Courses for Fall 2023

	Title	Instructors	Location	Time	Description	Cross listings	Fulfills	Registration notes	Syllabus	Syllabus URL
ASAM 0100-001	Introduction to Asian American Studies	Rupa Pillai	MCNB 309	MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM	According to the U.S. Census, there are approximately 21 million Asian residents in the U.S. that comprise almost 6 percent of the total population. This relatively small number disguises the critical experiences Asian American communities face in both the local and transnational context. Yet, Asian Americans constitute one of the most heterogeneous racial groups within the U.S. Over the course of this semester we will read about and actively discuss the history of Asian immigration to the U.S., the social construction and experience of race in the U.S., and the political, economic, and cultural contributions of Asian Americans. We will also examine how Asian Americans negotiate/deploy their culture and ethnicity to achieve recognition in multicultural America and how the construction of Asian American identity intersects with class, gender, and sexuality.		Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
ASAM 0102-401	Introduction to Asian American History	Eiichiro Azuma Nainika Dinesh	MCNB 286-7	MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM	This course will provide an introduction to the history of Asian Pacific Americans, focusing on the wide diversity of migrant experiences, as well as the continuing legacies of Orientalism on American-born APA's. Issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality will also be examined.	HIST1155401	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. History & Tradition Sector
ASAM 0103-401	Introduction to Asian American Literature	Josephine N Park	BENN 401	MW 10:15 AM-11:14 AM	An overview of Asian American literature from its beginnings at the turn of the twentieth century to the present. This course covers a wide range of Asian American novels, plays, and poems, situating them in the contexts of American history and minority communities and considering the variety of formal strategies these different texts take. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.	ENGL1270401	Arts & Letters Sector Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
ASAM 0103-402	Asian American Literature	Josephine N Park Austin Svedjan	BENN 222	F 10:15 AM-11:14 AM	An overview of Asian American literature from its beginnings at the turn of the twentieth century to the present. This course covers a wide range of Asian American novels, plays, and poems, situating them in the contexts of American history and minority communities and considering the variety of formal strategies these different texts take. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.	ENGL1270402	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. Arts & Letters Sector
ASAM 0103-403	Asian American Literature	Josephine N Park Michael Watkins	BENN 322	F 10:15 AM-11:14 AM	An overview of Asian American literature from its beginnings at the turn of the twentieth century to the present. This course covers a wide range of Asian American novels, plays, and poems, situating them in the contexts of American history and minority communities and considering the variety of formal strategies these different texts take. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.	ENGL1270403	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. Arts & Letters Sector
ASAM 0103-404	Introduction to Asian American Literature	Josephine N Park Eileen Zijia Ying	BENN 323	F 10:15 AM-11:14 AM	An overview of Asian American literature from its beginnings at the turn of the twentieth century to the present. This course covers a wide range of Asian American novels, plays, and poems, situating them in the contexts of American history and minority communities and considering the variety of formal strategies these different texts take. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.	ENGL1270404	Arts & Letters Sector Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
ASAM 0103-405	Introduction to Asian American Literature	Josephine N Park Zukolwenkosi Gordon Jr Zikalala	BENN 406	F 10:15 AM-11:14 AM	An overview of Asian American literature from its beginnings at the turn of the twentieth century to the present. This course covers a wide range of Asian American novels, plays, and poems, situating them in the contexts of American history and minority communities and considering the variety of formal strategies these different texts take. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.	ENGL1270405	Arts & Letters Sector Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
ASAM 0103-406	Introduction to Asian American Literature			CANCELED	An overview of Asian American literature from its beginnings at the turn of the twentieth century to the present. This course covers a wide range of Asian American novels, plays, and poems, situating them in the contexts of American history and minority communities and considering the variety of formal strategies these different texts take. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.	ENGL1270406	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. Arts & Letters Sector
ASAM 1000-401	South Asians in the United States	Fariha Khan	COHN 203	TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM	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.	SAST1000401	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
ASAM 1020-301	The Asian American Entrepreneur	Rupa Pillai	BENN 16	MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM	From shopkeepers to motel owners, the Asian American entrepreneur is frequently celebrated and offered as proof that the American Dream is achievable and that the United States is a meritocracy. This seminar challenges this view. Through interdisciplinary texts, qualitative research assignments, and speakers, we will explore the transnational forces and structural limitations within the United States that produce Asian ethnic niches and the bamboo ceiling which limits the success of Asian Americans.
