AAST498O

This advanced course brings together theories from the fields of Performance studies, Asian American performance, and Asian American cultural studies, as well as student-enacted performance practices, to apprehend Asian American embodiment. Drawing on the idea that performance is a valuable form of research, along with a diverse range of theorists and practitioners who understand performance as a site of embodied theorizing, we will kinesthetically analyze Asian American performance practices such as performance art, cultural festivals, standup comedy, political protests, dance, installation art, karaoke, and other events from the spectacular to the mundane. In placing such activities along a performative spectrum, we will place close attention to how Asian American geohistorical forces such as empire, capitalism, war, militarization, immigration, settler colonialism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity choreograph our everyday, embodied lives. Conversely, we will also consider how we can re-write such dominant scripts, so to speak, to make space for new roles, relations, and imaginations.