American Studies 372 - Asian American History

Fall
2018
01
4.00
Franklin Odo
M 02:00PM-04:30PM
Amherst College
AMST-372-01-1819F
CONV 209
fodo@amherst.edu

This seminar examines six major events that fundamentally impacted the history of Asians in the United States. Several of them involved egregious actions by the US government that prompted official apologies from later administrations, the only such cases in American history: the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893, and the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans in 1942. The others include Asian Americans and the Cold War, the Asian American Movement of the 1960s and 70s, and the Model Minority Paradigm, 1960s to the Present. Throughout, we examine the ways in which memory is made or obscured and the ways in which public history institutions, especially the important national agencies, including the Smithsonian, the National Park Service, Library of Congress, and the National Archives along with documentaries, historic landmarks, and websites, have played a role in public understandings of the events included in this course.

Limited to 18 students. Fall semester. McCloy Visiting Professor Odo.

Permission is required for interchange registration during all registration periods.