latin American Studies. Furthermore, the approach is
largely historical, hence it is also crosslisted with History.
Meeting Time and Place:
Wednesdays, 1:10 to 4 PM
Center for the Americas Room 3
Requirements:
Class attendance (you must email
me to explain an absence).
Class participation, based on reading and other assignments
Group in-class presentation (see below for details)
Individual in-class presentation (see below for details)
Research Paper, 15-20 pages, due on day of Final Exam (there will be no
in-class final)
Required Texts*
E. Azuma. Between Two
Empires. Race, History, and Transnationalism in Japanese America.
(2005)
M. Hsu. Dreaming of Gold,
Dreaming of Home. Transnationalism and Migration Between the United
States and South China, 1882-1943. (2000)
A. Khan. Callaloo Nation.
Metaphors of Race and Religious Identity Among South Asians in
Trinidad. (2004)
A. McKeown. Chinese Migrant
Networks and Cultural Change: Peru, Chicago, Hawaii, 1900-1936.
(2001)
R. Parreñas. Children of
Global Migration. Transnational Families and Gendered Woes. (2005)
L. Siu. Memories of a Future
Home. Diasporic Citizenship of Chinese in Panama. (2005)
Ji-Yong Yuh. Beyond the Shadow
of Camptown. Korea Military Brides in America. (2002)
*All except Siu are Paperbacks,
available at the Wesleyan Bookstore.
Siu is available only in Hardback,
but author has made copies available to students in this seminar at
paperback prices; you can purchase this from me.
Note on Texts and Readings:
The entire class will read and
discuss three of these texts together: Hsu, McKeown and Siu; thus I expect
all of you to purchase these books.
While I expect you to also acquire
and read the other texts, students in the seminar will be divided into small
groups, each responsible to lead discussion on one of the texts. Students
not leading the discussion are still expected to spend some time with the
book, so they can follow the lead discussion, pose good questions, and
engage the lead discussants in a meaningful dialogue.
Course Plan, Class Meetings and
Reading Assignments
I. Introduction
and Orientation. January 25; Feb. 8
In Class: View documentary “Ancestors in the Americas: Coolies,
Sailors, Settlers,” by Asian American filmmaker Loni Ding.
Peruse Prof. Hu-DeHart’s personal
Newspaper File in Diaspora
Reading assignments:
handouts on theory of diaspora and transnationalism: Safran, Tololyan,
Clifford, Cohen, Basch et al.
Read these short
essays and excerpts carefully in preparation for discussion during next
class (Feb. 1). Mark the essays to note the important passages and
definitions. Make a list of key words that appear and recur, starting with
Diaspora and Transnationalism. Here are a few others: Migration,
Immigration, Dispersal, Settlement, Displacement, Home, Homeland,
Citizenship, Assimilation, Nation-State, Race, Ethnicity. You will find
many more. Bring this list to Feb. 1 class for discussion.
For each of the articles, make
notes about the key points and main theses, and be sure to bring these notes
to class, along with your marked-up copies.
Make note of where the different
authors converge (agree), and where they seem to diverge or disagree.
II.Constructing
the Chinese Diaspora: Feb. 1, 8 and 15, 22.
February 1
In class:
Discuss the reading assignments
from January 25 and your list of key words.
Discuss the newspaper articles you have picked out from Prof. Hu-DeHart’s
Diaspora File.
Lecture on Chinese migration throughout the world and to the Americas.
Reading assignment: Finish
Hsu
Feb. 8. Constructing the Chinese diaspora narrative:
In Class:
Lecture (continue)
Summary and questions about last week’s discussion.
Discussion: We
will begin with M. Hsu’s study of the Taishanese immigrants from South China
to the U.S. in the late 19th to early 20th century.
What kind of story does the author want to tell? What is her central
organizing principle for telling this story? How is “home” constructed in
this narrative? Pay particular attention to the details of the lives of
these migrants, with particular attention to family (children and women).
