Spring 2026 Courses


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

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


ART HISTORY 348: Islamic Art and Architecture II (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 5:30PM - 6:45PM
  • Instructor: Ann Shafer


ASIAN STUDIES 491A: Senior Seminar (Required Certificate Course)

  • Time: Wed. 4:00PM - 6:45PM
  • Instructor: C.N. Le
  • Description: This is one of the two required courses that all Certificate students must eventually take. In this course, students will meet as a class approximately every two weeks to conduct a semester-long "capstone" project that integrates the material and knowledge from Certificate courses they've taken up to that point, along with their own academic interests and personal lived experiences. While each student will conduct their own individual project, all students will "workshop" each other's projects throughout the semester by offering comments and feedback designed to improve each other's project. Usually students take this course after they've completed most or all of their other Certificate courses.


CHINESE 110: Non-Intensive Elementrary Chinese I (Asian Studies)

  • Time: MWF 10:10AM - 11:00AM, MWF 1:25PM - 2:15PM, or MWF 11:15AM - 12:05PM
  • Instructor: Yi Feng


CHINESE 155: Chinese Myths and Legends (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Yiyi Luo


CHINESE 246: Intensive Elementary Chinese II (Asian Studies)

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


CHINESE 327: Intensive Intermediate Chinese II (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM
  • Instructor: Yiyi Luo


CHINESE 381: Junior Year Writing Seminar (Asian Studies)

  • Time: We 2:30PM - 5:15PM
  • Instructor: Enhua Zhang


CHINESE 427: Advanced Modern Chinese II (Asian Studies)

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


CHINESE 433: Business Chinese (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Zhijun Wang


COMMUNICATION 386: Race, Inequality, and Representation (Asian American Studies / GenEd - SB)

  • Time: TBA, Online
  • Instructor: Sut Jhully


COMMUNICATION 430: Stories of Race in the U.S. (Asian American Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Roopali Mukherjee


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

  • Time: MoWe 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: TBA


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

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


ECONOMICS 322: International Trade (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM
  • Instructor: Iryna Bobukh


ECONOMICS 394AI: Fundamentals of International Political Economy (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Kevin Young


EDUCATION 229: International Education (Asian Studies or Asian American Studies / GenEd - DG SB)

  • Time: TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Javid Mussawy


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

  • Time: MoWe 12:20PM - 1:35PM
  • Instructor: Sharon Kearney


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

  • Time: MoWeFr 10:10AM - 11:00AM
  • Instructor: Alejandro Beas Murillo


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

  • Time: TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Shakuntala Ray


HISTORY 115: China, 1600 to Present (Asian Studies / GenEd - DG HS)

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


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

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


HISTORY 269: The American War in Vietnam (Asian Studies / GenEd - HS)

  • Time: MoWe 10:10AM - 11:00AM
  • Instructor: Christian Appy


HISTORY 394TI: Mongol and Turkish Empires (Asian Studies)

  • Time: MoWeFr 10:10AM - 11:00AM
  • Instructor: Anne Broadbridge


JAPANESE 110: Non-Intensive Elementary Japanese I (Asian Studies)

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


JAPANESE 143: Japanese Literature - Classical and Medieval (Asian Studies GenEd - AL DG)

  • Time: TuTh 4:00PM - 5:15PM
  • Instructor: Stephen Forrest


JAPANESE 147: Manga/Anime (Asian Studies GenEd - AL)

  • Time: MoWe 4:00PM - 5:15PM
  • Instructor: Bruce Baird


JAPANESE 246: Intensive Elementary Japanese II (Asian Studies)

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


JAPANESE 327: Intensive Intermediate Japanese II (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM
  • Instructor: Yasuko Shiomi


JAPANESE 375: Introduction to Japanese Linguistics (Asian Studies)

  • Time: We 2:30PM - 5:15PM
  • Instructor: Yuki Yoshimura


JAPANESE 382: Food and Society of Japan (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 2:30-3:45 pm
  • Instructor: Reiko Sono
  • Description: In this course, we'll read sociological and anthropological works on Japanese food and examine its symbolic and social history, so that we'll gain insight not only into Japanese society but also into the cultural significance of food in general.


