Course: Asian American Studies, Fall 2005

Dept.: Asian American Studies Stanford University

Instructor: Loan DaoEmail:

Spring Quarter, 2008OH: Mon., 1-2pm & by appt.

Classroom: Bldg.Class Meetings: Mon., 5:15-7:05pm

VOICES FROM SOUTHEAST ASIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES

Course Description:

This course highlights the personal narratives of Southeast Asian communities from Laos, Viet Nam, and Cambodia living in the United States. We discuss the resettlement experiences of refugee communities from these three countries, contextualized within the framework of Asian American Studies topics, such as gender, generational, class, and racial shifts in community development. We will discuss the trajectory of these three communities as emerging social movement leaders, as a reconceptualized understanding of Asian American racialization, and their relationship within the revisionist attempts of historiography on the American intervention in these countries the first half of the 20th Century.

Course Requirements:

Take-home Exams: (essay only) 40% NO MAKE-UP EXAMS UNLESS EMERGENCY

Mid-term (1 question), 20%
Final (1 question), 20%

Individual Research Paper: 50% NO LATE SUBMISSIONS ACCEPTED!

Proposal (1-2 pages): 5%
Transcripts, annotated bibliography, data (3-4 pages): 15%
Paper (12-15 pages): 30%

Participation: 10%

Attendance in class
Participation in activities and discussion
Weekly on-line reflections
Weekly video screenings (on reserve in Green Library)

Required Readings:

Chan, Sucheng. The Vietnamese American 1.5 Generation: Stories of War, Revolution, Flight and New Beginnings. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006.
Ong, Aihwa. Buddha is Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, the New America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
Donnelly, Nancy D. Changing Lives of Refugee Hmong Women. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
Ung, Luong. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. New York: Harper Collins, 2000.

Required Reader: Details TBA

Weekly Topics and Schedule (“Quoted” titles are videos; author names designate articles in reader):

Wk 1: Introduction, SEAn migration experiences in historical context: pre-colonial, French colonialism and colonial legacies

Wk 2: Post 1975 SEA, refugee camps, resettlement policies /programs

“S-21,” First They Killed My Father

Wk 3: PROPOSALS DUE!From “refugee” to “model minority”

“Buddha and Blue Collar,” Palumbo-Liu, Ong, VN Am. 1.5 G.

Wk 4: Reconstituting family and community: What’s gender got to do with it?

Espiritu, A. San-Juan, Vo, Changing Lives

Wk 5: MIDTERM; Community development: A case study of New Orleans

Chan interview with Hem S. Chhim, NAVASA report, Tang, SFSU report, Dao

Wk 6: 1.5, 1.8, 2nd, 3rd Generational perspectives and issues

“When Kelly Loves Tony,” Masequemay, Vo, Tang, VN Am. 1.5

Wk 7: Core advocacy initiatives: Healthcare, education, welfare, and immigration

“Eating Welfare,” SEARAC report, UCSF report, ALC summary of 1996 laws, Jeung, Buddha is Hiding

Wk 8: TRANSCRIPTS, BIB., DATA DUE! Political empowerment and community leadership

“Saigon, U.S.A.,” articles on H’mong murder cases, Vang Pao case, Orange county electoral misconduct, Chang, Park

Wk 9: Representations, Remembering, Return: new articulations of political pasts

“Sentenced Home,” da Silva, Um, Nguyen-Vo, Dao, Nguyen, Lam

Wk 10: PAPERS DUE! Trajectories of SEAn diasporic communities: replanting the uprooted tree

TBA

FINAL EXAMS DISTRIBUTED ON THE FINAL DAY OF CLASS AND DUE THE DATE/TIME OF SCHEDULED FINAL EXAMINATION.

