Program in Asian American Studies
The Future is Bright
We are moving towards adding a minor in Asian American Studies. Meanwhile, the 2008-09 academic year will see more courses in Asian American history and literature than Penn State has ever seen before, thanks in part to a faculty group that includes Suresh Canagarajah (Applied Linguistics), Tina Chen (English), Grace Delgado (History), Eric Hayot (Comparative Literature), Bao-Ming Li (Educational Equity), Reiko Tachibana (Comparative Literature), and Xiaoye You (English).
Penn State is part of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation's Asian American Studies consortium, which sponsors conferences, workshops, and events across the Midwest.
Check back on this page for course information and updates regarding our progress towards the new minor.
Towards Transnationalism
In 2007-08 a series of committee meetings and events revolving around Asian American Studies helped create an outline for the future of AAS at Penn State. The final committee report, which appeared in April 2008, proposed moving towards a major that conceived Asian American Studies within an explicitly transnational frame, orienting itself towards an understanding of the experience of Asian Americans as part of a larger set of diasporic questions involving the movement of people and ideas into, around, and out of Asia.
The proposed minor in Asian American Studies is likely to hew to that spirit, encouraging students to match their study in the history and culture of Asians in the United States context with an attention to the histories and cultures of Asia, and of Asian immigrants around the world.
Courses on Asian America or the Asian Diaspora
In recent years we have offered the following courses in Asian American Studies. Note that in Spring 2010 we will be offering our first course under the AAS rubric, AAS 100: Introduction to Asian American Studies.
Fall 2008
SOC197A: Introduction to Asian American Studies (Bao-Ming Li)
Spring 2009
CMLIT 141: Religion and Literature (Chalotte Eubanks)
ENG 403: Literature and Culture (Tina Chen)
ENG/CMLIT 404: Japonisme (Christopher Reed)
ENG 573W: Asian American Literature (Tina Chen)
ENG 506: Postcoloniality, Writing, and Rhetoric (Suresh Canagarajah)Fall 2009
HIST302W: Asian and Latino/a Immigration (Grace Delgado)
Spring 2010
AAS 100: Introduction to Asian American Studies (x-listed with ENGL 404 and CMLIT 101; co-taught by Eric Hayot and Tina Chen).
