kt shorb

This course explores major themes of immigration, race, gender, ethnicity, class and labor in the experience of Asian Americans in North America, with a primary focus on the late 19th century to the current period. We will explore the shifting representations of Asian Americans as ‘unassimilable aliens’ in the early 20th century to ‘model minorities’ after WWII, as a result of evolving law and representation in popular culture, as well as the intersectional work of the Asian American Movement and associated civil rights leaders in advocating for Asian American legal protection and visibility. The course text (Lee, 2014) will be supplemented with documentary film, legal documents, immigration records, archival data, etc., in order to foster the critical reading of primary sources in the narrativization of history.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Flags: Cultural Diversity in the U.S. and Writing

This course examines theatre, dance and performance art by and about Asian Americans. We analyze these media in social, political, and historical contexts. We also use these sources as models for creating our own original work. As such, this class is focused on praxis--the marriage of theory and practice. In other words, this course combines analysis of writing and media with learning basic methods for collaboration and devising performance. We define Asian America broadly, including both immigrants and people of Asian descent who have lived in the Americas for multiple generations. We engage with both documented (via text, video, or description) and live performance to examine how performance as a medium and mode of making meaning affects our perception of the world. We employ strategies from gender studies, queer studies, performance studies, and critical race studies to discuss how Asian Americans make meaning through performance, and how performance represents Asian America. Finally, we use our critical analysis to discover and apply creative strategies toward building meaning around Asian America that reflects our own political and social beliefs and hopes. This class is open to anyone who finds Asian American identity, identity more broadly, and/or performance of interest. No previous experience with Asian American studies or performance studies required.

Potential authors, companies, and texts include: Josephine Lee, Karen Shimakawa, Esther Kim Lee, Yutian Wong, Young Jean Lee, Ayad Akhtar, Chay Yew, David Henry Hwang, Jessica Hagedorn, Aasif Mandvi, D'Lo, Eiko and Koma, Ananya Chatterjee, Ma-Yi Theatre, East-West Players, Mu Performing Arts, Silk Road Theatre, Kristina Wong, Damon Chua, Pangea World Theatre, Teresa Cha, Yoko Ono, M.I.A., Qui Nguyen, and David Eng.

Please check back for updates.

This interdisciplinary course introduces students to core questions regarding the historic and contemporary experiences of Asian Americans. Students will critically engage key issues, theories and debates in Asian American Studies, while also learning to unpack “Asian American” as a concept that contains an evershifting multiplicity of peoples, histories and places.

Please check back for updates.