Building Asian America: Labor, Space, and Power

This course engages Asian American Studies by introducing students to the basic concepts of critical logistics studies, which involve thinking through dynamics of space/placemaking, movement/restriction and labor/production/consumption. Through an array of cultural texts including film, new media, video art, and photography, we will examine how material structures such as logistics infrastructures shape political, economic and cultural imaginations and vice versa. To that end, we will take a global view to understanding the place of Asian America in the world through histories of imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, racism, and nationalism.