Upcoming Semester

Fall 2026 courses

ANTH 087 SC. Contemporary Issues in Gender and Islam.
L. Deeb, SC, TR 1:15-2:30 p.m.
This course explores a variety of issues significant to the study of gender and Islam in different contexts, which may include the Middle East, South Asia, Africa and the U.S. Various Islamic constructions and interpretations of gender, masculinity and femininity, sexuality, and human nature will be critically examined.

ARHI 162 SC. Art of the Pacific Voyage.
J. Lum, SC, T 2:45-5:30 p.m.
Voyages are central to the cultures of the Pacific Ocean, with the arrival of Europeans in the South Pacific only one chapter in a history of maritime mobility and exchange. Students will be introduced to artistic expressions, architectures, material cultures, and performance cultures of Oceania, and to art of European travelers to the region, with a particular focus on Island Polynesia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Topics will include: the ocean as cultural landscape, seafaring and navigation technologies, cross-cultural and interactive cultural histories, the art of ritual space, artistic responses to colonial legacies, and the relationship between art and ecology.

ASAM 070. Surveillance: An Introduction.
M.B. Nasir, PO, W 1:15-4:00 p.m.
In the twenty-first century, mass surveillance has successfully penetrated every aspect of public and private life, so much so that we are unable to imagine a world without it. Through critical readings, film and television, as well as social media, this course will draw on abolitionist methods and theories to examine the rise of surveillance in the United States. Students will come to understand how modern power works, particularly through the lens of race, by focusing on various case studies including: the monitoring of captives in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) targeting of Muslim Americans post-9/11, and the increasing use of “big data” or information technology in police departments. Along with querying the origins and history of surveillance, this course will probe the strategies and techniques of contemporary anti-surveillance social and protest movements.

ASAM 094. Community Health.
Staff, PZ, MW 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
This course explores the struggle for social justice and health equality for and with underserved Asian American communities and Pacific Islander communities. Through participatory teaching strategies, the class will examine health care as a basic human right and analyze movements working towards eliminating disparities in health. Fulfills Pitzer social responsibility requirement.

*ASAM 125. Introduction to Asian American History, 1850-Present.
A. Flores, HMC, TR 9:35-10:50 a.m.
This survey course examines the history of Asian immigrant groups and their American-born descendants as they have settled and adjusted to life in the United States since 1850. We will explore issues such as the experience of immigration, daily life in urban ethnic enclaves, and racist campaigns against Asian immigrants. In addition, this course utilizes an ethnic studies framework that requires students to critically explore other themes such as class, community, empire, gender, labor, race, sexuality, settler colonialism, and war from the perspective of Asian Americans.

*ASAM 126. Introduction to Pacific Islander History.
A. Flores, HMC, TR 1:15-2:30 p.m.
Survey course introduces students to the native/indigenous histories of Oceania with an emphasis on Aotearoa (New Zealand), Guåhan (Guam), Hawai‘i, the Marshall Islands, Sāmoa, and Tonga. These places will expose students to the global and local histories of colonialism, climate change, diaspora, empire, indigenous land and ocean stewardship, migration, militarization, nuclear testing, and tourism. In addition, this course critically explores other related themes other related themes such as class, environmentalism, gender, labor, race, sexuality, and war from the perspectives of Native Pacific Islanders. Class discussions, lectures, film screenings, and readings constitute the interpretative lens for this course.

ASAM 135B. Race, Empire, Filipinx America.
Staff, PZ, MW 9:35-10:50 a.m.
Examines the interplay of historical, social, political, and cultural factors that have influenced, and continue to influence, Filipinx American experiences in the U.S., similarities and differences within the Filipinx American community, as well as with other Asian American and ethnic/racial groups, will be examined.

*ASAM 142. South Asian American Studies.
M.B. Nasir, PO, M 1:15-4:00 p.m.
This course examines issues relevant to the South Asian diaspora in the United States. With a special emphasis on race and empire, the course will consider historical and contemporary forms of marginalization targeting South Asian American communities. It will also explore the possibilities and limits of emergent Desi social movements forged in contexts of Anti-Immigrant Racism, Anti-Muslim Racism, Anti-Black Racism, Hindutva, and Trumpism.

