COMM3351

COMM 3351 - Asian Americans and Popular Culture (3 Cr.) Arts/Humanities, Diversity and Soc Justice US

Communication Studies (10958) TCLA - College of Liberal Arts

COMM 3351 - Asian Americans and Popular Culture (3 Cr.) Arts/Humanities, Diversity and Soc Justice US

Course description

Over the past few decades, Asian Americans have become increasingly visible both as the subjects and producers of popular culture in the United States. This course will explore how this new recognition of Asian Americans in popular literature, cinema, television, and entertainment is related both to longer histories of Asian immigration and racial exclusion and to post-1960s efforts to forward racial awareness, community activism, and social justice. Our first unit will look at how particular stereotypes such as the yellow peril or the wartime enemy encouraged anti-Asian feeling and violence and legal restrictions on immigration and naturalization. We will then examine how throughout history, Asian immigrants and their descendants used song, dance, theater, writing, and other forms of popular culture to express personal desires and foster collective ties. Our final unit concentrates on contemporary popular culture and its relationship to the changing identities of Asian Americans. How do Asian Americans influence the current essays, films, and videos that are consumed by millions today? How are increasingly pan-ethnic, interracial, multiracial, transnational, and global experiences reflected in popular culture?

Minimum credits

3

Maximum credits

3

Is this course repeatable?

No

Grading basis

OPT - Student Option

Discussion

Credit will not be granted if credit has been received for:

02623

This course fulfills the following Liberal Education requirement(s)

Arts/Humanities, Race, Power, and Justice in the United States

Fulfills the writing intensive requirement?

No

Typically offered term(s)

Periodic Fall & Spring