Introduction to Asian American Literature

Instructor: Joe Wei
Dates: January 21—February 25, 2025, 7:30 EST (6 sessions)
Times: Tuesdays, 7:30-10:00PM EST (2.5 hours once a week)
Enrollment: 15 students
Enrollment Closes: January 20, 2025, 11:59PM PST

This six-week course provides a brief introduction to Asian American literature, from the earliest writings in the Exclusion era to more contemporary work in the 21st century. We will approach this body of literature thematically--e.g., labor, incarceration, war, community--and trace how the political concerns of Asian American writers of the past reverberate in the writings of more present-day authors. In so doing, we’ll see Asian American literature as a literary tradition and genealogy that is not only an expression of ethnic difference or diversity, but also a creative site of struggle where Asian American identity and politics are negotiated.

To start, we’ll look at the debates, periodicals, and poetry during the invention of “Asian America” as a political coalition in the 1960s. Next, we’ll take on thematic explorations of Asian American literature in pairs; possible pairings might include Carlos Bulosan and Rajiv Mohabir (labor), Janice Mirikitani and Solmaz Sharif (incarceration), Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and Thi Bui (war). We’ll conclude with a literary salon of sorts, where participants can share creative work (visual, written, or otherwise) and reflections on the class.

Joe Wei is an assistant professor of English at the University of Georgia, with prior teaching experience at Indiana University-Bloomington and the University of Virginia. His research and teaching interests include Asian American literature, refugee studies, poetry and poetics, oral history, and game studies. Broadly speaking, he works on Asian American literary organizations and communities from the 1960s to the present, and his first book project is about Southeast Asian American poets' development of a distinctive, collective refugee politics in the institutional context of contemporary American poetry.

Asian American artists, activists, and community members;

Folks who didn't have an opportunity to take an Asian American literature class in high school or college;

Allies of Asian and Asian Americans who want to respectfully learn about and engage with Asian American literary history;

All the above who want to be part of a curious community of learners and thinkers.

A background in Asian American Studies is not required.

The discussion-based seminar class has a capacity of 15 students. 2 full scholarships are available to folks where paying the enrollment fee is a financial burden.

If you are interested in scholarships, please fill out this short scholarship form. Scholarship applications are due by January 7, 2025 and participants will be notified by January 14.

Google Drive: Participants will receive all readings over Google Drive.

Zoom: All class sessions will be held on Zoom.

Vimeo: Recordings of the sessions over Zoom will also be found through a password-protected Vimeo link.

$349 USD