By Neela Banerjee
AsianWeek
Tired of reading Ron Takaki books and tracing the migration of the early Chinese immigrants? Asian American studies classes are breaking out and offering college students a whole new approach to the study of ourselves. Check out these innovative classes that are being offered around the nation.
Music of Asian Americans
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Mich.
This course examines various musics of Asian Pacific Americans, and discusses issues and processes of musical, personal and ethnic identities in multicultural and multiracial America. Focusing on the musical and expressive culture of a specific group of minority people in America, this course employs standard musicological methods and practices in conjunction with ethnic Asian American studies issues. Course lectures not only analyze musical structures but also discuss them through issues of race, ethnicity, racism, discrimination, self-representation, empowerment and other relevant aspects of American history and culture. The course is divided into five parts: the musical and Asian roots of APAs; the early history of Asian immigrants and the American ghettoization of their music; a discussion of the musics in various enclaves of APAs; an examination of the variety of musics considered APA; and an examination of the music of several professionally successful individuals.
Afro-American and Asian American Families
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wis.
This course provides an introductory survey to the scholarly study of family life among Americans of African and Asian ancestry. Sociological and sociopsychological perspectives underlie most of the discussions. Topics include life for people of color in the U.S.; models of family life and the comparisons of culture; and socialization and community for both African American and APAs.
Asian Images on the American Screen
University of Illinois
Champagne, Ill.
A survey of the images and issues surrounding the portrayals of Asia, Asians and APAs throughout the course of American film history. With a straightforward, chronological approach, the class examines how issues of xenophobia, racism, miscegenation and Orientalism have been mobilized at different points in American culture and cinema, and how the images of Asia and Asians are used (and abused). Though the primary focus will be on portrayals of Asians in Hollywood movies, some attention will be paid to television portrayals as well as fiction and nonfiction films made by Asians and APAs, especially in the last decade.
Photographic Exploration of Asian America
San Francisco State University
San Francisco
One of several art-oriented classes that SFSU offers in its Asian American Studies Department, this class focuses on photography as a personal tool for the exploration, recording, understanding and expression of APA life.
Asian American Child and the Schools
California State University, Northridge
Northridge, Calif.
A study of the development of the APA child with a particular emphasis on bicultural and bilingual issues, which may influence educational progress. Culturally relevant socialization patterns of children from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino and Southeast Asian backgrounds will be examined. This course is intended for students interested in teaching and human services.
Philosophy of Asian Martial Arts
California State University, Fullerton
Fullerton, Calif.
A philosophical examination of Asian martial arts and how they relate to Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto and Zen. Samurai ideals will be compared to those of the warrior traditions of the Middle Ages and Homeric Greece.
Asian Pacific American Children’s Literature
Arizona State University
Tempe, Ariz.
Remember Tiki Tiki Tembo and Five Chinese Brothers? Are you interested in how more recent children’s books depict APAs? This course examines the representations of APAs in contemporary children’s literature. By exploring a variety of children’s books — picture books and young-adult novels written by APA and non-APA authors — classes focus particularly on the following issues: sociohistorical and racial/cultural representation, stereotyping, cultural conflict, gender, sexuality, class status, assimilation/acculturation, multiculturalism and diversity.
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