ASAM 1200-401	Introduction to Creative Writing: Writing Asian American Lives	Piyali Bhattacharya	BENN 224	TR 1:45 PM-2:44 PM	What does it mean to be Asian American? How do religion, ethnicity, gender, class, nationality, and immigration status define this group? This course will explore these questions through an introductory fiction, nonfiction, and poetry creative writing workshop. In addition to critiquing each other’s short stories, essays, and poems, we will read works by a number of authors as springboards to examine representations of identity, inclusion, and exclusion. To learn more about this course, visit the Creative Writing Program at https://creative.writing.upenn.edu.	ENGL3025401
ASAM 1226-401	Introduction to Creative Writing: Writing Real Science	Weike Wang		CANCELED	Most if not all fiction and nonfiction requires some kind of research. Our readings will explore how writers incorporate scientific knowledge into their prose without compromising craft. This course will explore ways to bring real science into our pieces and make them fun, exciting and fresh. To learn more about this course, visit the Creative Writing Program at https://creative.writing.upenn.edu.	ENGL3026401
ASAM 1300-401	Asian American Cinema Movement: Fighting For Representation	Robert V Buscher	WILL 723	W 5:15 PM-8:14 PM	Providing a broad introduction to the history of persons of Asian descent living in the United States, this course will specifically examine the Asian American & Pacific Islander American experience as told through the cinematic lens. Equal parts socio-political history and media studies, this course will comprehensively assess factors contributing to the historical under representation of AAPIs in mainstream American media. By contrast, the media texts that we study will reveal a cinematic history that runs parallel to the mainstream, consisting of independently produced films created by and/or starring AAPIs that feature authentic portrayals of the community they represent. Topics will include economics of film production, broadcast television ratings, film festivals as a mechanism of distribution, negative stereotyping, Hollywood whitewashing, cultural appropriation, and media activism. The course will take place once a week and will consist of a brief discussion of the previous week's readings, followed by a lecture, and ending with a full or partial film screening relating to the current week's topic. Additional out of class assignments will be given that involve attending the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, tentatively scheduled November 8-18, 2018. Students will have the opportunity to engage with and learn from AAPI filmmakers in attendance at the festival, with additional volunteer opportunities available for extra credit.	CIMS1302401	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.			https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=ASAM1300401
ASAM 1500-401	Asian Americans In Contemporary Society	Olivia Hu	LLAB 109	MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM	This course will explore Asian America through sociological frameworks and research. At the outset, we will establish a strong theoretical foundation by studying key sociological theories related to race and ethnicity, assimilation, and racial stratification. Additionally, we will briefly review key turning points in Asian American history. Throughout the semester, we will explore a broad range of contemporary topics, such as racial and ethnic identities (including multiracial identities); racialized desire and interracial relationships; controlling media images and subversive representations; transracial adoption; affirmative action; anti-Asian racism; and the role of the "model minority" myth in contemporary U.S. politics. Above all, this class will critically evaluate the viability of an Asian American panethnic identity while also exploring important axes of heterogeneity (e.g., class, gender, and sexuality) within the broader Asian American category.	SOCI1140401	Society Sector Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
ASAM 1510-401	Race and Ethnic Relations	Tukufu Zuberi	COLL 200	TR 12:00 PM-12:59 PM	The course will focus on race and ethnicity in the United States. We begin with a brief history of racial categorization and immigration to the U.S. The course continues by examining a number of topics including racial and ethnic identity, interracial and interethnic friendships and marriage, racial attitudes, mass media images, residential segregation, educational stratification, and labor market outcomes. The course will include discussions of African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans and multiracials.	AFRC1060401, LALS1060401, SOCI1060401, URBS1060401	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
ASAM 1510-402	Recitation - Race and Ethnic Relations	Joao V Nery Fiocchi Rodrigues	DRLB 3C4	R 1:45 PM-2:44 PM	The course will focus on race and ethnicity in the United States. We begin with a brief history of racial categorization and immigration to the U.S. The course continues by examining a number of topics including racial and ethnic identity, interracial and interethnic friendships and marriage, racial attitudes, mass media images, residential segregation, educational stratification, and labor market outcomes. The course will include discussions of African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans and multiracials.	AFRC1060402, LALS1060402, SOCI1060402, URBS1060402	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
ASAM 1510-406	Race and Ethnic Relations	Joao V Nery Fiocchi Rodrigues	DRLB 3W2	M 1:45 PM-2:44 PM	The course will focus on race and ethnicity in the United States. We begin with a brief history of racial categorization and immigration to the U.S. The course continues by examining a number of topics including racial and ethnic identity, interracial and interethnic friendships and marriage, racial attitudes, mass media images, residential segregation, educational stratification, and labor market outcomes. The course will include discussions of African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans and multiracials.	AFRC1060406, LALS1060406, SOCI1060406, URBS1060406	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
