SPRING 2005 COURSES

AAS 100 Introduction to Asian American Studies
Meets Gen Ed requirements for Social Sciences and US Minority Cultures
This is an introductory course that paints a broad picture of Asian Pacific American experiences in the U.S. over time. It addresses the legal statutes, politics, and events that affected Asian Americans historically. In addition to background into the broad experiences of Asian Americans, the course provides personal testimonials through autobiographical texts of what it was like for Asian Americans to experience racism and other kinds of discrimination. Additionally, we will use films and videos to consider Asian American experiences through the lens of cinema and television. The course concludes with a discussion of more contemporary experiences of Asian Americans, with emphases placed on the war in Southeast Asia, the Asian American movement, the movement for redress for the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans, Asian American feminism, and contemporary transnational experiences. AAS 100 is the gateway course to the AAS minor.
30106 Lecture/ Discussion A 12:00pm-1:20pm TR 62 Krannert Art Pak 3 hrs
30107 Lecture/ Discussion B 11:00am-12:20pm MW 24 Wohlers Iwata 3 hrs

AAS 199 Undergraduate Open Seminar: Asian American Performance and Popular Culture
Meets with Dance 199.
An introduction to the contributions of Asian Americans in music, dance, theater, and performance art and how Asian American artists use cultural forms to express identity and history. Theoretical questions and topics broached in the course include the politics of representing ethnic/racial authenticity in traditional and hybrid performance genres, the commercialization of Asian bodily practices in the popular media, and the tension between modernist and activist conceptualizations of making art.
40767 Lecture/ Discussion A 3:00pm-4:20pm MW TBA Wong 3 hrs

AAS 260 Introduction to Asian American Theatre
Also THEAT 260. Meets Gen Ed requirements for US Minority Cultures
The first Asian American theatre company was founded in 1965 by a group of actors who wished to act non-stereotypical roles and to provide opportunities to Asian American theatre artists. After over three decades, there are over thirty active Asian American theatre companies and performance groups. This course will survey the history of Asian American theatre from the 1960s to the present by examining its changes and developments. The course will provide an overview of the theatre in the context of Asian American culture and history. Subtopics will include Asian American theatre companies, actors, playwrights, producers, directors, designers, solo performers, audiences, and communities. Readings will include a sampling of Asian American plays and critical writings on the representation of the Asian American identity on American stage.
40136 Lecture/ Discussion A 1:00pm-2:20pm MW 37 Education Mendoza 3 hrs

ENGL 280 Women Writers: Asian American Women Writers
Literature has traditionally been seen the site where tensions among different ethnic and racial groups in the United States are resolved, exaggerated, or transfigured. The literary resolution of such tensions has led, on one hand, to the reaffirmation of U.S. political and cultural hegemonic structure and imagination, and, on the other, to acts of resistance to political and cultural dominance. We will survey in this course the representations of Asian American women subjects in U.S. literature and culture since the nineteenth century. More specifically, we will explore the ways in which the cultural productions by Asian American women- cultural productions arising out of the contradictions of U.S. democracy- displace, in the words of Lisa Lowe, the fiction of reconciliation and the ways in which the literatures of Asian American women disrupt the myth of national identity by revealing its gaps and fissures. Asian American women's literature, in other words, often exposes the multiple ways in which the U.S. sustains its fictional image to itself and to the world of democratic exceptionalism. We will study the ways in which the Asian American woman subject serves a cultural political function, not only for the ethnic or racial group it embodies or represents, but also for the larger body national politic it threatens, constitutes, and sustains. Readings in the course will include, among many other writers, Maxine Hong Kingston, Joy Kogawa, Jessica Hagedorn, Jhumpa Lahiri, Bharati Mukherjee, Sara Suleri, and Teresa Cha.
39956 Lecture/ Discussion G 3:00pm-4:15pm MW 108 English Mendoza 3 hrs

AAS 281 Constructing Race in America
Also HIST 281. Meets Gen Ed requirements for Hist&Philosoph Perspect, and US Minority Culture(s)
Modern notions of "race" and "racism" have existed at least since the seventeenth century, yet the contours of both have proved changing and elusive. Today, we remain as confused as ever about the meanings of race: Is race the same as "ethnicity"? How is race related to culture? How has it helped to constitute, structure and influence social relations based in class, gender and sexuality? Similarly, is racism merely attitudes and beliefs, or it more fundamentally a set of behaviors, practices and institutions that materially affect people's quality of life? Is there a difference between racism and "prejudice" -- that is, can anyone be racist, or is it something possible only by a dominant racial group? Finally, are race and racism "natural" categories, or social constructed phenomena? Moreover, do these questions have implications for the possibility of building a truly just and muliticultural society? This course investigates the historical origins of race and racism, and their evolution over time -- primarily in the U.S. nation-state, yet within a transnational framework. This course also explores historical and contemporary interpretations of "race" as an analytic category, and its rootedness, and relationship to, socio-historical identities of gender, class, sexuality and nation. This course will be interdisciplinary, built around the presentations of professional scholars at the University of Illinois whose areas of study range from history to education, sociology, literature, counseling psychology and public policy. Further, this course utilizes readings and film selected for their suggestiveness in expanding these concepts of race and racism.
40114 Lecture/ Discussion A 10:00am-11:20am MW 120 Architecture Fu 3 hrs

