Love in the Western world is assumed to be the epitome of individual freedom. In this interdisciplinary seminar, we will examine the experiences of Asian Americans to to show how race shapes our love chances—that is, whom we are allowed to love, who we are most likely to love, and who are deemed capable of love.
This interdisciplinary seminar will trace the origins of a racial hierarchy of love that rendered Asian women deficient until the 1950s, rendered unions between Asians as the opposite of love, and rendered interracial unions, especially those with white men, as an ideal an popular one. From colonialism to the present, we will see how interrogate how choices that seem based on individual choice alone cannot be separated from larger social and historical forces that made particular choices more popular, more sanctioned, and more legal than others. In turn, we will see how Asian Americans have negotiated their surroundings as well as worked, both individually and collectively, to reshape love chances for themselves.
Class readings will consist historical readings, social science case studies, films, and literature. This course counts for ICC Diversity Credit as well as credit for the Minor in Asian American Studies.
For more information (including a syllabus), please contact Phuong Nguyen, pnguyen@ithaca.edu.