How does Globalization figure into the narrative? What are the changes
over time in the migrants’ ability and inclination to sustain transnational
relationships and practices? Refer to the readings under Theory, the Cohen
charts, and the list of key words. Break down the book frame by frame (or
chapter by chapter). Make your own list of questions to discuss with the
class. Are there any questions raised but left unanswered by the author?
What are the strengths and weakness of this narrative. Think back on the
documentary we saw on January 25; does it serve as a complementary text to
Hsu?
We will also pay a visit to Prof.
Tololyan’s Diaspora Journal archive.
Reading assignment: Finish
McKeown
February 15:
In class:
Lecture: continue overview of the
worldwide Chinese diaspora, with particular attention to Latin America.
Summary and questions about last
week’s discussion.
Discussion: Class
discussion will focus on McKeown. Go back to the questions above posed re
Hsu. Most also apply to McKeown. But this book is also different. How
does the author construct a narrative based on comparing three distinct
Chinese communities in the Americas? What kind of institution and practices
bind these disparate communities together, and serve as the author’s
organizing principle for constructing his narrative? Do McKeown and Hsu
share the same understanding of diaspora and transnationalism, and where
might they differ (fundamentally or as a matter of emphasis). Taken
together, do they add up to one, richer narrative than separately?
Reading assignment: Finish Siu
February 22:
In Class:
Lecture
Summary and questions
Discussion: We will discuss Siu on
Chinese in Panama and wrap up our in-depth examination of the Chinese
diaspora in the Americas.
Unlike Hsu and
McKeown, Siu is an anthropologist. Although she provides a brief history of
the Chinese migration to Panama, her narrative is constructed differently.
Note that in the title of the book, there is no time period. The narrative
is not chronological but thematic; the research is not conducted in archives
but in the field, with the data collection method primarily ethnographic.
Siu provides a very clear theoretical model to make sense of the Chinese in
Panama; so what exactly is “diasporic citizenship”? How does this narrative
work alongside the Hsu and McKeown?
III. After this
close examination of the Chinese diaspora, we break into group projects,
each group taking on another Asian diaspora in the Americas based on one
study on the reading list and some supplementary reading I will distribute.
Each of these studies presents a distinct narrative on a specific aspect of
a particular Asian diaspora. Each group will make a class presentation and
lead a class discussion. Each topic will be accompanied by a film, which
serves as an additional text or narrative. When we get to this segment of
the course, I will provide more guidelines, but the general outline and
schedule is as follows:
March 1: Japanese and
nation-state politics
Reading: Azuma
Film: “Gaijin caminhos da
libertade,” feature film by Brazilian-Japanese filmmaker Tizuka Yamasaki
March 3 (Friday), 9-11 AM.
Optional assignment: Freeman Forum, “Novelizing diaspora,” with Karen Tei
Yamashita and Marie Lee.
March 8: Korean women and
war
Reading: Yuh
Film: “First Person Plural,”
documentary on Korean adoptee returning to Korea, by Deann Borshay Liem (her
own journey “home”).
March 12-26: Spring Break
March 29: South Asians and
religion
Reading: Khan
Film: “Roots in the Sand,”
documentary on Punjabi farmers in early 20th c. California, by
Jayasri Majumdar
April 5: Class in Library,
working on your research project.
April 12: Filipino children of diaspora
Reading: Parreñas
Film: “Chain of Love,”
documentary of Filipina women migrant workers, by Marije Meerman.
April 14,
9-11 AM. Optional assignment: Freeman Forum, “The Anthropological gaze:
ethnography and fieldwork on diaspora research,” with Profs. Rhacel Parreñas
and Lok Siu, 2 authors whose books we have read.
April 16 and 26: In-class
presentation of individual research projects
May 3: Finish individual
research presentations. Summation and Evaluation.
May 15: Last day to submit
your final paper.
