There are still seats available in the following Spring 2010 Asian American Studies courses. All carry College of Arts and Sciences Culture Studies credit:
AAST-A300 Topics in Asian American Studies (3 cr.) (CSA)
Topic: Social Problems in the Health and Wellbeing of Asian America
Instructor: Professor Fernando Ona
Section: 29654
TR 1-2:15 p.m. ME 008
This course serves as part of the Asian American Studies minor, and as such it presents the major themes and issues in a new and growing interdisciplinary field of scholarly research and cultural production. The primary objective of the course is to engage students with selected aspects of the emerging canon of scholarly literature in Asian American Studies, specifically social and health problems that face Asian America. This class will critically examine the nature and characteristics of social problems in health and well being that Asian Americans experience and engage with theoretical frameworks for understanding such social problems. The course will review potential solutions to these issues and discuss current approaches to public health interventions that attempt to address these challenges. An empirical overview of health disparities and social injustices that face Asian America will be examined using case studies (i.e. health inequities regarding access to health care, statistical “insignificance” of Asian populations in the United States, poverty in Asian America, cultural competency in health, disease stigma, mental health, STIs/HIV, infectious and chronic diseases.
This course will also provide many opportunities for students to link personal experiences to the larger collective facts of “Asian America,” from the local to the global. Additionally, a service-research project to examine the experience of Asian Americans in the Midwest will take place during the semester. This will provide students with the opportunity to conduct a mini-research project that attempt to address social and health problems that Asian Americans experience. Students will be required to participate in analyzing and writing reseatch data into a potential peer-review publication to be submitted at the end of the semester. The course will shed light not only on the multi-faceted nature of the Asian American experience, but also on the conflicting and simultaneous trends within the field of Asian American Studies.
AAST-A300 Topics in Asian American Studies (3 cr.) (CSA)
Topic: Playing with Difference: Popular Cultures of Asia in America
Instructor: Karen Inouye
Section: 30920
TR 11:15a-12:30p BH233
This course examines how and why Asian cultures have become so prevalent in American popular culture. Topics include Hong Kong cinema, anime, so-called fusion cuisine, video games, martial arts, and yoga. This course is joint listed with AMST A350.
SOC S342 Asian American Communities and Identities (3 cr.) (CSA) (S & H)
Instructor: Jennifer Lee
TR 2:30P-03:45P BH 330
This course takes a sociological approach to examine the histories, experiences, and cultures that shape Asian American communities and identities. Using materials from academic articles and books, as well as popular films and novels, students will first review the history of Asian Americans in the United States in order to situate the Asian American experience within broader social and historical contexts and to highlight the diversity of Asian American communities and families. Then, students will examine the experiences of second and higher generation Asian Americans in order to address questions about who is viewed as American and how Asian Americans establish and maintain their ethnic identities. For one of the papers, students will get the option of writing something creative, perhaps a short story or a poem or two. Students will create their own Asian American literature!
