Race in Asia

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

What is race? How do concepts of race change according to social, political, and historical context? Do Asian understandings of race differ from those in the West? How are concepts like "blackness" and "white privilege" interpreted in Asia? In this class, we will grapple with this set of questions by looking at how competing definitions of race and nationhood emerged in conjunction with the rise of the Japanese empire (1910-1945), and American military occupation in Asia during the Cold War. Students will investigate how this historical context has continued to affect the ways more contemporary flows of migrants from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa are racialized in Asia, by analyzing sociological, anthropological, and historical texts of everyday life. No prior knowledge about Asian languages or topics is required.