Fall 2004
Diaspora
and Asian American Experiences
EAST 251 FA/ Crosslistings:AMST 211
Professor Taku Suzuki
This year-long
innovative course is part of a four-year project supported by the Freeman
Initiative grant to further develop the study of Asia and the Asian diaspora
at Wesleyan. Introducing recent theoretical approaches to topics in Asian
American history and in understanding Asian American experiences, the course
aims at learning about Asian diaspora through classroom study and guided
research during the summer.
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level: UGRD Credit:
1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA EAST Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE
SECTION 01
This section
introduces Asian American history, which focuses on the experience of
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian, Filipino, and Southeast Asian
ancestry in the United States. Asian Americans today are often portrayed by
two extreme images: Either as 'model minority' who are as culturally
assimilated and economically successful as, if not more than, the white
majority, or as impoverished refugees and illegal immigrants who exploit the
US social welfare system. The history of Asian immigrants and Asian
Americans in the past 150 years, however, reveals diversity and complexity
of Asian American experiences against the backdrop of the larger context of
immigration policies and race relations within the US. By examining
historical experiences and contemporary issues surrounding Asian American in
the past and present, the course seeks to gain better understanding of not
only Asian immigration history and Asian American communities but also the
modern US history, economy, and culture in general.
This course, which will survey Asian American history from the
mid-nineteenth century to the present, is divided into three parts. The
first part of the course will focus on the experiences of the early Asian
immigrants of the nineteenth century, such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
Filipino, and Indian immigrants from the mid-nineteenth century to WW II.
The second part will move on to the dramatic transformations of Asian
American communities in the postwar era. Asian immigrants in the 1950s,
including the so-called war brides from Korea and Japan, as well as the
post-1965 wave of Asian immigrants from China/Taiwan, the Philippines,
Korea, and India, and refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (such as
Hmong) will be explored. Lastly , we will examine contemporary issues facing
Asian Americans today. Topics to be explored include: anti-Asian violence
and political activism, media representations, gender relations and domestic
problems, and Asian Americans in the post-9-11 era.
The course materials represent a variety of disciplines (history,
anthropology, sociology, and literature) and sources (autobiography,
internet article, and film) that illuminate complexity and diversity of
Asian American experiences. You will be asked to contribute to the class by
sharing your own insights and critiques through discussions, essays, and
presentations. The course, in other words, is not merely an overview of
Asian American history, but also an intellectual exercise to critically
engage with our past by use of self-reflexive imagination and expression.
Major Readings
Wu, Jean, and Min Song, eds. 2000.
ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES: A READER. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
Press.
Simpson, Caroline Chung. 2001. AN ABSENT PRESENCE: JAPANESE AMERICANS IN
POSTWAR AMERICAN CULTURE, 1945-1960. Durham, NC.: Duke University Press.
Murayama, Milton. 1988(1959). ALL I ASKING FOR IS MY BODY. Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press.
Maira, Sunaina. 2002. DESIS IN THE HOUSE: INDIAN AMERICAN YOUTH CULTURE IN
NEW YORK. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Fadiman, Anne. 1997. THE SPIRIT CATCHES YOU AND YOU FALL DOWN: A HMONG
CHILD, HER AMERICAN DOCTORS, AND THE COLLISION OF TWO CULTURES. New York:
Farrar Straus & Giroux.
Espiritu, Yen Le. 2003. HOMEBOUND: FILIPINO AMERICAN LIVES ACROSS CULTURES,
COMMUNITIES, AND COUNTRIES. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Park, Kyeyoung. 1997. THE KOREAN AMERICAN DREAM: IMMIGRANTS AND SMALL
BUSINESS IN NEW YORK CITY. Ithaca, NY.: Cornell University Press.
Examinations and Assignments
Several class projects and a final
research paper.
Additional Requirements and/or
Comments
First-year students are excluded
from this course.
