AAS 20 | Spring 2012

Contemporary Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities

Instructor: Prof. Jane Naomi Iwamura <iwamura@ucla.edu> Office Hours: Thursday 2-3pm, 2336 Rolfe Hall Teaching Assistants Eri Kameyama <eri.kameyama@gmail.com> Daisy Kim <daisyykim@yahoo.com> Diana Price <diana.a.price@gmail.com> Description Multidisciplinary introduction to issues and dimensions that shape contemporary Asian American communities and individual identity in the US. Through a keywords approach, students will become familiar with concepts and theories that have come that are germane to the study of Asian American and Pacific Islander in the post-1965 era. Texts

Sunaina Maira, Desis in the House: Indian American Youth Culture in New York City Lan Cao and Himilee Novas, Everything You Need to Know about Asian American History Readings and articles available on the course website

Requirements Section Participation and Work (30%)

Your attendance and participation in section is mandatory and crucial to your success in the course. You are also responsible for work assigned by your TA instructor.

Assignments (20%)
These include various assignments (e.g., discussion forums posts) throughout the term.

Weekly Quizzes (30%)

Beginning on Friday, 4/13, you are responsible for completing weekly online quizzes based on the lecture, readings, and documentary screenings for the week.

Final Exam (20%) A cumulative final exam is scheduled for Friday, 6/12, 3-6pm.

4/2/12

Schedule
Week

Date 4/3

Theme Introduction

Key Concepts

4/5 Key Concepts I asian american race ethnicity panethnicity hybridity intersectionality racial triangulation orientalism heteropatriarchy stereotypes Immigrant assimilation ethnoburb stratified labor market glass/bamboo ceiling

Reading | Screenings Melany Dela Cruz-Viesca, A Profile of the Asian American & Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Population in Los Angeles County & the United States Glen Omatsu, The Four Prisons and the Movements of Liberation Timothy P. Fong, The History of Asians in America Screen > Vincent Who? Michael Omi, Racial Formation Yen Le Espiritu, Ethnicity and Panethnicity Lisa Lowe, Heterogeneity, Hybridity, and Multiplicity: Marking Asian American Differences

4/10

Key Concepts II

Claire Jean Kim, Racial Triangulation Andrea Smith, Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy

4/12 4/17

Immigrant Life

Screen > My America or Honk If You Love Buddha Min Zhou, Yen-Fen Tseng, and Rebecca Y. Kim, Rethinking Residential Assimilation: The Case of a Chinese Ethnoburb in the San Gabriel Valley, California Kyeyoung Park and Jessica Kim, The Contested Nexus of Los Angeles Koreatown: Capital Restructuring, Gentrification, and Displacement Linda Trinh Vo, Construction a Vietnamese American Community: Economic and Political Transformation in Little Saigon, Orange County Screen > Sentenced Home Rubn G. Rumbaut Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian Americans Eric Tang, Collateral Damage: Southeast Asian Poverty in the United States Screen > Wet Sand Elaine H. Kim, Home is Where the Han Is: A Korean American Perspective on the Los Angeles Upheavals Kyeyoung Park, Use and Abuse of Race and Culture: Black-Korean Tension in America Nancy Abelmann and John Lie, The Los Angeles Riots, the Korean American Story

4/19 4/24

Refugee Stories

refugee

4/26 5/1

Interethnic relations

5/3

4/2/12

Week

Date 5/8

Theme Generation

Key Concepts model minority racial interpellation

Reading | Screenings Screen > Better Luck Tomorrow Keith Osajima, Asian Americans as the Model Minority Lucie Cheng and Philip Q. Yang, The Model Minority Deconstructed Pensri Ho, Performing the Oriental: Professionals and the Asian Model Minority Myth Sylvia Shin Huey Chong Look, an Asian! The Politics of Racial Interpellation in the Wake of the Virginia Tech Shootings

5/10 5/15

Culture & Identity

Orientalism subculture remix mixed race

Screen > Bhangra Rap Sunaina Maira, Desis in the House: Indian American Youth Culture in New York City Michael Omi, Forward, The Sum of Our Parts Cynthia Nakashima's "Servants of Culture: The Symbolic Role of MixedRace Asians in American Discourse" Screen > In Gods House Martin F. Manalansan, IV, Searching for Community: Filipino Gay Men in New York City Teresa Williams Len, Convergence of Passing Zones: Multiracial Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals of Asian Descent Sora Park Tanjasiri and Khmer Girls in Action Members, Public Agenda and Private Struggles: Khmer Girls in Action Screen > Labor Women Julie A. Su & Chanchanit Martorell, Exploitation and Abuse in the Garment Industry: The Case of the Thai Slave-Labor Compound Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, Extended Families (Chapter Four of Sweatshop Warriors) Julie Sze, Asian American Activism for Environmental Justice Davianna Pomaikai McGregor Recognizing Native Hawaiians: A Quest for Sovereignty Screen > Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath Nadine Naber, So Our History Doesnt Become Your Future: The Local and Global Politics of Coalition Building Post September 11 Mari Matsuda, We Will Not Be Used: Are Asian-Americans the Racial Bourgeoisie?

5/17 5/22

Gender & Sexuality

Intersectionality

5/24 5/29

Activism

activism mobilization solidarity sovereignty

10

5/31 6/5

Looking Forward

bourgeoisie

6/7 6/12

FINAL | 3;00-6:00pm

4/2/12