[ Wesleyan Home Page ] [ WesMaps Home Page ] [ WesMaps Archive ] [ Course Search ] [ Course Search by CID ]
Academic Year 2003/2004

Asian Diaspora in the Americas
AMST 212 SP

Paul Gilroy (1993) argued that the culture that peoples of African descent in Europe and in the Americas share is the 'Black Atlantic' culture; not specifically African, European, North American, Caribbean, South American or 'African,' but all of these at the same time, based on stereophonic, bilingual, or bifocal cultural forms. Peoples of Asian descent also have established their lives, after crossing another ocean, the Pacific, in North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. Echoing Gilroy, this course will ask the following question: Is there such a culture and experience that can be called, say, 'Yellow Pacific'? We may also ask, perhaps more importantly, what is the significance of having such a scope for diverse experiences of Asians in the Americas and the Caribbean? The course will tackle these questions by exploring Asians' historic experiences across the Americas and the Caribbean, and examine how their cultures and experiences have been shaped within particular socio-economic, political, gender, and racial/ethnic conditions of nation-states.

The course will first examine key concepts such as "diaspora," "race," and "ethnicity," and proceed to historical and ethnographic studies of Asians in the Americas and the Caribbean. Cross-national (e.g. Japanese in Brazil vs. US, Chinese in Panama vs. Peru, for instance) and cross-ethnic comparisons of Asian groups (Chinese vs. Filipino in Canada, Indians and Chinese in Trinidad and Tobago, for instance) will be made in order to provide a broader perspective. The course will use academic as well as non-academic sources (films, novels, oral histories) for our inquiries into the Asian experience through various backgrounds and social conditions. In the end of the course, we will return to the questions of 'Asian Diaspora' and 'Yellow Pacific' culture, and discuss the significance of studying Asian immigrants' (and their descendants') experiences, cultures, and identities across the nation-state boundaries, rather than within them.

MAJOR READINGS

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS AMST    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE

SECTION 01

Instructor(s): Suzuki,Taku   

Times: ...W... 07:00PM-09:50PM;     Location: CAMS 1

Reserved Seats:    (Total Limit: 15)

SR. major: 1   Jr. major: 2

SR. non-major: 1   Jr. non-major: 2   SO: 9   FR: 0

Special Attributes:

Curricular Renewal:    Reading Non-Verbal Texts

Last Updated on MAR-19-2004

Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459