CCOG for ES 244 archive revision 202404

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Effective Term:
Fall 2024 through Winter 2025

Course Number:
ES 244
Course Title:
Introduction to Asian American Literature
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Introduces Asian American and Pacific Islander literary works and considers the writings in their historical, cultural, political, and social contexts. Emphasizes development of Asian and Pacific American perspectives, values, and identities, paying close attention to the issues of race, immigration, and public policy. This course is also offered as ENG 244; a student who enrolls in this course a second time under either designator will be subject to the course repeat policy. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon successful completion of the course student should be able to:

  1. Examine the intersections of economics, history, culture, politics, religion, and gender in Asian American and Pacific Islander literature.

  2. Recognize the diversity and vitality of Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences and expressions.

  3. Analyze individual narratives as independent literary pieces and as part of the cultural and historical tradition and experience of the Asian American diaspora. 

  4. Perform textual analysis by using literary terminology and theory to examine relationships between literary forms and themes.

Integrative Learning

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to reflect on one’s work or competencies to make connections between course content and lived experience.

General education philosophy statement

Ethnic Studies is the interdisciplinary study of race and ethnicity with a focus on the experiences and perspectives of people of color within and beyond the United States. Students of Ethnic Studies analyze the ways that race and racism have and continue to be powerful social, cultural and political forces in the United States and around the world. Ethnic Studies courses explore connections and intersections between race and other forms of difference and oppression including gender, class, sexuality and citizenship. This course of study can help prepare students for a wide-range of career options that require an awareness and understanding of racial and cultural difference. Ethnic Studies courses produce culturally competent students who understand the social and ethical requirements of responsible participation in society and are committed to transformative social change.

Course Activities and Design

Class meeting time will often consist of lecture, full-class discussion, small group discussion; individual and collaborative projects, and/or flipped-classroom approaches where concepts learned outside of class are analyzed and applied when class meets. Meeting time may also include the following: writing; researching; viewing video and multimedia productions; listening to guest speakers; field trips.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Instructors vary on methods of assessment, but students will generally be assessed in response to their labor as members of the class community. In this context, student “labor” refers to all aspects of class participation, including time spent preparing for class (e.g., reading, annotating, researching); work products such as student writing (e.g, reading journals, informal responses, formal essays, summary-response papers); and active and respectful participation in classroom and/or online discussions.

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

Some of the central concepts of the course may include:

  • Issues of language and rhetorical use of non-English languages.

  • Issues of voice and aesthetics within specific Asian American cultural contexts.

  • Social issues, such as family dynamics, gender roles, issues of labor and class, media representation.

  • Cultural issues, including multi-ethnic identities, acculturation, connections to the "homeland."

  • Political issues, such as immigration and naturalization policies, Affirmative Action, identity politics.