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Asian American Studies

Asian American Studies (ASAM)

ASAM 7 - Biracial, Multiracial and Adopted Asian Americans

GE Area/Graduation Requirement: GE Breadth D2

Focus on biracial and multiracial Asian Americans with an emphasis on race and ethnicity in the United States. Critically examined Topics: racial categorization, immigration, identity, interracial and interethnic friendships and marriage, racial attitudes, mass media images, residential segregation, educational stratification, and labor market outcomes.

Units: 3

Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ASAM 8 - Asian American Community Health

GE Area/Graduation Requirement: GE Breadth E

Critically analyze and understand how environmental, social, and cultural factors affect and shape AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) health and wellbeing.

Units: 3

Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ASAM 10. Asian American Newspapers and Mass Media

(ASAM 10 same as MCJ 6) This course equips students with an understanding of the principles and practices of Asian American journalism through examination of Asian American newspapers and mass media. This includes examination of mass media as well as independent newspapers, magazines, zines, and other media products made by Asians and Asian Americans. Includes analysis of representations of Asian American media throughout U.S. cultural history. G.E. Breadth F.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall
GE Area: F

ASAM 15. Introduction to Asian Americans

Historical, social, and psychological factors in the changing status and identity of Americans from Asia. Examines variables such as cultural heritage, family organization, intergenerational conflict, and the experience of racism in the changing world of Asian Americans. G.E. Breadth F.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
GE Area: F

ASAM 20. Asian Americans in Media and Popular Culture

This introductory course examines how Asian Americans have been imagined and depicted through various mediums of popular culture such as print, film, television, internet, music, etc. Students will become familiar with concepts relating to popular culture and Asian Americans. G.E. Breadth F.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall
GE Area: F

ASAM 30. Japanese Americans in the United States

A survey of social adaptations and cultural changes among Japanese Americans in different communities such as California and Hawaii. Considers identity, marginality, acculturation, and cultural traditions in Japan and in American communities.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall

ASAM 50. Contemporary Asian American Issues

The course examines Asian American contemporary issues. It analyzes cultural, political, social, and economic complexities facing Asian Americans. G.E. Breadth F.

Units: 3
GE Area: F

ASAM 88 - Asian American Critical Thinking

GE Area/Graduation Requirement: GE Foundation A3

Introduction to the process of critical thinking through the lens of race-based theories and selected historical and contemporary discourse of African Americans, [American Indians,] Asian Americans, European Americans and Latinos on race relations and multiculturalism in American society. Examines contemporary social issues through the use of scholarly studies and a range of cultural texts in order to explore the effects of race and racism on the relationship between language and logic, processes and form of reasoning and practices of critical reflection.

Units: 3

Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ASAM 108 - Jain, Hindu, and Asian American Religions

GE Area/Graduation Requirement: GE Breadth F

(PHIL 108 same as ASAM 108) Interdisciplinary study of Asian American religions, spiritualities, cultural beliefs and practices, as well as their receptions, resistance, and racialized depictions within the U.S. culture, legal systems, and politics; includes Jain, Hindu, Sikh, animist, Buddhist, Taoist, and their sub-traditions.

Units: 3

Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ASAM 110. Asian American Communities

Prerequisites: G.E. Foundation and Breadth Area D. A multidisciplinary study of Asian American communities and their relations with the larger society. Analyzes values, lifestyles, processes of group identity and boundary maintenance, social organization, and cultural change. Examination of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and other Asian American subcultures. Multicultural/International M/I.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ASAM 110S. Asian American Communities Service-Learning

Prerequisites: G.E. Foundation and Breadth Area D. A multidisciplinary study of Asian American communities and their relations with the larger society. Analyzes values, lifestyles, processes of group identity and boundary maintenance, social organization, and cultural change. Examination of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and other Asian American subcultures. Multicultural/International M/I. S sections include a service-learning requirement.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ASAM 111 - Asian Pacific Desi American History

GE Area/Graduation Requirement: GE Integration ID

Prerequisite: GE Foundation, Breadth D and PLSI 2 
Introduction to Asian American History focuses on the historical contexts of Asian Americans from the mid 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century.

Units: 3

Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ASAM 120. Race and Ethnic Relations in the U.S.

Examines central concepts, theories, and historical contexts of race and ethnic relations in the United States. Students will become familiar on the formation of racial and ethnic identities, and how they are produced, maintained, and transformed over time and space in American politics and culture. G.E. Breadth F.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
GE Area: F

ASAM 121 - Asian American Marriage and Family

GE Area/Graduation Requirement: GE Integration ID

Prerequisite: GE Foundation, Breadth D and PLSI 2 
Fundamental description of Asian American marriage and family forms and issues across the life course, guided by historic and contemporary perspectives. It explores family interaction, relationships and gender role expectations.

Units: 3

Course Typically Offered:

ASAM 138. Asian American Women

(ASAM 138 same as WS 138) Addresses race, ethnic, and class issues from the vantage point of Asian American women. For Asian American and Southeast Asian communities, the status of women has long been neglected. Yet women play an important role in the family and its economy even as they enter new roles in U.S. society. Helpful to students in sciences and applied fields.

Units: 3

ASAM 140. Hmong, Laotian and Cambodian American Experience

The Southeast Asian American population in the central San Joaquin Valley is 44,542 and Hmong, Laotians and Cambodians make up 6.18% of the district population. This course focuses on the experience of Hmong, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees and immigrants who have resettled in the United States since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Beyond refugee status and the Vietnam War, students also explore how ethnicity, race, class, gender, education, and generation shapes their communities in Fresno and America.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Spring

ASAM 148 - Asian and Asian American Film and Video

GE Area/Graduation Requirement: GE Integration IC

Prerequisite: GE Foundation and Breadth C
Critically looking at Asian American art and visual culture including documentary,film, television, art, paintings, architecture, and monuments.

Units: 3

Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ASAM 151W. Asian Eats: Asian American Foodways

(ANTH 126W same as ASAM 151W.) This is a writing class that explores these various unknown stories of Asians and their foodways. Meets the upper-division writing skills requirement for graduation.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Spring

ASAM 161W. Asian Americans in the Caring Fields

Focuses on Asian American contributions to the caring fields in education and health, including teaching, educational administration, social work, and labor in medical professions as doctors and nurses. Includes an examination of Asian American history, migration, and other social and cultural factors that influence the work of Asian Americans in the caring fields. Meets the upper-division writing skills requirement for graduation.

Units: 3

ASAM 175. Asian American and Asian Cultural Studies

(ANTH 175 same as ASAM 175) Asian American Cultural Studies focuses on the cultural products of Asian Americans and the peoples of Asia. G.E. Breadth F.

Units: 3
GE Area: F

ASAM 180T. Topics in Asian American Studies

Prerequisites: ASAM 15, permission of instructor. Detailed consideration of a single topic concerning the past or present position of Asian Americans in U.S. society.

Units: 3, Repeatable up to 6 units

ASAM 185. Asian American Politics, Education and Theory

Focuses on the political, educational, and theoretical development of the field of Asian American Studies. Topics include the formation of the field, its relationship to the ongoing civil rights struggles of Asian American people, and the position of the field in higher education and the wider community. G.E. Breadth F.

Units: 3
Course Typically Offered: Fall
GE Area: F

ASAM 190. Independent Study

See Academic Placement -- Independent Study. Approved for SP grading.

Units: 1-3, Repeatable up to 6 units
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring

ASAM 195. Diversity in the United States: Race and Gender Issues

Units: 3