Fall 2023 Courses


AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES 236: History of the Civil Rights Movement (Asian American Studies / Gen Ed - DU HS)

  • Time: MoWe 11:15AM - 12:05PM
  • Instructor: Traci Parker


ART HISTORY 116: Art & Visual Culture of East Asia (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - AT DG)

  • Time: MoWeFr 12:20PM - 1:10PM
  • Instructor: Christine Ho


ASIAN STUDIES 135: Buddhism East and West (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - DG HS)

  • Time: MoFr 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Reiko Sono


ASIAN STUDIES 312: Bridging Asia & Asian America (Required Certificate Course / Gen Ed - DG I)

  • Time: MoWeFr 1:25PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: C.N. Le
  • Description: This is one of the two required courses that all Certificate students must eventually take and it examines the historical, political, economic, and cultural connections and intersections between Asian and the United States, particularly as they relate to Asian Americans. Drawing on interdisciplinary methodological and analytical approaches, this course will help students to develop and apply an analytical toolset that combines theory, concepts, methods, and empirical data to better understand real-world and complex issues such as early examples of globalization, trade, and immigration between Asia countries and the U.S.; cultural dispersion and the development of the first Asian American communities; dynamics of gender/race/ethnicity; and current issues centered on environmental sustainability, civil society and human rights, emerging transnational media, economic and political tensions, and anti-globalization movements, to name just a few. (Gen. Ed. I, DG).


ASIAN STUDIES 380: Self and Ethics in the Great Books of Asia (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - AL)

  • Time: TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM
  • Instructor: David Schneider


CHINESE 120: Non-Intensive Elementary Chinese II (Asian Studies)

  • Time: MoWeFr 10:10AM - 11:00AM, MoWeFr 1:25PM - 2:15PM, or MoWeFr 11:15AM - 12:05PM
  • Instructor: Yu Liu


CHINESE 126: Intensive Elementary Chinese I (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM or 11:30AM - 12:45PM
  • Instructor: Yi Feng


CHINESE 136: Introduction to Chinese Cinema (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 11:30AM - 12:45PM
  • Instructor: Enhua Zhang


CHINESE 326: Intensive Intermediate Chinese I (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM or 11:30AM - 12:45PM
  • Instructor: Yu Liu


CHINESE 375: Intro to Chinese Linguistics (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Zhijun Wang


CHINESE 394WI: Women in Chinese Cultures (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Elena Chiu


CHINESE 426: Advanced Modern Chinese I (Asian Studies)

  • Time: MoWeFr 1:25PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Yi Feng


CHINESE 450: Elementary Classical Chinese (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 8:30AM - 9:45AM
  • Instructor: David Schneider


COMMUNCATION 394EI: Performance and the Politics of Race (Asian American Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 11:30AM - 12:45PM
  • Instructor: Kimberlee Perez


COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 233: International Fantasy (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - AL)

  • Time: MoWe 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Xu Li


COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 391SF: International Science Fiction Cinema (Asian Studies)

  • Time: Tu 7:00PM - 10:00PM
  • Instructor: N. Couch


ECONOMICS 121: International Economy (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - DG SB)

  • Time: TuTh MoWe 12:20PM - 1:10PM
  • Instructor: Jayati Ghosh


ECONOMICS 322: International Trade (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 11:30AM - 12:45PM
  • Instructor: TBA


EDUCATION 229: International Education (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - DG SB)

  • Time: TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: TBA


EDUCATION 377: Introduction to Multicultural Education (Asian American Studies)

  • Time: MoWe 11:15AM - 12:30PM
  • Instructor: Eirini Pitidou


ENGLISH 117: Ethnic American Literature (Asian American Studies / Gen Ed - AL DU)

  • Time: MoWeFr 1:25PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Kevin Morris


ENGLISH 204: Introduction to Asian American Literature (Asian American Studies / Gen Ed - DU I)

  • Time: TuTh 11:30AM - 12:45PM
  • Instructor: Caroline Yang
  • Description: This course will introduce students to literature and film by, for, and about Asian Americans. Students will learn a reading and viewing practice that consists of contextualizing the texts in their historical production as well as close analysis and critical thinking. Through reading, writing, discussions, and a final group video project, students will explore how Asian American literature shapes the construction of heterogeneous, diasporic, and transnational subjectivities that challenge the very notion of "Asian American" as a uniform identity and object of knowledge.


ENGLISH 205: Introduction to Post-Colonial Studies (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TTuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Malcolm Sen


FIVE COLLEGE CENTER WORLD LANGUAGES (Asian Studies)


HISTORY 116: History of Japan (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - DG HS)

  • Time: MoWe 1:25PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Garrett Washington


HISTORY 117: Science and Society in Modern China (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - DG HS)

  • Time: MoWe 12:20PM - 1:10PM
  • Instructor: Sigrid Schmalzer


HISTORY 247: Empire, Race, and the Philippines (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - DG HS)

  • Time: TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Richard Chu


HISTORY 250: Introduction to South Asian History and Culture (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - DG HS)

  • Time: MoWe 9:05AM - 9:55AM
  • Instructor: Priyanka Srivastava
  • Description: This lecture and discussion-based course is designed to introduce students to the history of South Asia from the earliest periods of recorded history to the present. In addition to tracing major political events, this course will explore special topics such as the institution of caste, the emergence of various religious traditions, the development of early-centralized empires, and the expansion of Mughal power in the subcontinent. We will then investigate the expansion and working of the British colonial state and the transformations affected in administrative, political, economic, and cultural spheres due to colonialism. Simultaneously, we will examine themes and issues that informed the anti-colonial Indian nationalist movement and the communal, caste, and gender dimensions of politics. We will then discuss the attainment of freedom from colonial rule in 1947, the partition of the subcontinent and the development of the independent nation states of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.


HISTORY 269: The American War in Vietnam (Asian or Asian American Studies / Gen Ed - HS)

  • Time: MoWe 9:05AM - 9:55AM
  • Instructor: Christian Appy


HISTORY 345: China in the 19th Century (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Stephen Platt


HISTORY 394EI: Human Rights and Energy in Eurasia (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Audrey Alstady


JAPANESE 120: Non-Intensive Elementary Japanese II (Asian Studies)

  • Time: MoWeFr 10:10AM - 11:00AM or 11:15AM - 12:05PM
  • Instructor: Yuki Yoshimura


JAPANESE 126: Intensive Elementary Japanese I (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM or 11:30AM - 12:45PM
  • Instructor: Mako Koyama


JAPANESE 135: Japanese Art and Culture (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - DG I)

  • Time: TuTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Stephen Forrest


JAPANESE 326: Intensive Intermediate Japanese I (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM or 11:30AM - 12:45PM
  • Instructor: Yasuko Shiomi


JAPANESE 391J: Mysterious Japan (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Amanda Seaman


JAPANESE 436: Contemporary Japanese I (Asian Studies)

  • Time: MoWeFr 12:20PM - 1:10PM
  • Instructor: Reiko Sono


JOURNALISM 490STA: Covering Race (Asian American Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 4:00PM - 6:00PM
  • Instructor: Nicholas McBride


KOREAN 115: Beginning Korean I (Asian Studies)

  • Time: MoWeFr 9:05AM - 9:55AM, 11:15AM - 12:05PM, or 2:30PM - 3:20PM
  • Instructor: Chan Young Park


KOREAN 235: Intermediate Korean I (Asian Studies)

  • Time: MoWeFr 10:10AM - 11:00AM
  • Instructor: Chan Young Park


LABOR STUDIES 204: Labor and the Global Economy (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - SB)

  • Time: MoWe 11:15AM - 12:05PM
  • Instructor: TBA


LEGAL STUDIES 375: Human Rights & Wrongs (Asian or Asian American Studies)

  • Time: We 4:00PM - 6:30PM
  • Instructor: Jamie Rowen


MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES 362: Religion and Politics in the Early Modern Middle East (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - DG HS)