Instructor(s):
Suzuki,Taku
Times: ...W... 01:10PM-04:00PM;
Location: TBA
Reserved Seats:
(Total Limit: 15)
SR. major: 0 Jr. major: 0
SR. non-major: 5 Jr. non-major: 4 SO: 6 FR: X
Special Attributes:
SECTION 02
Professor Anita Mannur
This section of
the fall course examines how the term "diaspora" has been historically and
theoretically constituted with specific reference to its usage within Asian
and Asian American Studies. In this semester-long course devoted to
situating the study of Asian America within a global perspective, we will
take up the problem of examining what it means to think, and feel beyond
"Asian America." Reading an array of wide-ranging materials, in relation to
Asian diasporas (South Asian, East Asian), this course examines the place of
the United States, and "America" in a larger global framework paying close
attention to the ways in which Asia haunts the American imagination and
conversely, how "Asian America" is imagined in "Asian" cultural production .
The course will follow the basic format of pairing one critical work with
one film, novel, play or cultural text in its exploration of how diaspora is
an important analytic and critical tool for understanding recent
trajectories within Asian American Studies--intellectual, political, and
cultural.
Major Readings
MODERNITY AT LARGE: THE
CULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF GLOBALIZATION Arjun Appadurai
FLEXIBLE CITIZENSHIP: THE CULTURAL LOGICS OF TRANSNATIONALITY Aihwa
Ong
THEORIZING DIASPORA Eds. Anita Mannur and Jane Evans Braziel
GLOBAL DIVAS: FILIPINO GAY MEN IN THE DIASPORA Martin F. Manalansan
IV
DESIS IN THE HOUSE: INDIAN AMERICAN YOUTH CULTURE IN NEW YORK CITY
Sunaina Maira
THE BOOK OF SALT Monique Truong
FUNNY BOY Shyam Selvadurai
Examinations and Assignments
Several class projects and a final
research paper.
Instructor(s):
Mannur,Anita H.
Times: .M..... 01:10PM-04:00PM;
Location: TBA
Reserved Seats:
(Total Limit: 15)
SR. major: 0 Jr. major: 0
SR. non-major: 5 Jr. non-major: 4 SO: 6 FR: X
Special Attributes:
Curricular Renewal: Reading Non-Verbal Texts, Writing
Spring 2005
Asian Diaspora in the
Americas/AMST 212 SP/Crosslistings: EAST 252/ALIT205/ENG299
This year-long
innovative course is a part of a four-year project supported by the Freeman
Asian/Asian American Initiative grant to further develop the study of Asian
and the Asian diaspora at Wesleyan University.
COURSE
FORMAT: Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS
AMST Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE
SECTION 01
This section explores Korean and Korean diaspora through
history, literature, and film. In the fist part of the course, which is
about Korea, Korea's literary and historical modernizations will be
reviewed, after which a more in-depth exploration of recent Korean
literature and film will begin. During this first part of the course, the
North/South split and its psychological and artistic effects will be
highlighted. We will also analyze developments in Korean cinema,
particularly the new prominence of Korean film beginning in the 1990s. In
the second part of the course, which centers on Korean diaspora, we will
take up materials originally written in English. We will compare and
contrast these with materials from the first part of the course, originally
written in Korean. Throughout, we will ask how the issue of Korea and its
tensions and successes figures on the Korean-American scene.
- Major Readings
-
Kim and Fulton, tr., A READY-MADE LIFE
Pihl, Fulton, and Fulton, LAND OF EXILE: CONTEMPORARY KOREAN FICTION
Suh, tr., BROTHER ENEMY. POEMS OF THE KOREAN WAR
Fulton and Fulton, tr., WAYFARER: NEW FICTION BY KOREAN WOMEN
Chang-rae Lee, NATIVE SPEAKER
Chang-rae Lee, ALOFT
Susan Choi, THE FOREIGN STUDENT
Susan Choi, AMERICAN WOMAN: A NOVEL
Patti Kim, A CAB CALLED RELIABLE
Caroline Hwang, IN FULL BLOOM
Helie Lee, ABSENCE IN THE SUN
Hyangjin Lee, CONTEMPORARY KOREAN CINEMA
Cha and Kang, NUCLEAR NORTH KOREA: A DEBATE ON ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Bruce Cumings, KOREA'S PLACE IN THE SUN, A MODERN HISTORY
Films:
JOINT SECURITY AREA
SHIRI
- Examinations and Assignments
- Three short (3-5 pp.) papers
One final paper, 8-10 pp.
