The minor in Asian American Studies is designed to enrich students' critical understanding of both the individual experiences and collective histories of Asian Americans in regional, national and transnational contexts. As an inter- and multi-disciplinary program, it underlines transnational contexts and comparative perspectives for the study of Asian American experiences. By promoting knowledge and understanding of a wide range of Asian American individuals and groups through teaching and research, the minor aims to provide new classroom opportunities for undergraduate students to explore Asian American experiences. It intends to enhance communication and collaboration among various cultural, ethnic and racial groups; to facilitate intellectual exchanges; and to broaden academic inquiries on the subjects of migration, ethnicity and race across different disciplines and programs at Washington University. Involved departments include American Culture Studies; East Asian Languages and Cultures; African and African-American Studies; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and more.
The minor in Asian American Studies can nicely complement a major in American Culture Studies, East Asian Languages and Cultures, English, Global Studies, History, Sociology and other fields. Because the questions that animate Asian American Studies span disciplinary boundaries, the minor will inspire students to draw on the methods and insights of multiple disciplines to engage complex real-world problems that necessitate interdisciplinary thinking. Situated in the larger context of the university's commitment to diversity and inclusion, the minor in Asian American Studies is an integral part of the diversity and inclusion initiatives at Washington University that nurture a culturally and academically stimulating environment.
Coordinator
Karen Skinner
Academic Coordinator, American Culture Studies
PhD, Saint Louis University
Affiliated Faculty
Shefali Chandra
Associate Professor, Department of History
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Letty Chen
Professor, Modern Chinese Language and Literature
PhD, Columbia University
Chris A. Eng
Assistant Professor, Department of English
PhD, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Peter Kastor
Professor and Chair, Department of History; Professor, American Culture Studies
PhD, University of Virginia
Sunita Parikh
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
PhD, University of Chicago
Ariela Schacter
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
PhD, Stanford University
Lori Watt
Associate Professor, Department of History
PhD, Columbia University
Daniel Woo
Postdoctoral Fellow in Ethnic Studies, American Culture Studies Program
PhD, University of California, Berkeley
There is no major in Asian American Studies.
The Minor in Asian American Studies
Total units required: 18 (at least 12 units must be at the 300 level or above)
Requirements:
- 3 credits of Introductory course work
- 3 credits of Asian American Focus course work
- 6 credits of Multiethnic and Transnational course work
- 6 credits of Context course work
Regulations:
- In general, students should complete one introductory course prior to pursuing Asian American Focus courses and Multiethnic and Transnational courses.
- All advanced units must be unique to the Asian American Studies minor (i.e., not counted toward any other major or minor).
- All courses counting toward the Asian American Studies minor must be taken for a letter grade, and students must receive a grade of C+ or higher.
- Students may use a study abroad course on any subject in Asian Studies to fulfill the Asian Studies category requirement. Such courses must be approved by the study abroad advisor for the Asian American Studies minor.
Introductory Courses
Choose one from this list (3 credits, any level):
- First-Year Seminar: Easy Riders, Migrant Laborers: American Mobility in Literature and Film (L14 E Lit 160) (unpredictable offerings)
- Ocean, Island, Ghetto, Globe: An Introduction to Asian American Literature and Its Spatial Politics (E Lit 313) (offered annually)
- First-Year Seminar: Chinatown: Migration, Identity, and Space (GS 135) (offered annually)
- Freedom, Citizenship and the Making of American Life (History 163) (offered annually)
- First-Year Seminar: The Meaning of Pakistan: History, Culture, Art (History 2157) (offered every one or two years)
- First-Year Seminar: Beyond the Melting Pot: Life in Immigrant America (SOC 2710) (unpredictable offerings)
Asian American Focus Courses
Choose one from this list (3 credits, any level):
- Doctors and Terrorists: The Fictions of South Asian Americans (AAS 200) (offered every two years)
- Techno-Orientalism: Race, Media & Society (AAS 450) (unpredictable offerings)
- Topics in Asian American Studies: Introduction to Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies (L98 AMCS 250) (offered annually)
- Topics in Asian American Studies: Asian American Racial Scripts: Relational Concepts and Theories (AMCS 3520) (unpredictable offerings)
- Topics in Literature: Asian American Fictions: Space, Place, and the Makings of Asian America (E Lit 313) (offered annually)
- Topics in Literature: Asian American Writings: Contesting American Constructions of the Alien Other (E Lit 313) (offered annually)
