Anti-Asian Violence in the Age of US Imperialism

Catalog description

Anti-Asian violence was among the pandemic's multiple and disturbing reliefs, but what is anti-Asian violence? What are its causes, contours, and geopolitics? And what does US imperialism have to do with it? In this course, we will explore the long history of anti-Asian violence in the age of US imperialism, from what scholar Manu Karuka calls continental imperialism of westward expansion to the spate of brutal murders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Connecting the past and present, we will situate the recent campaign to #StopAsianHate in a broader geopolitical environment of US militarism in the Asia Pacific, in order to study the contradictions of liberal calls for diversity and inclusion as the US arsenal and defense budget bloats. Together, we will conduct close readings of primary sources, view and review films, and hold discussions around violence and imperialism, paying close attention to the ways in which racialized incidents of anti-Asian violence happened in a context of work, life, migration, the built environment, war, geopolitics, and home.