ASAM 179K. Asian American Women on Screen.
Staff, SC, R 2:45-5:30 p.m.
This course will examine historical representations of Asian/American women in movies, TV, and new media in American culture. We will start by theorizing the hypersexuality of Asian women on screen by thinking about the role militarism plays in constructing gendered and racialized stereotypes. We will continue thinking about ongoing representational practices of Asian/American women by watching and engaging with films, TV shows, comedy specials, news clips, and social media. We will consider how engaging with representation as a site of contestation and possibility might create opportunities for rethinking how gender and sexuality in Asian American studies disrupts depictions of war, migration, violence, the family, memory, and activism on screen.

ASAM 190A. Asian American Studies Senior Seminar: Applications, Analysis, and Future Directions.
S. Goto, PO, TR 1:15-2:30 p.m.
This is the capstone seminar for senior Asian American Studies majors (minors optional). The seminar is designed to bring seniors together to discuss and assess their understanding of Asian American Studies practice and theory at the Claremont Colleges and beyond. We will engage in minor research activities, read & analyze provocative books and articles, and revisit key issues & controversies.

*ENGL 019. Introduction to Asian American Literature.
O. Lafferty, PO, MW 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
This course is an introduction to major and recent texts in the field of Asian American literature. We will examine the ways that U.S.-based authors of Asian descent use the formal elements of literary genres to articulate political and/or social critiques and commentaries. In our analyses of poems, novels, short stories, memoirs, and plays, we will map the myriad historical and political trajectories which give rise to Asian American writing. While our investigation of Asian American literature entails paying close attention to the formal elements of distinct genres adopted by the writers under investigation, we will also situate these texts within an intersectional and comparativist sociocultural frame and foreground issues and topics related (but not limited) to family politics; im/migration, citizenship; labor politics; spatial politics; history; colonialism; community formation; cultural memory; trauma; race and racism; class consciousness; Indigeneity; and gender and sexuality.

FGSS 188E. Feminist and Queer Sinophone Studies.
J. Cheng, SC, T 2:45-5:30 p.m.
This course draws together emergent scholarship in transpacific studies and sinophone studies with Asian American studies and queer studies. It attends to how the hemispheric Americas and Asia Pacific regions have been shaped by the United States and China, respectively and concomitantly. We trace overlapping histories of U.S.-European interventions into Asia Pacific, Pacific militarizations, Chinese empire, and modern Chinese nation-state building led by Han ethnonationalisms. Focusing on transpacific crossings and the production of “sinophone cultures” in history, popular culture, science, and tourism, this course applies queer analyses to investigate how the U.S. and China produce one another as analogous “others.”

HIST 169. Globalization and Oceania: Hawai’i and Tonga.
C. Johnson, PZ, MW 1:15-2:30 p.m.
This comparative course explores the deep histories of Hawai’i and Tonga, beginning with their stories of creation and closing with the annexation of these independent kingdoms by the U.S. and British Empires at the end of the nineteenth century. Topics include: creation, voyaging, gender, power, and the land.

PSYC 155. Seminar in Ethnic Minority Psychology and Mental Health.
W. Hwang, CMC, MW 1:15-2:30 p.m.
This course examines the roles and influences of ethnicity, race, and culture on psychology and mental health. Students will learn about intergroup dynamics, racism and White privilege, ethnic identity development, acculturation and immigration, ethnic differences in the expression of distress, differential patterns and barriers to help-seeking, mental health disparities, and ethnocultural issues that influence treatment processes.

*SOC 150AA. Contemporary Asian American Issues.
H. Thai, PO, M 1:15-4:00 p.m.
Survey of contemporary empirical studies focusing on Asian American experiences in the U.S. and globally; major themes include race, class, gender, sexuality, marriage/family, education, consumption, childhoods, aging, demography, and the rise of transmigration. Readings and other course materials will primarily focus on the period since 1965.