Asian Diaspora and Asian American Studies (ADAAS)
ADAAS (Asian Diaspora and Asian American Studies)
Asian American Studies emerged as a result of student organizing against racism and war in the late 1960s, most famously at San Francisco State College, where a campus-wide strike led to the founding of the first College of Ethnic Studies in the U.S. More than simply advocating a multicultural politics of visibility and inclusion, Asian American Studies opened up space for critical scholarship on the relationship between US foreign policy in Asia and waves of Asian migration, as well as on processes of racial formation, unequal citizenship, labor stratification, diasporic belonging/unbelonging, and the aesthetic practices of representation and self-representation. Asian Diaspora and Asian American Studies at Barnard offers an approach to this interdisciplinary field informed by transnational and intersectional feminism, Black, Indigenous, and critical ethnic studies, postcolonial studies, and queer diasporic critique. Students are encouraged to explore histories and experiences of Asian populations in the U.S. and also to de-center the U.S. by investigating the transregional and translocal interconnections within Asia and beyond. ADAAS at Barnard encompasses Asian diasporas from West Asia (usually known by the colonial term “Middle East”) to the Pacific Islands in the context of global capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism.
To sign up, contact Manijeh Moradian, ADAAS Director at mmoradia@barnard.edu
Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete this minor or concentration will be able to demonstrate critical understandings of:
1. the genealogies and critical questions shaping the field of Asian Diaspora and Asian American Studies
2. the historical processes of colonial modernity and racialization and how these have shaped Asian migration and diasporic and minority experiences
3. how social difference and social power are negotiated at the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender, and class, with complicated political and cultural outcomes.
4. how local, regional, and global histories and contemporary conditions interact to shape disparate experiences of migration and diaspora for heterogeneous Asian populations
5. how theories of diaspora offer new frameworks of investigation and understanding, problematizing normative notions of national culture, authenticity, citizenship, and belonging
6. the complex and shifting politics of self-representation and expressive cultural work for different Asian diasporic populations
7. how to place Asian diasporic histories of racialization, inclusion, and exclusion in relation to histories of anti-Blackness, the dispossession of indigenous populations, and the experiences of other diasporic communities.
Requirements
The concentration and minor consist of five courses to be distributed as follows:
One introductory class
Two intermediate classes
Two advanced seminars
Please check current departmental course listings for updated information.
One introductory class (selected from the following):
AMST BC1041 Critical Approaches to the Study of Ethnicity and Race
CSER W1011 Introduction to Asian American Studies
CSER UN1010 Introduction to Comparative Ethnic Studies
ENGL UN3520 Intro to Asian American Literature and Culture
WMST BC2140 Critical Approaches to Social and Cultural Theory
WMST BC2150 Intersectional Feminisms
Two Intermediate Courses (selected from the following):
ARCH UN2505 Architectural Histories of Colonialism and Humanitarianism
ARCH UN2530 Life Beyond Emergency: Ecologies & Inhabitations of Migration
CSER UN3905 Asian Americans and the Psychology of Race
CSER UN3923 Latina/o and Asian American Memoir
CSER UN3971 Muslim Roots/ Routes in the Americas
CSER UN3922 Race and Representation in Asian American Cinema
EDUC BC 3040 Migration, Globalization, and Education
ENGL BC3242 Anti-Colonial Literature Before 1900
HIST BC2803 Gender and Empire
HIST BC3505 Building Worker Power: Migrant Work and Labor Trafficking in a Neoliberal Economy
HIST BC3825 Race, Caste, and the University: B. R. A
PORT UN3327 Visual Cultures & Ethnicities
REL 3311 Islam in the Post-Colonial World
SOC BC3236 Arab New York
SOC UN3241 Transnationalism, Citizenship, and Belonging
SOCI GR6068 Reckoning with Asian America
WMST BC3518 Studies in US Imperialism
WMST UN3915 Gender and Power in Transnational Perspective: Southeast Asia
Two Advanced Courses (selected from the following):
CSER GU4002 Advanced Readings in Asian American Studies
ENGL GU4956 The Asian American Novel
HIST BC3823 Race/Racism/Antiracism
PORT GU4466 The Imaginaries of Asia and Latin America
SOC BC3927 Advanced Topics: Immigration Inequality
SOC UN3241 Transnational Migration/Citizenship
THTR 3154 Theater Traditions in a Global Context
THRT 3155 Traditional Indian Performance
THTR 3156 Modern Asian Performance
WMST BC4303 Gender, Globalization, and Empire
WMST W4305 Feminist Postcolonial Theory
WMST GU4305 Decolonization and Feminist Critique
WMST GU4317 Advanced Topics: Africa-Asia-America: Connections Across the Global South
WMST GU4322 Planetary Questions
WMST GU4330 SWANA Diasporas
ADAAS Course Offerings Spring 2025
Introductory Courses:
WMST BC2150 Intersectional Feminisms
WMST BC2140 Critical Approaches to Social and Cultural Theory
Intermediate Courses:
HIST BC2859 South Asian Diasporas
Advanced Courses:
ARCH 3901 Senior Seminar: Architecture and Environments of South Asia
ARCH GU4100 Partitions, Borders, Camps
CSER UN3905 Asian Americans and the Psychology of Race
CSER UN3942 Race and Racisms
EDUC BCBC3070 "Growing up Palestinian: The sociopolitical contexts of childhood and youth"
ENGL UN3439 Afro-Asian Literary Imaginaries
SOC BC3927 Advanced Topics: Immigration Inequality
THTR UN3157 Postcolonial Drama: The Canon and its Other
THTR-UN 3158 Asian American Performance
WMST GU4330 SWANA Diasporas
ADAAS Course Offerings Fall 2025
Introductory Courses:
WMST BC2150 Intersectional Feminisms
WMST BC2140 Critical Approaches to Social and Cultural Theory
Intermediate Courses:
ARCH 2530 Life Beyond Emergency: Ecologies and Inhabitations of Migration
CSER UN3490 Post 9/11 Immigration Policies
CSER UN3968 Immigration, Race, and Asian Americans
CSER UN3968 Immigration, Race, and Asian Americans
ENGL BC3242 Literature of Liberation Before 1900
HIST BC2859 South Asian Diasporas
PSYCH BC3606 Independent Study Section 013 (intro, intermediate, or advanced, depending on the project)
Advanced Courses:
CSER UN3922 Race & Representation in Asian American Cinema
CSER UN3522 War, Gender & Migration (intermediate/advanced)
WMST GU4317 Africa-Asia-America: Connections Across the Global South