Analysis of social, intellectual, and artistic currents in Asian American communities. Focus will be on social practices, popular culture, the arts and expression (e.g. language and literature), and the historical and political contexts in which they are produced and consumed.

In this course, students will examine Asian American culture—encompassing forms as disparate as “high culture” such as the arts, to everyday life, including food, fashion, and popular media—as a site where people of Asian descent become legible in the national imaginary and to each other. Broadly, culture is made up of mediums and practices where participants actively and constantly shape meaning, exercise power, imagine identity, form community, and imagine futures. We are all always participating in culture, and thus actively engaged in cultural politics. Taking cultural forms as key sites of analysis, we will examine how Asian Americans wield the tools of culture (as cultural producers, consumers, critics, and just everyday folks) to grapple with who they are and their place in the world, struggle with exclusion and racism by, against, and within Asian communities, and work towards visions of freedom and justice.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills