Courses
The Asian American Studies program offers courses on the impact of colonialism, war, capitalism, Hmong American culture, literatures, and beyond.
Fall 2026
Asian American Studies 101
Introduction to Asian American Studies
Introduction to the historical, sociological, anthropological, political, and cultural study of Americans of Asian ancestry.
Asian American Studies 102
Introduction to Comparative US Ethnic, American Indian, and Indigenous Studies
Introduction to comparative ethnic studies, examining race, ethnicity, and indigeneity within the United States. Includes perspectives from African American, American Indian and Indigenous, Asian American, and Chicanx/e and Latinx/e studies.
Asian American Studies 121
Asian American Movement
Techniques of exercises and movement forms derived from several Asian cultures as taught in the United States. Studied in the context of the construction and expression of ethnic and cultural identity.
Asian American Studies 152
Asian American Literary and Popular Culture: Race, Fantasy, Futures
Explores fantasy as a conduit of political meaning in Asian American fiction, graphic novels, anime, and art. Analyzes race as it circulates in visual mediums and literary texts. Engages issues such as stereotyping, caricature, and microaggressions; whitewashing, yellowface, and passing; race fetishism; cultural appropriation; multiracialism; kawaii or cute style; techno- orientalism and virtual Asians.
Asian American Studies 160
Asian American History: Movement and Dislocation
Examines the impact of colonialism, war, and capitalism on the movement of Asians to the U.S. Considers how racial, gendered, class, sexual, and national formations within the U.S. structured Asian immigration to North America.
Asian American Studies 170
Hmong American Experiences in the United States
Explores how Hmong’s participation in the Secret War that the U.S. waged in Laos shaped their experiences in the U.S., heightening the importance of Hmong Americans’ social, cultural, and political self-definition and in making known their contributions to the advancement of U.S. society.
Asian American Studies 220
Ethnic Movements in the United States
Sociological analysis of historical and recent ethnic/racial conflict and movements in the U.S., including the relations between European Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans, with additional material on other groups and relations.
Asian American Studies 240
Asian American Panethnicity & Community Organizing
This course examines the history of Asian American coalition building. We will look at the formation of community organizations and pan-Asian organizations to promote political effectiveness in response to discrimination based upon race and national origin in order to promote and protect their constituents, as well as to provide the mutual assistance needed to survive in America. Transformation of individual identity will be explored.
Asian American Studies 250
Eating Asian America
Examines the diverse food cultures of Asian America as an entryway to questions about Asian American politics, identities, and histories. Considers Asian American food consumption, labor, and discourses in relation to challenging racism and fighting for belonging in the U.S.
Asian American Studies 319
Afro Asian Improv: From Hip Hop to Martial Arts Fusion
An Afro Asian perspective provides a lens through which intersections between Asian American and African American dance and martial arts are studied and practiced. Asian American and African American movement genres provide tools to explore dance fusion, choreography, and improvisation, to create dances informed by African American and Asian American legacies of struggle, innovation and transformation, while cognizant of historical forces of oppression and racism.
Asian American Studies 420
Asian Americans and Media
Examines representations of Asian American in American media using historical, analytical, and critical approaches. Issues of cultural production, identity, race, politics, and gender are linked to examinations of specific media forms.
Asian American Studies 540
Southeast Asian Memory & Traum
Themes in Asian American Studies. Topics may include activism, public policy, history, poverty, family, law, immigration, diaspora, refugeeism, gender, sexuality.