Fall 2023 Courses

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(World Cultures)

Mark Chiang

MW 10:00-10:50 LEC | CRN 40132 | BSB 140

F 10:00am – 10:50am DIS | CRN 40118 |

F 11:00am – 11:50am DIS | CRN 40119 |

F 12:00pm – 12:50pm DIS | CRN 40120 | BSB 215

F 1:00pm – 1:50pm DIS | CRN 40121 | BSB 215

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This course examines various historical, cultural and political representations of Asia, Asian America, and Asians in the world. Students will explore how peoples and ideas from Asia and across transoceanic and transnational diasporas have influenced a globalized world and continue to inform our contemporary understanding of Asia and Asian America. The course also examines how historical issues such as colonialism, war, gobal capitalism, and migration have shaped the experiences and representations of Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and peoples in Asian diasporas.

(Instructor Approval Required)

Julian Rey Ignacio

R  12:30pm –1:20pm | CRN 40128 | ETMSW 2235

F  10:00am – 10:50am | CRN 40130 | TBH 180A

F  11:00am – 11:50am | CRN 40127 | TBH 180B

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This seminar is part of the Asian American Mentor Program, a unique program designed to support new first-year or transfer students in their first semester at UIC. The weekly seminar focuses on Asian American identities, cultures, and communities. We will critically examine historical events, the media, popular culture, and personal narratives to study how social, academic, personal, and community issues impact Asian Americans, while paying attention to distinctions between Asian American and Pacific Islander identities and issues. In addition, students will be introduced to college life and campus resources to ease the transition to UIC.

(Individual and Society and Understanding US Society)

Karen Su

MWF 1:00pm – 1:50pm |

GLAS CRN 40123 (LEC) & 40124 (DIS)
SOC CRN 40269 (LEC) & 40270 (DIS)

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This course is a legacy of the hard-fought struggles by students, staff and faculty for Asian American studies at UIC since 1991. It serves as a space for students of all backgrounds to gain an introduction to the histories, community institutions and contemporary issues of Asian Americans and Asian diasporics across the globe.

This course makes use of critical thinking, critical creativity, and analytical writing as ways of knowing Asian America.

Catherine Becker

TR 12:30 – 1:45pm | Chicago Campus | Thomas Beckham Hall | Room 180G

GLAS CRN 41026
AH CRN 41012

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This course introduces students to some of the major artistic methods, monuments, and themes associated with Asian art and architecture.

Duosi Meng/Xuehua Xiang

MWF 12:00pm – 12:50pm | GH 207

GLAS CRN 40023
CHIN CRN 37488

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Chinese culture as reflected in language, communication, daily life, and creative works. Intensive listening, speaking, reading and writing at the intermediate-advanced level.

(Individual and Society, and US Society)

Michael Jin

TR 11:00pm – 12:15pm | BH B10

GLAS CRN 40905
HIST CRN 43799

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Introduction to the main historical events that define the Asian experience in the United States, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

(US Society)

Anna Guevarra

T 3:30pm – 6:00pm | CRN 44735 | SH 220

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(World Cultures)

Mark Chiang

MW 3:00pm – 4:15pm | TH 204

GLAS CRN 42048
ENGL CRN 43803
MOVI CRN 43802

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This class will introduce students to some of the landmark films of Asian and Asian American cinematic history. While we will attend to the technical elements of film as an artform, the class will mostly explore the social and historical contexts of these films in order to develop a sense of the trajectory of Asia and the Asian diaspora over the course of the 20th century. Coursework will include essays and short writing assignments, as well as a final project. Students will be expected to view the films outside of class—access will be provided. Films for the class will include work by directors such as Wayne Wang, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai, Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, Akira Kurosawa, Lino Brocka, John Woo, Satyajit Ray, Asghar Farhadi, and others.

World Cultures Gen. Ed. Course

Seung Whan Choi

TR 12:30pm – 1:45pm | CRN 43548

Meet on Campus | Taft Hall | Room 208

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This course is designed to introduce Korean politics to undergraduate students. Relying on a textbook on Korean politics, journal articles and Korean films.

(US Society and World Cultures)

Nadine Naber

MW 9:30am – 10:45am | BSB 219

CRN 48375 (GLAS)
CRN 48377 (ANTH)

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Addresses key themes in Arab American Studies: immigration and racism; family, gender, and sexuality; socio-economic class; religious affiliation; arts and cultures; and politics and political activism.

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Gayatri Reddy

MW 4:30pm – 5:45pm | LH 101

GLAS CRN 46497
ANTH CRN 46499
GWS CRN 46498

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A. Naomi Paik

MW 4:30-5:45 PM |

GLAS CRN 48694
BLST CRN  48695

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Study of a specific intermediate topic in Asian American studies. May be repeated if content does not duplicate previous coursework. Course Information: May be repeated if topics vary. Previously listed as ASAM 290.

