Fall Courses: Asian American Studies (AAS) Courses Still Available

There are several AAS courses for the fall with seats still available. Depending on your needs, you may find some of these appropriate for your situation. Here are some notes to determine if one of these courses is appropriate for you - email me if you're still unsure:

• Freshmen can consider adding one of the AAS199 options if they don't already have a 199 from this or another discipline on their schedule, as these are Discovery courses which are only available to students in their first year, and even then only 1 Discovery course is recommended.
• Here is a flyer about AAS258. And here is a flyer that has information about some of the 199 Discovery options.
• The 300 and 400-level courses here do not fulfill any gen eds.
• Most of the 300 and 400-level courses here list AAS100 as a prerequisite - I would take that prerequisite seriously, as these are advanced courses.

I received an extensive blurb about the open AAS options. Here you go:

Fall 2011 Asian American Studies courses for Undergraduate Students
Discovery Courses:

AAS 199  Food and Art (CRN 50585)

This course examines how food represented in various artistic media including but not limited to literature, painting, film, and the internet. In this class, we will examine how food becomes an artistic vehicle to express messages and ideas about cultural, racial, ethnic, class, and gender differences and diversity. The course will examine artistic representation of ethnic foods, migrant cuisines, haute cuisine, and religious festivals and rituals involving food.  The course will focus around Asian American artistic productions and cultural practices. First year Discovery Program course. Registration restricted to freshmen. Students should only enroll in one Discovery course.

AAS 199 Asian American Youth in Film (CRN 42852)

Asian American youth make up one of the fastest growing populations in the United States today. They also represent approximately 12% of the UIUC student population. This course will examine

films starring and produced by Asian American youth to explore key ways that they are actively shaping the multicultural landscape. A desired outcome of the course is that analysis of the films, readings, and issues concerning Asian American youth will allow students to gain a fuller understanding of race, class, culture, diversity, and gender in U.S. and on campus. We will also compare and situate the unique (and not so unique) experiences of Asian American youth with young people of different racial backgrounds. First year Discovery Program course. Registration restricted to freshmen. Students should only enroll in one Discovery course.

AAS 199 Asian American College Student Experience (CRN 50587)

In this course we examine the historical and contemporary experiences of Asian American college students from the early 1900s to the present. We will examine students' experiences through their own narratives and provide context for understanding the larger socio-political milieu in which they were and are embedded. Some topics to examine will include, but not be limited to: immigration restrictions, World War II, the Civil Rights Era, the admissions debate of the 1980s and affirmative action. We will pay particular attention to the experiences of Asian American students at the University of Illinois. First Year Discovery Program Course. Registration restricted to freshman. Students should enroll in only one Discovery course. Meets 22-Aug-11 - 14-Oct-11.

Courses with General Education Credit (noted in parentheses)

AAS 120 Intro Asian Am Pop Culture (U.S. Minority Cultures)

AAS 258 Muslims in America (UIUC Social Sciences,  U.S. Minority Cultures) – flyer attached

Advanced Credit courses:

AAS 315 War, Memory, and Cinema

AAS 346 Asian American Youth

AAS 365 Asian American Media and Film

AAS 390 Contemp Asian Am Lit & Film (CRN 51335)

This class will read literary texts produced by Asian American writers and filmmakers in the past two years. What are some contemporary concerns in Asian American literature and film? What are some common themes, and in what ways do the texts negotiate with the question of being Asian American in the twenty-first century? How do the texts address questions the multiple and shifting markers of identity such as citizenship, class, gender, race, sexuality, religion, and so forth? How do they challenge our understanding of the present moment and our position in it? What is the vision of the past, present, and future in these literary texts and filmic representations? In the process of addressing these questions, we will employ a reading practice that consists of contextualizing the texts in their historical production, as well using close-reading and critical thinking in order to study how Asian American literature shapes the construction of multiple, hybrid, heterogeneous, diasporic, and transnational subjectivities that challenge the very notion of “Asian American” As a uniform identity.

AAS 490 Black & Asian Workers in US (CRN 47848)

This course examines the shifting literary and historical representations of African Americans and Asian Americans. Starting with the period of post-emancipation and the migration of Asian labor in the rise of U.S. capitalism and ending in the late twentieth century, we will read Asian American and African American novels in their historical contexts that prompt a comparative understanding race and labor in the United States.

AAS 490 Immigrant America (CRN 31301) (with special emphasis on Asian American History)

This course will explore the dynamics of elite and popular culture, the influence of Marxism and neoconservatism, biography and social history, the evolution of race theorizing, and the question

what constitutes Asian America and who counts as an Asian American.