ASAM 50: Contemporary Asian American Issues

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID:  ASAM 50: Contemporary Asian American Issues
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a Asian American Studies (Area F) course for undergraduate students by J. Banh at Fresno State. The open textbook provides great knowledge and is titled Contemporary Asian American Issues edited by Min Zhou (NYU Press 2018).  The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was to be cost effective. Most student access the open textbook in online through the Henry Madden Library.

Course Title and Number:  ASAM 50: Contemporary Asian American Issues 
Brief Description of course highlights:   An interdisciplinary approach to contemporary Asian American issues, including immigration, employment, education, family, inter-ethnic and intra-Asian conflicts, justice, race relationship and media representations examined from perspectives of history, sociology, cultural/ethnic and gender studies. Course fulfills GE Synthesis F.   ASAM 50. Contemporary Asian American Issues: The course examines Asian American contemporary issues. It analyzes cultural, political, social, and economic complexities facing Asian Americans. Units: 3 GE Area: F

It is currently taught with over 6 sections and always fills to capacity with a waitlist.

Student Population:   All students are required to take an Area F Ethnic Studies course according to the new law AB1460 which requires all CSU students to take 1 Ethnic Studies course.   G.E. Ethnic Studies Area F

ASAM 50 is in one of the four historically defined racialized core groups: Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latina and Latino Americans—specifically Asian Americans.

REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS   Contemporary Asian America (third edition): A Multidisciplinary Reader. Edited Min Zhou and Anthony Ocampo (NYU Press, 2016). ISBN: 9781479826223 [ Free to Fresno State Students as E Book from the Fresno State Library] 

Learning or student outcomes:  1) critical thinking 2) writing 3) assessment

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: 

Brief Description:  Contemporary Asian America (third edition): A Multidisciplinary Reader 3rd Edition  by Min Zhou (Editor), Anthony Christian Ocampo (Editor)

The third edition of the foundational volume in Asian American studies: Who are Asian Americans? Moving beyond popular stereotypes of the “model minority” or “forever foreigner,” most Americans know surprisingly little of the nation’s fastest growing minority population. Since the 1960s, when different Asian immigrant groups came together under the “Asian American” umbrella, they have tirelessly carved out their presence in the labor market, education, politics, and pop culture. Many times, they have done so in the face of racism, discrimination, sexism, homophobia, and socioeconomic disadvantage. Today, contemporary Asian America has emerged as an incredibly diverse population, with each segment of the community facing its unique challenges.

When Contemporary Asian America was first published in 2000, it exposed its readers to the formation and development of Asian American studies as an academic field of study, from its inception as part of the ethnic consciousness movement of the 1960s to the systematic inquiry into more contemporary theoretical and practical issues facing Asian America at the century’s end. It was the first volume to integrate a broad range of interdisciplinary research and approaches from a social science perspective to assess the effects of immigration, community development, and socialization on Asian American communities. This updated third edition discusses the impact of September 11 on Asian American identity and citizenship; the continued influence of globalization on past and present waves of immigration; and the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and class on the experiences of Asian immigrants and their children. The volume also provides study questions and recommended supplementary readings and documentary films. This critical text offers a broad overview of Asian American studies and the current state of Asian America.

ASAM 50 complies with all the following five core ethnic studies competencies:
1. Analyze and articulate concepts of ethnic studies, including but not limited to race and ethnicity, racialization, equity, ethno-centrism, eurocentrism, white supremacy, self-determination, liberation, decolonization and anti-racism. 

2. Apply theory to describe critical events in the histories, cultures, and intellectual traditions, with special focus on the lived-experiences and social struggles of one or more of the four historically defined racialized core groups, specifically Asian Americans, and emphasizing agency and group-affirmation. 

3. Critically discuss the intersection of race and ethnicity with other forms of difference affected by hierarchy and oppression, such as class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality, national origin, immigration status, ability, and/or age. 

4. Describe how struggle, resistance, social justice, solidarity, and liberation as experienced by communities of color are relevant to current issues. 

5. Demonstrate active engagement with anti-racist issues, practices and movements to build a diverse, just, and equitable society beyond the classroom.

Please provide a link to the resource  https://nyupress.org/9781479826223/contemporary-asian-america-third-edition/

Authors:  Min Zhou
Student access:  Library
Supplemental resources: List resources including online homework systems, interactive study guides for students, and faculty-only resources such as solutions and slides that are available.

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  $33.50

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option.

Step 1: https://library.fresnostate.edu/
Step 2: Search Contemporary Asian American Issues by Min Zhou
Step 3: Press Green online Access

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? I have been teaching Asian American Studies for 22 years and so I know all the literature in this field. This is the latest and most up to date Book.

Sharing Best Practices: The old class that was not taught by me had 2 physical books and costs a lot. This is saving the Fresno State Studies 9K. 

Describe any challenges you experienced, and lessons learned. Students do not have the funds to purchase books and these E- online access books are free and excellent New York University Press is very distinguished.

Instructor Name:  J Banh
Asian American and Anthropology Professor at California State University, Fresno 
https://socialsciences.fresnostate.edu/anthropology/faculty/index.html 

Please describe the courses you teach.  Ethnic Studies and Asian American studies Interests also include: Labor, Transnational corporations, Student Success, Diversity in Higher Education, Asian/Asian Americans.

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.   My teaching numbers are consistently high: my mean for student evaluations is 4.54 (out of 5) and mean for peer evaluations is 4.91 (out of 5) and all peer evaluations have been Meets Departmental Average with three that have stated Exceeds Departmental Average. I have written over 50 Letters of Recommendations for students, faculty, and staff. While at Fresno State my publications include three peer reviewed journal articles (two in print and one forthcoming), and my seven peer reviewed book chapters (six in print and one forthcoming), and a Rutgers University advance book contract (in progress).  I have also been a co-editor on two academic anthologies (Routledge & Lexington).

On the national level my flagship the American Anthropology Association has awarded me the prestigious AAA Leadership Fellowship and Council of Education and Anthropology Concha Delgado Early Career Presidential Fellowship. I was also accepted into the competitive summer research institute in Digital Ethnic Studies: New Story Tellers Digital Research given by the University of Nebraska. I have given over six professional presentations at national conferences. I have applied for two grants and received various intermural grants. 

I wrote a curriculum proposal for 13 new Classes and FOUR new certificate and submitted the Asian American/Asian Studies Major which is intended to improve graduation rates for first generation minority students. I gave six interviews: two newspapers, one podcast, one American Anthro Assoc. YouTube, one radio, and one television. From 2017- present in Central Valley I have conducted 40+ Oral History-interviews and created a new Oral History Archive of Successful SE Asian American voices of Barriers and Bridges to College Success. My service includes leading or assisting four conferences, and I have personally brought in 16 speakers and high school to Fresno State. I am serving on three committees, have advised three clubs, and served as an AFSA officer, and as a blind reviewer for four journals.  I have also regularly volunteered for service in my department, guest lectured 3 colleagues’ classes, co-coordinated the ASAM program, ASAM graduation name speaker & reader, tabled four times for Anthro/ASAM, and attended over 100 campus events.