ASAM 001 Asian Amer. in Contemporary Society (Grace Kao)
Cross listed with SOCI 103
LEC MW 3:30-5PM
This course presents an overview of sociological research on Asian Americans in the U.S., framed around the evaluation of Asian Americans as "model minorities." We begin with a brief overview of popular images of Asian Americans as seen through recent portrayals in mainstream media (movies, television). We review general sociological frameworks used to understand racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. and move quickly to document the history of Asian immigration to the U.S. We explore how Asian Americans fare in educational attainment, labor market experiences, political organizations, urban experience, and Asian interracial marriage and biracials. We examine whether and how "Asian American" is a meaningful label.
ASAM 002 Intro to Asian American Literature (Poulomi Saha)
Cross listed with ENGL 072
LEC M 5-8PM
This course will explore the varieties of Asian American Experience by considering the literary forms they take. Ourreadings will range from poems carved into the walls of a detention center at the beginning of the century to experimentsin literary form in the eighties and nineties. The course will consider literary representations of a broad range of AsianAmerican experience: tales of migratory labor, Chinatown stories, the extraordinary case of Japanese internment,panethnic activist literature, and the different accounts that emerge when Asian America expands beyond East Asia toinclude South and Southeast Asian American experience. In each instance, we will read these forms within theirhistorical moments, ultimately asking how these formal expressions map onto the conditions of Asian America.
ASAM 006 Race & Ethnic Relations (Grace Kao)
Cross listed with SOCI 006
LEC MW 10-11AM
402 REC F 11-12PM
403 REC F 10-11AM
The course will examine how social networks, neighborhood context, culture, and notions of race affect inequality and
ethnic relations. The course reviews the studies of ethnic entrepreneurship, urban segregation, labor force participation,
and assimilation processes. The course emphasizes how inequality affects ethnic relations as well as the economic and
social integration of different groups in society.
ASAM 150 Ethnic Economies & Globalization (Tamara Nopper)
Cross listed with URBS 215 / SOCI 150
LEC W 5:30-8:30PM
Nail salons, nursing, hair care stores, pizza shops, parking garages, donut shops, and taxis represent niche industries for different ethnic groups across the racial and national spectrum. We will explore how and why particular groups have concentrated in certain industries, and how processes related to globalization, such as diplomatic ties, the globalization of banking, foreign investment, trade, labor recruitment, transnational economic activities, and immigration contribute to their concentration. We will learn scholarly explanations for why ethnic groups concentrate in key industries by engaging literature that spans across the fields of sociology, urban studies, business, and migration. We will examine case studies of several ethnic groups and draw from examples in Philadelphia. This course will introduce students to a range of data and sources that are used by those studying and working in economic and urban development, finance, business, and immigration and will emphasize analysis of data and critical thinking skills.
ASAM 202 Growing Up Funny (Ania Loomba)
Cross listed with ENGL 293
LEC T 1:30-4:30PM
It is a curious fact that some of the most compelling fiction about and by South Asians features the coming of age of a child protagonist. This body of writing appropriates and reshapes the classic European Bildungsroman, but it also uses narrative traditions from South Asia in order to tell the story of the postcolonial nation, and to chart the contours of contemporary South Asian identity and sexuality. In this course, we will read novels, short stories and plays--some well known and others less so, some now considered ‘classics’ and others very recent, produced from within the South Asia as well as by South Asians in the diaspora. All of these speak of the excitement and trauma of growing up with a certain cultural, sexual or ethnic identity. Through them, we will discuss key features of the political and social upheavals of the South Asian subcontinent, as well as the dynamics of the family, migration, gender relations, sexual identities and cultural belonging.
ASAM 209 South Asians in the US (Fariha Khan)
Cross listed with SAST 290
LEC TR 12-1:30PM
This course investigates the everyday practices and customs of South Asians in America. Every immigrant group has its own history, customs, beliefs and values, making each unique while simultaneously a part of the "melting pot" or salad bowl" of American society. Yet how do people define themselves and their ethnicities living in a diasporic context? By taking into account the burgeoning South Asian American population as our model, this course will explore the basic themes surrounding the lives that immigrants are living in America, and more specifically the identity which the second generation, born and/or raised in American, is developing. South Asians in the U.S. will be divided thematically covering the topics of ethnicity, marriage, gender, religion, and pop culture. Reading and assignments will discuss a variety of issues and viewpoints that are a part of the fabric of South Asia, but will focus on the interpretation of such expressive culture in the United States.
ASAM 354 American Expansion in the Pacific (Eiichiro Azuma)
Cross listed with HIST 354
LEC MW 2-3:30PM
This course will delve into the continuing process of westward American expansion into the Pacific after the 1890s. Such questions as immigration, race relations, and diplomacy will be discussed in the class. Students who are interested in U.S.-Asia relations, Asian immigration, and histories of Hawaii and the Philippines as part of the American Empire are especially encouraged to take this course.
ASAM 299 Independent Study
PERMISSION NEEDED FROM DEPARTMENT