- Additional Requirements and/or Comments
- Class participation
One or two additional movie screenings may be required.
- Instructor(s):
Widmer,Ellen B.
- Times: ..T.R.. 02:40PM-04:00PM; Location: TBA
- Reserved
Seats: (Total Limit: 15)
- Special Attributes:
- Curricular Renewal: Reading Non-Verbal Texts
SECTION 02
How do we make sense of Asian American culture as a
coalition of differences and contradictions? This seminar will survey and
read closely recent scholarship on Asian American culture. This class will
interrogate how these works theorize the textual, cultural and political
coalition called Asian America and its connections with other communities of
color. We will apply these theories to literary and filmic texts by and
about Asian Americans. Moreover, we will ask how such theories help us
re-conceptualize difference, nationhood, citizenship and coalition.
- Major Readings
Texts will include:
Lowe, IMMIGRANT ACTS
Okihiro, MARGINS AND MAINSTREAMS
Espirtitu, ASIAN AMERICAN PANETHNICITY
Palumbo-Liu, ASIAN AMERICA
Prashad, EVERYBODY WAS KUNG-FU FIGHTING: AFRO-ASIAN CONNECTIONS AND THE
MYTH OF CULTURAL PURITY
- Examinations and Assignments
Students will submit weekly inquiry papers on the assigned reading(s).
Each student will present an aspect of the class session's reading
assignment, distributing a 4-6 page written version and set of questions
to other students. Grades will be based on a 15 page final project,
inquiry papers, presentations and active listening and participation in
class discussion.
-
- Additional Requirements and/or Comments
Students who have taken Asian Am. Lit, Multi-Ethnic Literature or
Introduction to Ethnic Studies will have priority. This course meets the
English department's theory requirement.
- Instructor(s):
Isaac,Allan Punzalan
- Times: ...W... 07:00PM-09:50PM; Location: TBA
- Reserved
Seats: (Total Limit: 15)
-
Special Attributes: - Curricular Renewal: Reading Non-Verbal Texts, Speaking
Fall 2002
Diaspora and Asian American Experiences
Professor Su Zheng
 This
year-long course is a part of a four-year project to develop the study of
Asia and the Asian diaspora at Wesleyan. Introducing recent theoretical
approaches to topics in Asian American History and in understanding Asian
American experiences, the course aims at learning about Asian diaspora
through classroom study and guided research during the summer in Asian or
the United States.
The fall course will introduce the historical background of Asians in the
United States, examine the impact of diaspora on Asian American experiences,
and discuss topics in Asian American cultural representations. Students are
expected to explore the possibilities of community-based research projects,
and will complete a pilot research project. Classes will be devoted to
discussions of both readings and issue encountered in the research projects.
The Spring seminar is designed to introduce students to the major themes of
Chinese American history through the reading of selected primary sources,
some of the major works in the field, and recent interpretations of the
Chinese experiences in the United States.
At the end of the year-long course, students will
participate in summer research on Asian American topics in carefully chosen
sites in America or Asia, depending on the student's major field, research
interests and personal goals. Students will receive support for travel,
housing, and expenses, as well as a stipend.
