Asian American History (214-0-1)

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 215: Mon, Wed 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

How and why did "Asian Americans" become a legible racial category in the United States? From early migrations of Chinese and South Asian laborers to US imperial overtures across Asia and the Pacific, we will explore the history of Asian America as an incoherent social formation shaped by forces of settler colonialism, racial capitalism, imperialism, and immigration. And in doing so, we will examine how Asian American solidarities, movements, and other forms of struggle emerge within and against conditions of structural racism.

Learning Objectives

- Develop historical and analytical frameworks for understanding the history of Asian American experiences in relation to US nation-building projects.

- Connect what we see in the present day to longer histories of racism and structural violence.

- Foster skills for reading a range of historical, cultural, and primary source texts in Asian American studies.

- Gain a deeper understanding of structural inequality in the United States and the tools to explore possibilities for justice and social change.

Class Materials (Required)

All course readings will be made available as PDFs on Canvas.

Class Attributes

Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
Historical Studies Distro Area
U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity