Asian/Pacific/American Studies (2022 - 2024)
Introductory Core
Social and Cultural Analysis 101
SCA-UA 101 Offered every year. 4 points.
Introduces theories, methods, and political trajectories central to the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis (SCA). SCA addresses how individuals and populations structure their worlds and navigate the resulting social, cultural, and political terrain. It privileges scholarly work with an intersectional approach, drawing on theoretical insights from such fields as social geography, feminism and queer studies, ethnic studies, urban and metropolitan studies, critical race theory, labor studies, and cultural studies.
Cultures and Contexts: Asian/Pacific/American Cultures
CORE-UA 539 Offered every fall. 4 points.
See description under College Core Curriculum in this Bulletin.
Research Core
Advanced Research Seminar
SCA-UA 90 Prerequisite: Social and Cultural Analysis 101 (SCA-UA 101) or Cultures and Contexts: Asian/Pacific/American Cultures (CORE-UA 539). Offered every semester. 4 points.
Students write a 20-25 page research paper with a focus on a specific research method. Topics vary by semester; see Albert for details.
Honors Program
Senior Honors Seminar
SCA-UA 92 Prerequisites: 3.65 GPA or higher (both overall and in the major), Social and Cultural Analysis 101 (SCA-UA 101), Cultures and Contexts: Asian/Pacific/American Cultures (CORE-UA 539), and permission of the department. Offered every fall. 4 points.
Senior Honors Thesis
SCA-UA 93 Prerequisites: Senior Honors Seminar (SCA-UA 92), 3.65 GPA or higher (both overall and in the major), and permission of the department. Offered every spring. 4 points.
SCA Theory and Practice: The Internship Program
The 4-point internship program complements and enhances the formal course work of the A/P/A studies major. Students intern at agencies dealing with a range of issues pertaining to A/P/A studies and take a corequisite seminar that enables them to focus the work experience in meaningful academic terms. The goals of the internship are threefold: (1) to allow students to apply the theory they have gained through course work, (2) to provide students with analytical tools, and (3) to assist students in exploring professional career paths. The internship is open to juniors and seniors and requires an interview and permission of the department.
SCA Theory and Practice: The Internship Program
SCA-UA 42 Requires ten hours a week of fieldwork. 4 points.
Elective Courses
Asian American Literature
SCA-UA 306 Identical to ENGL-UA 716. Offered every year. 4 points.
Examines a variety of genres (poetry, plays, fiction and nonfiction, literary/cultural criticism, and nontraditional forms) by writers from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Explores the ways in which the writers treat issues such as racial and ethnic identity, immigration and assimilation, gender, class, sexuality, nationalism, culture and community, history and memory, and art and political engagement.
History and Literatures of the South Asian Diaspora
SCA-UA 313 Identical to ENGL-UA 721, HIST-UA 326. Offered every year. 4 points.
Introduces the many and varied fictions produced by diasporic South Asians across the globe over the last 150 years in Australia, Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean. Explores the poetics and politics of immigration, attends to different types of traveler (such as soldiers, students, athletes, medics, and cosmonauts), and draws on a wide range of media (including literature, cinema, and music). Themes include coolietude, globalization, the impact of 9/11, and technoservitude.
Filming Asian America: Documenting Community
SCA-UA 361 4 points.
Presents filmmaking as a mode of community documentation and filmmakers as historians. Historical and theoretical overview leads to hands-on filmmaking. Students document various aspects of Asian/Pacific/American communities in New York—sociocultural and political issues, histories, personal stories, geodynamics of ethnic localities, domestic lives, professions, ethnic festivals and performances, etc.—and produce at least two collective documentaries (10 to 12 minutes each).
The Constitution and People of Color
SCA-UA 366 Offered every year. 4 points.
Examines how the American legal system decided constitutional challenges affecting the empowerment of African, Latino, and Asian American communities from the 19th century to the present. Topics include the denial of citizenship and naturalization to slaves and immigrants, government-sanctioned segregation, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the prison industry, police brutality, post-9/11 detention issues, voting rights, and present-day issues.
Reading Race and Representation
SCA-UA 368 4 points.
Addresses race as a structural or material dimension that comprises everyday experience and knowledge and can be "read" in objects, spaces, and events. Uses historical and legal texts, literature, and film, as well as scholarship from anthropology, sociology, and history, to examine concepts and themes related to U.S. ethnic studies and critical race theory (including citizenship, rights, segregation, whiteness, colonialism, labor, migration, and alienness).
Critical Indigenous Theory and Settler Colonialism
SCA-UA 372 4 points.
