AAST398M

From yellow peril invaders to model minority allies, Asian Americans have crafted their own dynamic cultural expressions in a number of media from film, television, and music to fashion, sports, and foodthat reveal and contest the contradictions of the U.S. nation-state. Asian American culture also uniquely sits at the nexus of immigration flows and digital technologies, providing a transnational lens to view the US place in the world. This advanced course, then, will introduce students to the study and practice of Asian American culture as multiple, hybrid, and heterogeneous. It will do so through three sections: section one will introduce students to classic cultural and media concepts as well as relevant keywords outlined by Asian American Studies scholars; section two will review the work of Asian American cultural theorists; section three will focus on analyses of particular Asian American cultural productions. In doing so, students will gain an understanding of the shifting and interlocking tensions among the local, the national, and the global that form the cultural geographies of Asian America.