  • Time: MoWe 4:00PM - 5:15PM
  • Instructor: Malissa Taylor


NURSING 202: Issues of Aging in a Global Society (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - SB)

  • Time: TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM
  • Instructor: Hyeyoung Park


POLITICAL SCIENCE 210: Race and American Politics (Asian American Studies)

  • Time: MoWe1:25PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Tatishe Nteta


PUBLIC HEALTH 490G: Race, Public Health, and Policy (Asian American Studies)

  • Time: MoWe 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Airin Martinez


SOCIOLOGY 204: Labor and The Global Economy (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - SB)

  • Time: MoWe 11:15AM - 12:05PM
  • Instructor: Kiana Foxvog


SOCIOLOGY 244: Sociology of Immigration (Asian American Studies / Gen Ed - SB)

  • Time: TuTh 11:30AM - 12:45PM
  • Instructor: Ide O'Carroll


SOCIOLOGY 245: Race and Society (Asian American Studies / Gen Ed - DU SB)

  • Time: MoWe 4:00PM - 5:15PM
  • Instructor: TBA


SOCIOLOGY 271: The Global City (Asian Studies / Gen Ed - DG SB)

  • Time: MoWe 2:30PM - 3:45PM/li>
  • Instructor: Sancha Medwinter


SOCIOLOGY 326: Asian Americans in Media and Popular Culture (Asian American Studies)

  • Time: MoWe 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: C.N. Le
  • Description: This course examines the history, content, and implications of how Asian Americans have been portrayed and represented in mainstream U.S. media and popular culture. The course will also introduce students to developing and applying their ‘sociological imagination’ -- a combination of theory, concepts, methods, and results of systematic and critical inquiry -- to explore specific topics such as the power of the media, the implications of the model minority image, anti-Asian suspicions, Orientalism, and contemporary social media.


SOCIOLOGY 461: Seminar on Race and Racism (Asian American Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 5:30PM - 6:45PM
  • Instructor: Moon-Kie Jung


THEATER 130: Contemporary Playwrights of Color (Asian American Studies / Gen Ed - AL DU)

  • Time: TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM
  • Instructor: Priscilla Page


WOMEN, GENDER, SEXUALITY STUDIES 392AA: Asian American Feminisms (Asian American Studies)

  • Time: Th 4:00PM - 6:30PM
  • Instructor: Miliann Kang
  • Description: How have figures such as the tiger mother, the Asian nerd, the rice queen/king, the trafficked woman, the orphan, the Chinese bachelor, the geisha, the war bride, and the hermaphrodite shaped understandings of Asian Americans, and how have these representations been critiqued by Asian American feminist scholars and writers? Is there a body of work that constitutes "Asian American feminism(s)" and what are its distinctive contributions? How does this body of work illuminate historical and contemporary configurations of gender, sexuality, race, class, nation, citizenship, migration, empire, war, neoliberalism and globalization? How are transnational Asian and Asian American feminist scholars destabilizing and complicating fixed, U.S.-centric notions of identity, difference, history and politics? In exploring these questions, this course examines Asian American histories, bodies, identities, diasporic communities, representations, and politics through multi- and interdisciplinary approaches, including sociology, literature, popular representations, film, poetry and art. Topics will include: constructions of Asian American identities; immigration and settlement; labor history and contemporary employment patterns; dating and marriage; family and career choices; inter-generational relations; representations of Asian American femininities and masculinities; violence against women; and movements for social change. We will give particular attention to sexual and reproductive politics and gender, work and family issues.


Courses at other Five College Campuses

Please search the Five College Course Catalog for possible courses taught at Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mt. Holyoke College, and/or Smith College related to Asia or Asian Americans and then contact Prof. C.N. Le at to confirm that it counts toward the UMass Amherst Asian/Asian American Studies Certificate.


Archive of Previous Semesters

Choose any semester from the drop-down list below to see courses that count toward the Asian & Asian American Studies Certificate for that semester.