Major Readings
Buell, Frederick, National Culture and the New
Global System
Chan, Sucheng, Asian Americans: An Interpretive History
Hammamoto, Darrell, Monitored Peril: Asian Americans and the Politics of
TV Representation
Lee, Lisa, Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics
Ma, Sheng-mei, Immigrant Subjectivities in Asian American and Asian
Diaspora Literatures (1998)
Ong, Aihwa, Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality
(1999)
Xing, Jun, Asian American through the Lens: History, Representations, and
Identity (1998)
Materials on-line
www.wesleyan.edu/libr/reserve.htm
Spring 2003
The Chinese American Experience
Professor K. Scott Wong
Course Description:
This seminar is designed to introduce students to the major themes of
Chinese American history through the reading of selected primary sources,
some of the major works in the field, and recent interpretations of the
Chinese experience in the United States. During the course of the semester
we will be reading works on Chinese immigration, labor, the anti-Chinese
movement, the Chinese response to exclusion, gender and sexuality, community
dynamics, the notion of "overseas Chinese" and literary expressions of the
Chinese American Experience.
Major Readings
Chin, Ko-lin, Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the
United States (1999)
Chin, Tung Pok, Paper Son: One Man's Story (2000)
Choy, Dong, & Hom, The Coming Man: 19th Century American Perceptions of
the Chinese (1994)
Chu, Louis, Eat a Bowl of Tea (1961)
Khu, ed., Josephine M.T., Cultural Curiosity: Thirteen Stories About the
Search for Chinese Roots (2001)
Ma, Sheng-Mei, The Death Embrace: Orientalism and Asian American
Identity (2000)
Ng,Fae, Bone (1993)
Peffer, George Anthony, It They Don't Bring Their Women Here: Chinese
Female Immigration Before Exclusion (1999)
Tchen, John Kuo Wei, New York Before Chinatown: Orientalism and the
Shaping of American Culture, 1776-1882 (1999)
Wong, K. Scott and Chan, Sucheng, eds. Claiming America: Constructing
Chinese American Identities during the Exclusion Era (1998)
Materials on-line
www.wesleyan.edu/libr/reserve.htm
Fall 2003
Diaspora and Asian American Experiences
Professor Su Zheng
Required Sequence: EAST251/AMST211
and EAST252/AMST212
This year-long innovative course
is part of a four-year project supported by the Freeman Initiative grant to
further develop the study of Asia and the Asian diaspora at Wesleyan.
Introducing recent theoretical approaches to topics in Asian American
history and in understanding Asian American experiences, the course aims at
learning about Asian diaspora through classroom study and guided research
during the summer.
The fall course will introduce the historical background of Asians in the
United States, examine the impact of diaspora on Asian American experiences,
and discuss topics in Asian American cultural representations. Students are
expected to explore the possibilities of community-based research projects,
and will complete a pilot research project. Classes will be devoted to
discussions of both readings and issues encountered in the research
projects. The spring seminar is designed to introduce students to the major
themes of Chinese American history through the reading of selected primary
sources, some of the major works in the field, and recent interpretations of
the Chinese experience in the United States.
At the end of the year-long course, students will participate in summer
research in carefully chosen sites in America or Asia, depending on the
student's major field, research interests and personal goals. Students will
receive support for travel, housing, and expenses, as well as a stipend.
MAJOR
READINGS
Karin
Aguilar-San Juan, THE STATE OF ASIAN AMERICA: ACTIVISM AND RESISTANCE IN THE
1990s
Sucheng Chan, ASIAN AMERICANS: AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY
Juanita Tamayo Lott, ASIAN AMERICANS: FROM RACIAL CATEGORY TO MULTIPLE
IDENTITIES
Lisa Lowe, IMMIGRANT ACTS: ON ASIAN AMERICAN CULTURAL POLITICS
William Wei, THE ASIAN AMERICAN MOVEMENT
Henry Yu, THINKING ORIENTALS: MIGRATION, CONTACT, AND EXOTICISM IN MODERN
AMERICA
Min Zhou and James V. Gatewood, eds. CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICA: A
MULTIDISCIPLINARY READER
Fred Ho with Carolyn Antonio, Diane Fujino, and Steve Yip, eds. LEGACY TO
LIBERATION: POLITICS AND CULTURE OF REVOLUTIONARY ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICA
Jun Xing, ASIAN AMERICA THROUGH THE LENS
Josephine Lee, PERFORMING ASIAN AM ERICA: RACE AND ETHNICITY ON THE
CONTEMPORARY STAGE
David Leiwei Li, IMAGINING THE NATION: ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND
CULTURAL CONSENT
Helen Zia, ASIAN AMERICAN DREAMS: THE EMERGENCE OF AN AMERICAN PEOPLE
Frank Wu, YELLOW: RACE IN AMERICA BEY OND BLACK AND WHITE
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Several
class projects and a final research paper.