Nadine Naber

MW 8:00am – 9:15am | TH 207

GLAS CRN 46219
GWS CRN 46217
ANTH CRN 46220

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An introduction to Middle East and Muslim feminisms that draws on the social sciences. Emphasizes intersections of family, religion, nation, colonialism, militarism, gender, and sexuality.

Laura Hostetler

MW 10:00am  – 10:50am LEC | BH 209
GLAS CRN 40081
HIST CRN 41206

F 10:00am  – 10:50am DIS | ETMSW 2435
GLAS CRN 40082
HIST CRN 31207

F 11:00am  – 11:50am DIS | ETMSW 2433
GLAS CRN 40083
HIST CRN 31208

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A detailed survey of China’s late imperial period, covering a broad range of issues from state institutions and elite power, to popular culture and peasant revolt.

Sohini Majumdar

Online with deadlines

GLAS CRN 48728/48729
HIST CRN 48726/48727

Examines anti-colonial resistance to British rule starting with the 1857 Revolt, Indian nationalism, and the formation of independent nation-states in South Asia.

Justin Phan

TR 12:30pm – 1:45pm | BH 304

GLAS CRN 42572
HIST CRN 32969

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This undergraduate course serves as an introduction to the experiences of Southeast Asians in the United States. Drawing from both area studies and ethnic studies perspectives, this course will then explore the construction of Southeast Asia as a capacious region, Southeast Asians as a racialized group within the United States, and various themes ranging from colonialism, immigration, militarism, culture, and politics as related to and distinct from larger questions of Asian American history, culture, and politics.

Michael Jin

TR 2:00pm – 3:15pm | LH 202

GLAS CRN 40133 (U), CRN 40187 (G)
HIST CRN 29711 (U), CRN 29712 (G)

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Explore how history, memory, and contemporary politics in a variety of post-World War II societies in Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific world have shaped the meaning of contentious issues related to the Pacific War. The course will examine a wide range of sources like films, literature, art, monuments, exhibits, personal testimonies, scholarly debates, and more and how they represent issues such as:

-War origins and responsibility
-Atrocities
-Racism
-Reparations
-Textbook controversies
-Nuclear proliferation and peace activism
-Presentations of war in popular culture

Justin Phan

R 3:30pm – 6:00pm | BSB 269

GLAS CRN 40186 (U), CRN 48380 (G)
HIST CRN 34258 (U), CRN 34259 (G)

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This course serves as an advanced undergraduate survey to an increased interest within Asian American and Asian Studies around refugee migrations, histories, and epistemologies. This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of Critical Refugee Studies that has been instrumental to reinterpreting the refugee figure as not an object of rescue but as a site of critique and knowledge production. Students will consider the international construction of the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights of Refugees, specific histories of Southeast Asian refugees in the United States, critical theories about the settler state, and other forms of displacement that are created because of climate crisis, economic injustice, borders, colonialism, and more. Moreover, students will examine ongoing works in this field and work on a final research paper designed around exploring refugee epistemologies, critique, and/or histories.

Sunil Agnani

TR 5:00pm – 6:10pm

GLAS CRN 49012 (U), CRN 49014 (G)
ENGL CRN 35516 (U), CRN 35517 (G)

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This course introduces students to what used to be called third-world literature, or postcolonial literature. We will investigate the legacies of European colonialism through a study of fiction, essays, and films produced during the colonial period and its aftermath. We begin with Conrad and Kipling, then shift to those in the colonies to examine the cultural impact of empire, anti-colonial nationalism, and the role played by exile and diaspora communities.

What challenges do works from writers on the receiving end of empire—such as Gandhi, Fanon, Césaire, J.M. Coetzee, Assia Djebar, Michael Ondaatje, Salman Rushdie and Amitav Ghosh—pose to the conventional idea of justice? How do they reveal contradictions within the languages of liberalism and progress that emerged in 19th-century Europe? How do such writers rework the classic forms of the novel? Finally, how has the failure of some of the primary aims of decolonization (economic sovereignty, full political autonomy) affected more recent writing of the last 40 years? Criticism from: Edward Said and Gayatri Spivak.

Mark Chiang
CRN 40141

Fredy González
CRN 45569

Anna Guevarra
CRN 40142

Michael Jin
CRN 40143

Clare Kim
CRN 47152

Nadine Naber
CRN 40144

Karen Su
CRN 40146

Mark Martell
CRN 40907

A. Naomi Paik
CRN 47153

Justin Phan
CRN 40145

Gayatri Reddy
CRN 43730