HIST 4970 - [Jim Crow and Exclusion-Era America]

(crosslisted) AAS 4970, AMST 4970
(HA-AS)

Spring. Next offered 2017-2018. 4 credits.

Co-meets with AMST 6970/HIST 6970.

D. Chang.

This is an introductory history of Asians in the United States from the mid-19th century to the present. It explores immigration, community formation, racism and resistance, the lives of workers, the experiences of women, the role of imperialism, the influence of global politics and economics, and struggles for equality and justice. Key events covered include the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Philippine War, Japanese Internment and World War II, the Asian American Movement, the murder of Vincent Chin, and labor organizing. This course has four main goals: (1) to introduce the major themes in Asian American history; (2) to provide a critical perspective on the conventional narrative of American history - a narrative that largely excludes Asian Americans; (3) to analyze past Asian American experiences within the context of complicity with and challenges to hierarchies of race, gender, and class; and (4) to examine the continuities and discontinuities between past experiences of Asian Americans and those of Asian Americans today.