ASAM 1510-407	Race and Ethnic Relations	Joao V Nery Fiocchi Rodrigues	WILL 321	M 5:15 PM-6:14 PM	The course will focus on race and ethnicity in the United States. We begin with a brief history of racial categorization and immigration to the U.S. The course continues by examining a number of topics including racial and ethnic identity, interracial and interethnic friendships and marriage, racial attitudes, mass media images, residential segregation, educational stratification, and labor market outcomes. The course will include discussions of African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans and multiracials.	AFRC1060407, LALS1060407, SOCI1060407, URBS1060407	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
ASAM 1620-401	Madness and Mental Health in East Asian Worlds	Emily K Ng	MUSE 345	T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	Madness, however conceived, can trouble the limits of our worlds. Since COVID-19, questions of mental health have resurfaced with a sense of urgency, as many faced unprecedented changes in collective and intimate life. This course explores madness and mental health in East Asian worlds, across geographies, histories, social-political transformations, and racialized imaginations. How do East Asian therapeutics approach madness, through and beyond the concepts of psychiatry, neuroscience, or even ‘mental health’? What happens when Euro-American diagnostic categories and treatments travel to East Asia as part of missionary and empire-building projects? Bringing together readings in medical and psychological anthropology, as well as history, literature, psychoanalysis, and transcultural psychiatry, we will explore themes such as: shifting concepts of madness in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese medical and spiritual cures, colonial legacies of ‘culture-bound syndromes,’ and race as a site of psychic struggle in Asian American diasporas.	ANTH1151401
ASAM 2100-401	The Wartime Incarceration of Japanese Americans	Eiichiro Azuma	PWH 108	T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	This research seminar will consist of a review of representative studies on the Japanese American internment, and a discussion of how social scientists and historians have attempted to explain its complex backgrounds and causes. Through the careful reading of academic works, primary source materials, and visualized narratives (film productions), students will learn the basic historiography of internment studies, research methodologies, and the politics of interpretation pertaining to this particular historical subject. Students will also examine how Japanese Americans and others have attempted to reclaim a history of the wartime internment from the realm of “detached” academia in the interest of their lives in the “real” world, and for a goal of “social justice” in general. The class will critically probe the political use of history and memories of selected pasts in both Asian American community and contemporary American society through the controversial issue of the Japanese American internment.	HIST3150401	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
ASAM 2159-401	The History of Family Separation	Hardeep Dhillon	COHN 204	R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM	This course examines the socio-legal history of family separation in the United States. From the period of slavery to the present-day, the United States has a long history of separating and remaking families. Black, Indigenous, poor, disabled, and immigrant communities have navigated the precarious nature of family separation and the legal regime of local, state, and federal law that substantiated it. In this course, we will trace how families have navigated domains of family separation and the reasoning that compelled such separation in the first place. Through an intersectional focus that embraces race, class, disability, and gender, we will underline who has endured family separation and how such separation has remade the very definition of family in the United States.	GSWS2159401, HIST2159401
ASAM 2272-401	In/Visible: Asian American Cultural Critique	Bakirathi Mani	BENN 322	W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	This interdisciplinary seminar examines how popular cultural representations frame Asian Americans as either invisible or hypervisible—our explorations will move across race and national origin, language and class, gender and sexuality. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.	ARTH3749401, ENGL2272401, GSWS2272401
ASAM 2620-401	Global Chinas and Chinese Diasporas	Weirong Guo	WILL 315	TR 5:15 PM-6:44 PM	This seminar delves into the global imprint of contemporary Chinese diasporic communities, examining their significant influence from the lens of multiple sectors and regions—from Wenzhou migrants shaping the fashion industry in Italy to copper mining enterprises in Zambia to Chinese-owned nail salons and massage parlors dotting New York City. This exploration situates Chinese communities within the context of an interconnected world. As China has ascended to become the world’s second-largest economy, its impact is not confined within its borders but extends into international politics, culture, commerce, technology, and beyond. This class endeavors to unpack the complexities of China’s global engagement and deepen students’ understanding of Chinese communities worldwide. The course is divided into two main sections. The first section provides an overview of the historical journey of China on the global stage and an introduction to research methods specific to studying this phenomenon. In the second half, the course adopts a more granular approach, delving into critical topics such as race and ethnicity, gender and family dynamics, transnational identity, educational achievement, labor, entrepreneurship, and soft power.	SOCI2933401
ASAM 3110-401	Immigration and the Making of US Law	Hardeep Dhillon	BENN 231	MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM	This course examines the legal history of the United States to illuminate one of the most urgent issues of our time: immigration. From the late nineteenth century, immigration to the United States changed the legal landscape of the country by challenging the bounds of national citizenship, “separate but equal,” Congressional powers, home ownership, and an array of other topics. In this course, we will trace how immigrants challenged existing orders of their time through major state and federal supreme court cases, and the subsequent aftermaths of their trials. In addition to considering the key legal issues at stake in these cases, this course compels us to consider the dynamics of race, disability, gender, and labor that define the construction of US law in the context of immigration.	HIST3910401