Asian Americans at the Margins: Exploring Asian Identities in the United States

Catalog description

This seminar asks students to adopt a sociological understanding of Asian Americans by exploring the "edge cases" of this vast population. Students will engage with academic works to inform and fuel reflection and dialogue about the experiences of Asian undocumented immigrants, adoptees, refugees, and more. We will build on this academic understanding through our engagement with various media and guest speakers to contextualize these experiences. We will not only learn who they are, but where they are situated in the social fabric of the U.S. Assignments will include a series of small research-oriented projects. This course will require students to simultaneously focus on both individual biographies and macro processes. Students will be prompted to connect the lived experiences of their friends, family, and peers with a body of works that tell the multi-faceted story of the Asian American community. By the end of the quarter, students will be able to situate the unique nature of Asian American experiences at the margins within broader social processes, complicating their understandings of race and immigration.