UW Bothell Course Descriptions
UW Tacoma Course Descriptions
Glossary
Detailed course offerings (Time Schedule) are available for
AAS 101 Introduction to Asian American Studies (5) SSc, DIV
Provides an introduction to the interdisciplinary study of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Examines issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality, immigration/migration, citizenship, labor, racialization, exclusion, social and political activism and social movements, family, community-building, war, imperialism, sovereignty, (post) colonialisms, transnationalism, culture, and creative expressions. Course overlaps with: BIS 257 and T SOC 270.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 101
AAS 206 Contemporary Issues of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (5) SSc, DIV
Critically examines contemporary Asian and Pacific Islander American issues, ranging from the Cold War era to the present-day America. Topics include ethnic enclaves, community-building, civil rights, identity problems, family conflict, social organizations, political movements, and immigration.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 206
AAS 210 Asian American and Pacific Islander American Identity: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture (5) SSc, DIV
Examines the interdisciplinary nature of Asian American and Pacific Islander American identity. Explores influences and manifestations of Asian and Pacific Islander ethnic identity, using literature, history, and social sciences. Topics include gender issues, socio-economic class, and mixed heritage in the United States.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 210
AAS 220 Asian American Stereotypes in the Media (5) SSc
Asian stereotypes popularized by American literature, film, radio, and television and their effects on Asian American history, psychology, and community.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 220
AAS 250 Asian American Oral Histories (5) SSc, DIV
Explores the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality in the lives of diverse Asian Americans through readings of oral histories narrating powerful stories including immigration, war, refugee flight, exclusion and discrimination, activism, community building, labor, race relations, family, generation gap, gender role changes, domestic violence, adoption, mixed race, religion, and culture.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 250
AAS 300 U.S. Pacific Islander Contemporary Culture (5) SSc, DIV
Examines United States Pacific Islander culture as informed by Pacific history, social and cultural organization. Emphasis on understanding contemporary experience in the United States and other diaspora communities. Major themes include post-colonialism, migration, family, religion, politics, gender, education, and transnational identify. Offered: jointly with ANTH 307; Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 300
AAS 310 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Pacific Northwest (5) SSc, DIV
Examines the history and lives of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander communities in the Pacific Northwest from the eighteenth century. Topics include immigration, labor, gender, community building, challenges to racial discrimination and inequities, and activism to achieve social justice. Emphasizes Washington/Seattle with discussion of Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 310
AAS 314 Ethnography, Transnationalism, and Community in Island Southeast Asia/Asian America (5) SSc, DIV
Ethnographic exploration of the transformative processes of transnationalism in relation to identity and community formation in Southeast Asia and among Southeast Asian Americans. Experiential learning format concentrates on mini-ethnographic projects, field trips, and group presentations. Prerequisite: either one 200-level ANTH course or one AAS/AES course. Offered: jointly with ANTH 314.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 314
AAS 320 Hawaii's Literatures (5) A&H, DIV
Covers views by Native Hawaiian and multicultural writers and composers, studied within historical contexts ranging from the eighteenth century to the present. Examines how the colonization of a sovereign people redefines culture in ethnocentric, racist, Orientialist ways. Analyzes strategies of decolonization as presented and interpreted in works studied.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 320
AAS 330 Asian American Theater (5) A&H, DIV
Covers drama from the 1970's to now, in historical contexts. They study of drama is dialogical, through dialogue. Themes are contested among the characters. Our studies participate, with the plays, in questioning race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class. Includes students' performances of dramatic readings. No prior experience in theater is required.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 330
AAS 350 Critical Overseas Chinese/Chinese American Histories (5) SSc, DIV
Explores the differences and similarities of race, class, gender, sexuality, and generation influence on the life experiences of the Chinese (among the most diasporic people in the world) in America
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AAS 360 Critical Filipino American Histories (5) SSc, DIV
Examines the diverse historical and contemporary experiences of Filipinas and Filipinos in the United States in order to critically understand their immigration patterns, colonial histories, practices of identity constructions, and interactions with other groups.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 360
AAS 370 Japanese Americans: Race, Culture, Discrimination, Gender, and Endurance (5) SSc, DIV
Explores the changing nature of Japanese Americans from the first, Issei, to the latest generation. Topics include arrival, inequality and discrimination, Picture Brides, WW II, and minority-majority race relations. Lectures, readings, discussion, and videos offer varied approaches to view culture, values, community, concentration camps, gender, socio-economic, and psychological issue.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 370
AAS 372 American Internment and Incarceration: Race, Discrimination, and Power (5) SSc, DIV
Explores the racial animus, failure of political leadership, and war hysteria in WW II that resulted in Japanese Americans incarcerated into American concentration camps. Conceptually different internment camps held thousands of Japanese, German, and Italian alien nationals. Topics include why, how, past and present concerns.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 372
AAS 380 Asian American Community: Discrimination, Power, and Affirmation (5) SSc, DIV
Covers three "sea-change" eras for Asian American communities: 1850 to 1941 (racial prejudice, discrimination, and perseverance); World War II to 1965 (inclusion of Asian communities except Japanese Americans); and 1965 to present (new Asian immigrant communities). Topics include theory, comparative history, gender issues, cultural norms and values, and socio-economic endeavors.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 380
AAS 385 Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans: Race, Law, and Justice (5) SSc, DIV
Explores relationship of race, law, and justice in history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans. Examines how challenges and resistance to racial discrimination, inequality, and colonialism transformed our political and legal justice system. Issues include citizenship, immigration, sovereignty, gender, civil liberties, national security, work, property, language, education, and marriage.
