Asian American Narratives 
Writing 101 
Professor Susan Thananopavarn
 

What does it mean to be Asian American in the twenty-first century? How
are Asians and Asian Americans represented in popular culture, and how do
writers and activists resist and complicate these narratives? Through a broad range of texts and your own writing, we will explore key issues in Asian American studies such as the model minority myth, gender and sexuality, transnational adoption, refugee experiences, and anti-Asian violence.

Asian American Literature 
AADS 336S/AMES 332S/ENG 352S/LIT 353S 
Professor Susan Thananopavarn
 

Duke’s first Asian American literature course will examine major works of Asian American literature from the nineteenth century to the present. We will read and analyze a variety of literary genres, including novels, short stories, poetry, and spoken word, paying special attention to the intersection between Asian American literature and historical context.

Intimacies: Sexuality, Nation, and the State
GSF 382S, AADS 382S
Professor Anna Storti
 

This seminar explores the concept of intimacy as it emerges in literary, social, and political inquiry. Through discussions on citizenship, religion, migration, political economy, legality, and activism, we examine what it means for bodies to exist in relation to other bodies, and within the larger body of the nation-state. 

Foods that Make Us Human
AADS 290S, AMES 290S, LIT 290S, CULANTH 290S
Professor Athia Choudhury 
 

Examining histories of diets and dieting, the foods created and circulated via U.S. militarism, and the impact of eugenics/Progressive era nutrition reform on our modern global food systems, this class will trace the affective, material, and aesthetic afterlives of American empire by way of the gut. 

HIST 291, AADS 291
Professor Calvin Cheung-Miaw 

 

Asian Americans have been building communities since they first arrived in the United States. How have they done it, and what have those communities looked like? How have race, class, gender, religion, and politics affected the way Asian Americans think about community? This seminar will explore these questions through readings that span a range of time periods, ethnicities, and geographic regions. A significant portion of the course will be devoted to small group research projects on the history of Asian Americans at Duke or in the local community.
 

ICS 388S, GSF 288S, AMES 388S, History 298S
Professor Jessica Namakkal 

 

The people of South Asia have migrated and settled all over the world. This course will examine the initial contexts and causes of migration, the social, economic, and political consequences of migration, and the individual and collective experiences of the migrants in their new countries of residence. Topics will also include: transnational anti-caste movements; South Asian diasporic music, film, and televsion; the mass popularity of South Asian gurus and yoga culture in Western countries; and race, nationalism, religious identity, and citizenship.