How are Native movements for decolonization offering culturally rich and historically meaningful alternatives to the current system? Examines critiques of capitalism; climate change; Indigenous resurgence and political ecology; statist and non-statist forms of de-occupation; anti-black racism and settler colonialism; queer settler colonialism; and food sovereignty.
Food, Land, and Power
SCA-UA 375 4 points.
Examines the historical and often ongoing transition from Indigenous economies and governance to contemporary modes of production. Emphasizes movements around sustainability, Indigenous resurgence, and food sovereignty that oppose and seek to replace industries founded upon resource extraction, a military industrial complex, industrial agriculture, and genetically modified crops.
Topics in A/P/A Studies
SCA-UA 380 Offered every semester. 4 points.
Specific topics vary from semester to semester. Former topics have included "Yellow Peril": Documenting and Understanding Xenophobia; Transnational Feminism; Cultural Politics of Food; and Politics of Fashion in the Asian Diaspora.
Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies: The Politics of Indigeneity
SCA-UA 747 Identical to ANTH-UA 747, HIST-UA 747. 4 points.
Introduces central questions and debates, such as: Indigenous hidden histories and oral histories; comparative Indigeneities; questions of "discovery" and colonialism; the politics and representations of lands, massacres, and museums; and aspects of law, gender, and sexuality. Begins by recognizing and locating the history and continued presence of the Native American Lenape people here in Mannahatta, and ends with discussions about decolonizing research and Indigenous survival in the future. Uses both historical and ethnographic approaches, in North America and beyond.
Language Courses
Elementary Filipino I, II
SCA-UA 321, 322 Offered every year. 4 points per term.
Emphasis on mastering basic grammar skills and working vocabulary. Lessons incorporate discussions on history, current events, literature, pop culture, and native values. Includes field trips to Filipino neighborhoods in Queens and Jersey City.
Intermediate Filipino I, II
SCA-UA 323, 324 Offered every year. 4 points per term.
Emphasis on the linguistic rules that enable the student to communicate with more competence. There is also a focus on translation. Lessons use a holistic approach and incorporate discussions on history, current events, literature, pop culture, and native values. Features field trips to Filipino centers in the New York/New Jersey area and guests who converse with students in Filipino about their life and work.
Elementary Cantonese I, II
SCA-UA 331, 332 Offered every year. 4 points per term.
Emphasizes the spoken and written language and conversational proficiency. Covers grammar, listening comprehension, and oral expressions. Teaches students to converse in simple sentences and recognize and write about 350 Chinese characters. Students with passable conversational ability or native speakers from Cantonese-speaking communities should not enroll.
Intermediate Cantonese I, II
SCA-UA 333, 334 Offered every year. 4 points per term.
Emphasis on the linguistic rules that enable students to communicate with more competence. The lessons focus not only on language, but also use a holistic approach and incorporate discussions on history, current events, literature, pop culture, and native values. Includes field trips to Chinatown and other Cantonese-speaking neighborhoods.
Related Courses
The following courses count as faculty electives for the Asian/Pacific/American studies major and minor. See the departmental or program sections in this Bulletin for course descriptions and prerequisites.
AMERICAN STUDIES
Justice Lab
SCA-UA 19 2 points.
Work, Labor, and Power
SCA-UA 221 4 points.
Comparative U.S. Ethnic Studies
SCA-UA 224 4 points.
Intersections: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in U.S. History
SCA-UA 230 4 points.
Ethnicity and the Media
SCA-UA 232 Identical to ANTH-UA 232. 4 points.
Social Movements and Alternative Futures
SCA-UA 237 4 points.
Couture/Culture: Fashion and Globalization
SCA-UA 253 4 points.
GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES
Queer Cultures
SCA-UA 450 4 points.
Gender, Globalization, and Politics of KPOP
SCA-UA 476 4 points
METROPOLITAN STUDIES
Race and the Neoliberal Metropolis
SCA-UA 614 4 points.
Cinema and Urbanism
SCA-UA 624 4 points.
Cross-Listed Electives
Majors and minors may take no more than two of these courses. See the departmental or program sections in this Bulletin for course descriptions and prerequisites.
EAST ASIAN STUDIES
Modern Korea and the Korean Diaspora
SCA-UA 834 Identical to EAST-UA 735. 4 points.
HISTORY
Native North America
SCA-UA 748 Identical to HIST-UA 87. Lecture. 4 points.
SOCIOLOGY
Race and Ethnicity
SCA-UA 803 Identical to SOC-UA 135. 4 points.
STEINHARDT SCHOOL OF CULTURE, EDUCATION, AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
American Dilemmas: Race, Inequality, and the Unfulfilled Promise of Education
SCA-UA 755 Identical to TCHL-UE 41. 4 points.