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AAS 392 Asian American and Pacific Islander Women (5) SSc, DIV
Explores the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and sexuality in the lives of Asian American and Pacific Islander women. Examines how forces such as immigration, colonialism, sovereignty, labor, family, gender roles and relations, community, war, homeland politics, transnationalism, and social movements shaped and were shaped by these women. Offered: jointly with GWSS 392.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 392
AAS 395 Critical Studies of Post-Vietnam War Southeast Asian Americans: Not Just Refugees (5) SSc, DIV
Focuses on the experiences of Vietnamese, Cambodians/Khmer, Lao, and Indo-Chinese, addressing the various waves of these Southeast Asians to the USA after 1975. Beyond refugee status and the Vietnam War, students explore how ethnicity, age, class, gender and generation influences Southeast Asian groups in America.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 395
AAS 401 Asian American Literature to the 1940s (5) A&H, DIV
Asian American literature from nineteenth-century immigrants to the 1940s. Emphasis on Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino writings detailing the experience and sensibility of first generation immigrants. Early twentieth-century writing focus on the development not only of Asian American community, but also of second generation American-born Asian American writers.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 401
AAS 402 Contemporary Asian American Literature (5) A&H, DIV
Examines Asian American literature from the 1950s to the present that require analyses of structures of power and possibilities for empowerment of an American "minority" group. Multi-ethnic focus, including Filipino American, Japanese American, Chinese American, Korean American, Vietnamese American, and South Asian American subjects.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 402
AAS 403 Survey of Asian American Poetry (5) A&H, DIV
Asian American poetry, nineteenth century to present. Readings include poetry of the early immigrant to America, cultural imperatives transferred from old world to new world, and establishment of an Asian American identity in poetry from 1870s through 1890s.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 403
AAS 404 Advanced Asian American Studies in Humanities (5, max. 15) A&H, DIV
Asian American and Pacific Islander identity and cultures from a humanities perspective. Emphasis on literature, film, music, performance, visual, and material culture. Topics include globalization, war, empire, militarism, capitalism, racism. Interdisciplinary research methods utilize primary documents, historical analysis, cultural studies, and theory. Offered: AWSpS.
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AAS 405 Advanced Asian American Studies in Social Science (5, max. 15) SSc, DIV
Advanced study of topics in Asian American and Pacific Islander identity and cultures through social science theories and methods. Introduction to Asian American and Pacific Islander studies and histories using primary documents, historical interpretation, and research. Topics include globalization, war, empire, militarism, capitalism, racism. Offered: AWSpS.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 405
AAS 406 Asian American Activism (5) SSc, DIV
Explores the multiple political traditions forged by Asian Americans, from the earliest challenges to racist laws and unequal wages to the latest debates over affirmative action and racial profiling. Examines Asian American communities organized to oppose and to perpetuate social inequalities. Offered: jointly with HSTAA 406.
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 406
AAS 498 Special Topics (5, max. 10) SSc
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 498
AAS 499 Undergraduate Independent Study (1-5, max. 10)
View course details in MyPlan: AAS 499
