Bad Capital: Race, Technology, and Asian/America

Catalog description

How do representations of Asians and Asian Americans reinforce systems of Orientalism, capitalism, and colonialism in the U.S. and beyond? Through film, literature, and theory, this course aims to examine representations of Asian/American labor, capital, and consumption against the historical backdrop of the evolving U.S. political economy. Tracing historical representations of post-Emancipation Asian “coolie” laborers to contemporary anxieties surrounding Chinese surveillance, Indian tech outsourcing, and Japanese manufacturing, this course aims to unpack cultural representations of Asian/Americans at the intersections of Orientalism, capitalism, and technology. This course is designated under the DIAP and WRIT curricular programs.