Asian American Studies Instructor: Loan Dao

Spring QuarterStanford University

Research Paper Guidelines

A major component of this course is the research paper. The research process encourages an integrative approach to research methodology. Ethnic Studies as a political project emphasizes the perspectives of people of color in the United States who have been erased, marginalized, or tokenized in the dominant narratives of this country’s history and development. Simultaneously, an Ethnic Studies approach views a research topic from both macrological and micrological lenses. That is, it understands a topic as personal lived experiences that interact with the structural forces of governmental, political, economic and social institutions. Your project should reflect this kind of integrative analysis. Your final paper will incorporate these elements into an overarching composition that relates back to the themes of the class

Students are asked to develop a paper topic and research proposal that interests them. They will divide the work necessary to answer their thesis. The research should consist of three areas: 1.) personal interviews with 1-2 subjects, 2.) secondary sources that discuss their topic (total 3 sources, 1 can be from class reading list, and 1 can be cultural production), and 3.) a summary of one set of current data available on their topic or a timeline of events relevant to their topic (e.g. Census data, police records, university admissions records, high school achievement data, etc.). Students will combine these different methodologies into one final paper (6-8 pages) that draws conclusions based on all three research methods. Your paper grade (50% of final course grade) will be based on your proposal, your research submissions, and the final paper.

The prospectus (DUE WEEK 4): Your topic must be related to Southeast Asian diasporic communities in migration, resettlement, or community and identity formation. The prospectus must be approved before you can continue. The 1-2 page prospectus should 1.) describe your topic 2.) describe your research process: who you plan to interview and general questions you would like to ask, what secondary sources you hope to read, and what primary data source you plan to review 3.) how your paper topic relates to this course.

Partial transcripts of interviews, annotated bibliography of sources, and summary of primary data sets (DUE WEEK 8): You will be required to submit evidence of your individual research as part of the project: 1.) a written transcript of the sections of your interview(s) you might want to use in your paper (3-4 pages), 2.) an annotated bibliography—a bibliography of secondary sources with summaries of each source (1-2 pages) and 3.) a summary of the data set you have chosen to use in your paper (1-2 pages). No analysis is necessary at this point. This exercise is to help students keep up with the project timeline.

Final paper (DUE WEEK 10): The paper should consist of two major elements: description and analysis. Description means telling the interviewee’s story and perspective using your own words as well as direct quotations from the interview, and clearly explaining the central arguments/conclusions of a secondary source or a set of primary data. Analysis means placing the interview subject’s story in an historical and structural context, comparing the lived experiences of individuals to the academic scholarship and other primary research, and connecting the paper to the themes of the class. The 12-15 page paper should be typed with 12-inch font, 1-inch margins, double-spaced, and Chicago style notation and submitted as a hard copy in class.

Possible Topic Areas of Research (These are only ideas. You are not required to pick from this list.):

Refugee migration experience
Refugee assistance
Resettlement issues
Gender: Women in the workplace, single parent homes, emasculinization, domestic violence, queer identity, community leadership and gender, transnational marriages…
Youth: education, domestic violence, after school programs, gangs, soriorities/fraternities, cultural productions….
Socio-economic issues: substance abuse, welfare to work, health care, racism, housing, glass ceiling…
Policy issues: welfare reform, immigration reforms, incarceration, detention, deportation, racial profiling, U.S.-Vietnam, Laos, or Cambodia relations….

Interview and Documentation Protocol:

A. You have an ethical responsibility to protect the privacy and confidentiality of your respondent(s). This means that where sensitive information is involved, or upon the request of your respondent(s), you must:

provide a pseudonym or alias OR
omit the name altogether from the taped interviews and your report

B. You must inform your respondent(s) of their rights and of your obiligations, including but not limited to the following:

your obligation to protect their privacy and confidentiality
the right of the respondent(s) to refuse the interview or to answer a question at any time
the right of the respondent(s) to object to any aspect of the interview process (e.g. no audio recording…)
the right of the respondent(s) to stop the interview at any time.

C. Your solicitation of the respondent(s)’ consent must be conducted in a linguistically and culturally appropriate manner.

D. You must be clear that this interview will only be used for the purposes of this class and NOT FOR PUBLIC DISSEMINATION OR PUBLICATION.