- Topics in Literature: Ocean, Island, Ghetto, Globe: An Introduction to Asian American Literature and Its Spatial Politics (E Lit 313) (offered annually)
- Topics in American Literature: Imagining Multiracial Coalitions (E Lit 423) (offered every one or two years)
- "Model Minority": The Asian American Experience (GS 3512) (offered annually)
Multiethnic and Transnational Courses
Choose any two from these two lists (6 credits total, any level):
(1) Asian Americans in a Multiethnic/Multiracial Perspective
- Sophomore Seminar: American Dreams, American Nightmares: US Ethnic Literatures of Post-War Disillusionment (E Lit 250) (unpredictable offerings)
- Topics in English Literature: Growing Up “Different”: The Bildungsroman in a Diversifying America (E Lit 317) (offered annually)
- The Multiethnic Graphic Novel in 20th- and 21st-Century American Popular Culture (E Lit 3524) (unpredictable offerings)
- Topics in Literature: Queer Youth: LGBTQ Narratives of Coming-of-Age and Coming Out in North America (E Lit 4621) (unpredictable offerings)
- Children of Immigrants: Identity and Acculturation (GS 4036) (offered annually)
(2) Global Asia and Asian Diasporas in a Transnational Perspective
- Collecting Art/Excluding People: The Contradictions of Chinese Art in U.S. Museums (Art-Arch 144) (offered every two to three years)
- Finding China: From Sojourners to Settlers in the Chinese Diaspora and Chinese American Literature (Comp Lit 375) (unpredictable offerings)
- Topics in Comparative Literature I: The Trope of "China" in the Imagination of the Chinese Diaspora (Comp Lit 375) (unpredictable offerings)
- Writing From the Periphery: The Question of Chineseness (Comp Lit 449) (unpredictable offerings)
- Chinese Diasporas (History 3165) (offered every two years)
- Imperialism and Sexuality: India, South Asia and the World (WI) (History 39SC) (offered every one or two years)
- Caste: Globalization, Sexuality and Race (WGSS 366) (unpredictable offerings)
Context Courses
Choose one from each category (6 credits total, any level):
(1) Immigration, Race and Ethnicity
- Rainbow Radicalisms!: Ethnic Nationalism(s), the 1960s and the Politics of the New Left (L90 AFAS 4121) (unpredictable offerings)
- The Immigrant Experience (AMCS 202) (offered every one or two years)
- Global Circuits: Religion, Race, Empire (AMCS 314B) (unpredictable offerings)
- Race & Ethnic Relations in the United States (AMCS 3296) (offered annually)
- Topics in American Culture Studies: Commissioned Memories: Racial Unrest and Commission Politics (AMCS 3520) (unpredictable offerings)
- Topics in American Culture Studies: Protest and Power in Modern America (AMCS 359) (unpredictable offerings)
- Neighborhoods, Schools and Social Inequality (Educ 4289) (unpredictable offerings)
- Visualizing Segregation: A History of St. Louis, Chicago and New Orleans (I60 INTER D 306M) (unpredictable offerings)
- Histories of Intelligence: Topics in Science and Society (IPH 3451) (unpredictable offerings)
- Immigration Law (W74 LAW 630) (offered every one or two years)
- Race and Ethnicity in American Politics (Pol Sci 3031) (unpredictable offerings)
- The Roots of Ferguson: Understanding Racial Inequality in the Contemporary U.S. (SOC 2010) (offered every one or two years)
- Social Inequality in America (SOC 2110) (unpredictable offerings)
- The Social Construction of Race (SOC 3212) (unpredictable offerings)
- Sociology of Immigration (SOC 3710) (unpredictable offerings)
(2) Asian Studies
- Contemporary Chinese Culture and Society (Anthro 3055) (unpredictable offerings)
- Archaeology of China: Food and People (Anthro 3163) (unpredictable offerings)
- Culture, Illness and Healing in East Asia (Anthro 4033) (unpredictable offerings)
- Introduction to Asian Art (Art-Arch 111) (offered annually)
- Modern and Contemporary Chinese Art (Art-Arch 3426) (unpredictable offerings)
- The Three Emperors: Redefining Chinese Art in the Golden Age (Art-Arch 4489) (unpredictable offerings)
- Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature (Chinese 342) (offered annually)
- US-China Relations from 1800 to the Present (Chinese 350) (offered every two years)
- Writing New Horizons: Explorers, Envoys, and Other Encounters in Korean Travel Narratives (EALC 340) (offered every one or two years)
- First-Year Seminar: The Vietnam Wars (GS 111) (unpredictable offerings)
- From McDonald's to K-pop: New Movements in East Asia (GS 3822) (offered annually)
- Children of Immigrants: Identity and Acculturation (GS 4036) (offered every one or two years)
- First-Year Seminar: The Meaning of Pakistan: History, Culture, Art (History 2157) (offered every one or two years)
- Early Modern China (History 3162) (offered every one or two years)
- Modern China: 1890s to the Present (History 316C) (offered annually)
- Japan Since 1868 (History 320C) (offered every one or two years)
- 19th-Century China: Violence and Transformation (History 331) (offered every two years)
- Advanced Seminar: Incredible India! (History 49SC) (unpredictable offerings)
- The Modern Voice in Japanese Literature (Japan 333C) (offered annually)
- Literature of Modern and Contemporary Korea (Korean 352) (offered every one or two years)
- Topics in Politics: Modern South Asian Politics (Pol Sci 3292) (unpredictable offerings)
- Globalization and Its Discontents (WGSS 270A) (unpredictable offerings)
Please refer to the Minors section of this page.