"They [Asian students] don't genetically have a knowledge of the subject matter." - Gary Okihiro in Intro to Asian American Studies

Here's a sampling of the Asian American Studies and Comparative Ethnic Studies courses offered this semester, for those of you looking to fill up that last hour of your week with something worthwhile.

ASAM W1010y Introduction To Asian American Studies 3 pts. Not offered in 2007-2008. Call number: 76780

Interdisciplinary, intercultural introduction to the field of Asian American Studies. Major themes include methodological and theoretical formulations central to the field (e.g. racial, gender, and sexual formations, modes and relations of production and class, nation and transnation, oral history, and communities research), history and comtemporary issues of identitites, family, immigration, labor, education and anti-Asianisms.

ASAM W3933y South Asians in the U.S. 4 pts. Call number: 80942

The interdisciplinary course survey course explores the history and experience of South Asians in the United States. The course is divided into thematic sections. Section I provides background information on the South Asian American community. Section II will broaden the picture by considering issues of the class, the model minority myth, family lives, and patterns of acculturation. Section I and II set the stage for further examine how South Asian Americans negotiate new forms of identity. Section III explores popular culture among second generation youth, religious maintenance and adaptation, gender and sexuality, and culture politics.

WMST BC3136x Asian American Women's Literature 4 pts.

Explores selected texts written by Asian American women from diverse backgrounds, focusing on issues such as identity, gender, generation, race, class, region, and language.

WMST BC3136x Asian American Women

Explores selected texts written by Asian American women from diverse backgrounds, focusing on issues such as identity, gender, generation, race, class, religion, and language.

CSER W1012y History of Racialization in the United States 3 pts. Call number: 14285

The History of Racialization in the United States examines the development of race and racism through the study of significant historical circumstances that define the institutional structure of American Empire and of the resulting interactions among its peoples. Race is not static. Consequently, it is not an ahistorical object, nor a predetermined identity, nor a uniform category of analysis. Traditionally, the history of American race relations is the contact between racially defined groups over time and space of the effort required to maintain social and economic differences among them. Racialization, then, refers to the process by which one population group or many are "placed" in distinct racial categories.

CSER W3940x Comparative Study of Constitutional Challenges Affecting African, Latino and Asian American Communities 4 pts. Call number: 83648

This course will examine how American legal system decided constitutional challenges affecting the empowerment of African, Latino, and Asian American communities from the 19th century to the present. Focus will be on the role that race, citizenship, capitalism/labor, property and ownership played in the court decision in the context of the historical, social and political conditions existing at the time. Topics include the denial of citizenship and naturalization to slaves and immigrants, goverment sanctioned segregation, the struggle for reparations for descendants of slavery and Japanese Americans during World War II.