AAS 283 Asian American History
Also HIST 283. Meets Gen Ed requirements for Hist&Philosoph Perspect, and US Minority Culture(s)
"Asian Americans" today are a dizzyingly diverse group. Most "Asian Americans" do not even see or label themselves as such. How then do we study and write "Asian American history"? What issues arise in trying to incorporate this heterogeneity into one historical narrative, one story? In this course, we will attempt to grapple with these problems. We will relate them to the larger paradoxes of capitalism and democracy, unity and difference that have plagued American history writ large. We will use as the basis of our investigation the acclaimed history, Asian Americans: An Interpretive History, by the respected Asian American scholar, Sucheng Chan. Chan will help us survey the reasons why men and women of the Asian continent migrated to what is today the United States, the ways they established communities and related across generational divides, the challenges they faced, and the ways they responded to their new conditions. We will then explore alternative views of Asian American history that go beyond these themes using autobiography and film as our windows into larger historical events. One of the important themes of the course is how international developments, such as capitalism and the nation-state, have played an integral role in the lives, the discourses, and the consciousness of Asian Americans, and how in turn they have influenced these larger structures to create their own destinies.
34129 Lecture/ Discussion A 10:00am-11:20am TR 196 Lincoln Espiritu 3 hrs

AAS 286 Asian American Literature
Also ENGL 286. Meets Gen Ed requirements for Literature and the Arts, and US Minority Culture(s)
This course introduces the literature of Asian Pacific Americans by surveying poetry, fiction, and memoir across generations. How "American" is it? Is "Asian Pacific American" merely a subcategory of "American" or is it something else altogether? And why should we care? We will read Maxine Hong Kingston's "classic" The Woman Warrior, and other texts will include Miné Okubo's cartoon memoir Citizen 13660, Carlos Bulosan's novel of immigrant labor America Is in the Heart, Karen Tei Yamashita's postmodern fiction of globalization Tropic of Orange, and contemporary short stories and poems. We will of course examine the history of Asian Pacific Americans' struggles reflected in the literature, but we will also examine the politics of form. Why are Kingston's and Bulosan's books hard to categorize, and why should we care? Why does Okubo tell her story mostly in line drawings? For that matter, why does "Asian American" literature assume English as a first language? Our literary texts will be supplemented by criticism, films, and web sites.
32112 Lecture/ Discussion P 11:00am-12:15pm TR 111 David Kinley Streamas 3 hrs

AAS 290 Internship in Asian American Studies
An opportunity for students to gain valuable experience and knowledge in Asian American Studies through readings and service learning. The course will provide students with a deeper understanding of key Asian American issues and the role of Asian American Studies in higher education. Pre-requisite: consent of instructor.
For more information or to register, contact Sharon Lee, Assistant Director of the AASP at 244-9530, lee1@uiuc.edu.
Conference 10-11:30 F AAS building Lee 3 hrs

AAS 310 Race and Cultural Diversity
Also AFRO 310, EPS 310, LLS 310. Meets Gen Ed Requirements for Advanced Composition and US Minority Cultures
This class studies race and cultural diversity from the Colonial era to the present; the evolution of racial ideology in an ethnically heterogeneous society; the impact of race on the structures and operations of fundamental social institutions; and the role of race in contemporary politics and popular culture.
33770 Lecture A 2:00pm-3:50pm T 166 Education Bldg Anderson 4 hrs
Discussion section A 2:00pm-3:50pm R 33 Education Bldg
33764 Discussion section B 2:00pm-3:50pm R 389 Education Bldg 4 hrs

AAS 328 Asian Americans and Social Inequalities
Also SOC 328
At least since the 1960s, sociology and the other social sciences have largely sidestepped questions of inequality in relation to Asian Americans, simplistically and indiscriminately positing them as a "model minority." Through open-ended discussions of key texts, this course examines various forms of social inequality between Asian American and other groups as well as among Asian Americans, including those based on race, gender, class, nationality, and sexuality.
40240 Lecture/ Discussion 01 3:00pm-5:50pm R 304 Lincoln Jung 3 hrs

AAS 435 Commodifying Difference
Also LLS 435, AFRO 435, COMM 435, GWS 435
An interdisciplinary examination of how racial, ethnic and gender difference is negotiated through media and popular culture, and how racial, ethnic and gendered communities use cultural forms to express identity and difference. Among the theoretical questions explored in the course are the politics of representation, ethnic/racial authenticity, cultural commodification and transnational popular culture. Some of the cultural forms the course examines are cultural festivals/parades, ethnic/race-based beauty pageants, cinematic and televisual texts and musical forms, such as Hip-Hop and Salsa.
40442 Lecture/ Discussion CG 4:00pm-6:20pm W 315 Gregory Molina 4 hrs
40515 Lecture/ Discussion CU 4:00pm-6:20pm W 315 Gregory Molina 3 hrs