JAPANESE 391T: Tokyo Through Literature and Film (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 10:00AM - 11:15AM
  • Instructor: Amanda Seaman


JAPANESE 437: Contemporary Japanese II (Asian Studies)

  • Time: MoWeFr 1:25PM - 2:15PM/li>
  • Instructor: Yasuko Shiomi


JAPANESE 494RI: Communicating in Japanese (Asian Studies)

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


JOURNALISM 310: International Journalism (Asian Studies / GenEd - DG SB)

  • Time: TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Razvan Sibii


KOREAN 125: Beginning Korean II (Asian Studies)

  • Time: MoWeFr 10:10AM - 11:00AM, 12:20PM - 1:10PM, or 1:25PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Jee Hyun Lee or Chan Young Park


KOREAN 245: Intermediate Korean II (Asian Studies)

  • Time: MoWeFr 11:15AM - 12:05PM
  • Instructor: Jumee Lee


KOREAN 390STB: Pre-Advanced Korean II (Asian Studies)

  • Time: MoWeFr 11:15AM - 12:05PM
  • Instructor: Jee Hyun Lee


MIDEAST 105: Islam in the Middle East, 600-1800CE: Religion, Civilization, Culture or What? (Asian Studies / GenEd - DG HS)

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


MIDEAST 245: Environmental History of the Middle East (Asian Studies / GenEd - DG HS)

  • Time: MoWe 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Malissa Taylor


MIDEAST 391A: Islamic Society and Culture in the Middle Ages (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Tayeb El-Hibri


NURSING 212: Cultural Diversity in Health & Illness (Asian American Studies / GenEd - DU SI)

  • Time: Th 1:00PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Favorite Iradukunda


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

  • Time: MoWe 10:10AM - 11:00AM
  • Instructor: Jesse Rhodes


POLITICAL SCIENCE 338: Nationalism, Ethnicity & Identity in Politics (Asian Studies or Asian American Studies / GenEd - SB)

  • Time: MoWe 4:00PM - 5:15PM
  • Instructor: Noyan Ozturk


POLITICAL SCIENCE 390R: Race and International Relations (Asian Studies or Asian American Studies)

  • Time: MoWe 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Signe Predmore


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

  • Time: TuTh 1:00PM - 2:15PM
  • Instructor: Sarah Tanzi


SOCIOLOGY 262: Sociology of Globalization and Inequality (Asian Studies or Asian American Studies / GenEd - DG SB)

  • Time: MoWeFr 10:10AM - 11:00AM
  • Instructor: TBA


SOCIOLOGY 326: Asian Americans in Media and Popular Culture (Asian American Studies / GenEd - DU SB)

  • Time: MoWeFr 1:25PM - 2:15PM
  • 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 hostility, Orientalism, global Asian media, and contemporary social media.


WOMEN, GENDER, SEXUALITY STUDIES 350: Global Mommy Wars: Reproductive Politics in Asia and Asian America (Asian Studies or Asian American Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Miliann Kang
  • Description: How has motherhood become a highly contested site for racial politics? How are mothers pitted against each other in ways that undermine struggles for reproductive justice? The "mommy wars" were once shorthand for a mostly media-fueled catfight between middle class stay-at-home versus working mothers. These old mommy wars have not gone away, but they have been sutured to newly virulent debates focused on racialized discourses regarding tiger mothers, "anchor babies," birthright citizenship and family separations at the border. This course will focus on constructions of Asian American motherhood while situating these in comparison to scholarship and debates regarding Black, Latinx, Native and Indigenous and White mothers and motherhood. It will draw on a wide range of materials, including feminist and ethnic studies scholarship, public debates, policy initiatives, media representation, and creative writing to explore how race, gender, sexuality, ability, class, nation and migration have shaped current and historical constructions of motherhood.


WOMEN, GENDER, SEXUALITY STUDIES 393TA: Transnational Asian and Asian American Feminisms (Asian or Asian American Studies)

  • Time: Tu 4:00PM - 6:30PM
  • Instructor: Miliann Kang
  • Description: How are transnational Asian and Asian American feminist scholars destabilizing and complicating fixed, U.S.-centric notions of identity, difference, history and politics? What does the history of U.S. imperialism and wars in Asia shape particularly gendered and sexualized transnational migration flows, neoliberal policies, global capitalist development, cultural practices and representation? This course explores the possibilities and constraints for developing transnational critiques, solidarity, and movements that recognize common concerns, frameworks and struggles while recognizing the heterogeneity, specificity and multiple sites which comprise current Asian and Asian American feminist scholarship and movements. Topics will address: transnational feminist theorizing; gendered migration; citizenship; and sexual and reproductive politics and labor.


WOMEN, GENDER, SEXUALITY STUDIES 494TI: Unthinking the Transnational (Asian Studies)

  • Time: TuTh 2:30PM - 3:45PM
  • Instructor: Svati Shah



Courses at other Five College Campuses

Please search the Five College Course Catalog for possible courses taught at Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount 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.