ADDITIONAL
REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
First-year students
are excluded from this course.
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA EAST
Grading Mode: Graded Prerequisites: NONE
SECTION 01
Instructor(s):
Zheng,Su
Times: ...W... 06:30PM-09:20PM; Location: EAST
LIB.
Reserved Seats: (Total Limit: 15)
SR. major: 0 Jr. major: 0
SR. non-major: 5 Jr. non-major: 4 SO: 6 FR: 0
Spring 2004
Asian Disaspora in the Americas
Professor Taku Suzuki
Course Description:
Paul Gilroy argued that the culture that peoples of
African descent in Europe and the Americas share is the 'Black Atlantic'
culture; not specifically African, European, North American, Caribbean,
South American or 'African,' but all of these at the same time, based on
stereophonic, bilingual, or bifocal cultural forms. Peoples of Asian descent
also have established their lives, after crossing another ocean, the
Pacific, in North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and South
America. Echoing Gilroy, this course will ask the following questions: Is
there such a culture and experience that can be called, say 'Yellow
Pacific'? We may also ask. perhaps more importantly, what is the
significance of having such a scope for diverse experiences of Asians in the
Americas and the Caribbean? As the second half of the year-long course on
Asian Diaspora, this course will compliment the last semester's "Diaspora
and Asian American Experiences" by exploring Asian immigrants' experiences
across the Central and South America and the Caribbean, and examining how
their cultures and experiences have been shaped within particular
socio-economic, political, gender, and racial/ethnic conditions of
nation-states.
The course will first overview the modern history of Latin America and
concepts of race and ethnicity that are differently configured than within
modern North America. Then it will proceed to historical and ethnographic
studies of Asian immigrant communities in the Central and South America and
the Caribbean. Cross-national (Chinese in Panama vs. Peru, for instance) and
cross-ethnic comparisons of Asian groups (South Asians and Chinese in
Trinidad and Tobago, for instance) will be made in order to provide a
broader perspective. The course will use academic as well as non-academic
sources (films, novels) for our inquiries into the experiences of Asians
with various backgrounds and social conditions. Drawing upon the
theoretical approaches to Asian diaspora that you explored in the last
semester, we will return to the questions of 'diaspora' and 'Yellow Pacific'
culture and identity, and discuss the significance of studying Asian
immigrants' (and their descendants') experiences, cultures, and identities
across the nation-state boundaries.
As this course concludes the end of the year-long course which require you
to develop your own research project, you are also expected to learn
research design and methods through this course. Students are required to
submit the IRB (Institutional Review Board) for your research by April, the
course will devote substantial amount of time for developing individual
research projects in the first half. Be prepared to be pressured quickly
conceive and develop your project with fairly detailed logistical plans in
the first 5-6 weeks.
Major Readings:
Booth, Wayne C., and et al. The Craft of Research.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Lesser, Jeffrey. 1999. Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants,
Minorities, and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil. Durham, N.C.: Duke
University Press
Lesser, Jeffrey. ed. 2003. Searching for Home Abroad: Japanese Brazilians
and Transnationalism. Durham, N.C. Duke University Press
For the Fiction Paper:
Garcia, Cristina. 2003 Monkey Hunting. New York: Knopf
Naipaul, V.S. 2001 A House for Mr. Biswas. New York: Vintage
Yamashita, Karen Tei. 1992 Brazil-Maru: A Novel. Minneapolis: Coffee
House Press
Yamashita, Karen Tei. 2001. Circle K Cycles. Minneapolis: Coffee
House Press
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