AAS 450 Asian American Ethnic Groups: Mixed Race Asian Americans
This course provides an introduction to the study of mixed race Asian Americans. From discussions of famous mixed race people, such as Tiger Woods, Keanu Reeves, Kristin Kreuk, Dean Cain, and Rob Schneider to research about interracial dating, interracial families, mixed race children, and multiracial activism, the course provides an understanding of theories of race, identity, and culture as they relate to biracial and multiracial Asian Americans. The course provides a theoretical understanding of racial identity formation, focusing at first on more general theories of race, and then moving to the more specific issues of multiracial identity and politics. Analysis of TV, film, and cyberspace images of mixed race Asian Americans will also lead to an understanding of the social context of our everyday experiences. Through readings, lectures, discussions, and course assignments, students will gain a broader understanding of race and its application to people of mixed racial heritage.
40585 Lecture/Discussion 1G 1:00pm-2:20pm TR 245 Everitt Elec Lab Ono 4 hrs
39533 Lecture/ Discussion 1U 1:00pm-2:20pm TR 245 Everitt Elec Lab Ono 3 hrs

AAS 484 Asian Diasporas
Also ANTH 484 and meets with ENGL 461.
This course explores the major theoretical issues raised by diaspora and globalization by looking at the terrain of culture and, in particular, on literature. What are the narrative and aesthetic forms and the themes that have come to define diasporic literature? Why has interest in diasporic literature grown exponentially over the last few decades, not only among Asian Americans, but also among other minority communities? We will examine the way in which location outside a homeland or nation offers a vantage point for reconstructing understandings of nation, community, gender, and sexuality. We will also consider the ways in which the diasporic condition serves as a metaphor for the reinvention of identity taking place at multiple sites in the encounter with postmodernity and globalization. While this course takes up some of the broader questions on globalization and Asian diasporas, the focus of the class will be on writers from the South Asian diaspora (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh).
39876 Lecture/ Discussion G 9:30am-10:45am TR 131 English Koshy 4 hrs
39874 Lecture/ Discussion U 9:30am-10:45am TR 131 English Koshy 3 hrs

AAS 490 Advanced Topics in Asian American Studies: Race and Cultural Critique
This course examines recent works in the field of US Cultural Studies that draw from a critical tradition linked to British Cultural Studies and US studies of race and racism. To begin with we will examine the concepts of race and culture as they have critically evolved since the post-war era from the aforementioned scholarly traditions. We will then consider some recent monographs that combine various methodologies including those found in anthropology, history, legal studies, literary criticism and political economy, to develop critical understandings of the race and culture concepts. Our task throughout this class will be to examine the complex relationship between race and culture, theoretically and ethnographically, to understand how these concepts have shifted in meaning and usage.
39548 Lecture/ Discussion 2G 2:00pm-3:20pm TR 169 Davenport Rana 4 hrs
40650 Lecture/ Discussion 2U 2:00pm-3:20pm TR 169 Davenport Rana 3 hrs

AAS 490 Advanced Topics in Asian American Studies: Asian American Political Culture
What is a social movement? How have Asian Americans fought for social justice and social change? This class explores various components that make up the lively struggles of Asian American political culture. From the Asian American student movement to anti-imperialist, anti-war and anti-racist movements, we will look at how different groups have forged political communities through their organizing. In particular the work of queer, women's, youth, and workers' organizations in developing strategies and interventions will guide this class toward understanding the vital role of community studies.
39550 Lecture/ Discussion AAP 5:00pm-6:20pm TR 113 Davenport Rana 3 hrs

AAS 490 Topics in Asian American Studies: Literature and Ethnic Studies
Meets with ENGL 578: Seminar in Literature and Other Disciplines
This course examines how Ethnic Studies scholars in various fields-Literature, Critical Legal Studies, Sociology, and History-draw upon literatures of color to problematize liberal multiculturalism as a paradigm for understanding race and culture. In this course, we will explore why literature, and more broadly, culture, is relevant for these various critics. In what ways does literature become evidence to make these interventions? What kind of evidence does literature constitute? What does a close reading help us to prove? We will explicate how each text proposes a theory of race and culture, and in doing so, begin to consider how we approach race and culture in our projects. How do our understandings of race and culture shape our methods of reading texts? What conversations do our projects enter both within and outside the field of literature? How do we make our own interventions legible to interdisciplinary audiences? Please note that enrollment for this course is restricted to graduate students.
40574 Lecture/ Discussion G 3:00pm-4:50pm W 113 English Cacho 4 hrs