ERIC MAR[1]
Psychology Room 108 – SFSU
Phone: 415/338-6591
  ericmar@att.net
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~ericmar

Asian American Studies 680 (section 01 - #01908) - 3 units [GE ]
Community: Changes and Development
 Fall 2002 - MWF 10:10 – 11am  – Humanities Rm383


General Education Segment III Course:

This course satisfies the “relationships to knowledge” cluster: Asian Americans: Responses to the American Experience.  The class requires a minimum of 10 pages of written assignments.  Note: students will not receive Segment III credit UNLESS you complete the whole cluster as described in the Class Schedule and Bulletin, including the requirement that students must have earned 60 units by the end of the semester in which they take the course.

Prerequisites:

To enroll in this course you must have completed at least 6 units of upper division coursework in Asian American Studies (one of AAS 310 [Chinese in America], 331 [Japanese in America], 370 [Vietnamese], or 456 [Pilipinos], and one of 322 [Chinese American culture], 363 [Pilipino], 444 [Vietnamese] or 693 [Asian Americans & the Mass Media])  or have the
consent of the instructor (factors considered: other relevant Ethnic Studies coursework; community experience; strong written and analytical skills.)


Course Description:

Critical examination of Asian & Pacific Islander American (API) communities: origins, changes, economics, trends of residential and community patterns, and movements for social and economic justice. The course will examine the implications and effects of immigration, class polarization, and political trends (such as the 1996 welfare “reform”, and immigration laws, the passage of CA’s Propositions 187, 209 and 227 and the resurgence of racial violence and scapegoating) on API communities.  Finally, students will link theory and practice through community research and a group assignment.

Objectives:

· Acquaint students with a range of API communities and their origins;
· Provide an understanding of the crucial issues and forces affecting AA’s today in the context of our “multicultural” society and the changes brought by ‘globalization’;
· Critically analyze the history of API community activism and current community change strategies;
· Develop a better understanding of the intersections of race, gender and class through classroom dialogue and projects;
· Examine community research methods and the means by which research can be used to support social movements and to improve conditions in API communities; and
· Help students develop better critical thinking skills and a basic awareness of API community resources and needs.

Course Text and Reading Material:

·        The State of Asian America, Karin Aguilar San-Juan (South End Press 1994);

·        Selected articles from ColorLines, Asian Americans: the movement, the moment, Asian Week, War Times, Asian American Revolutionary Ezine, Amerasia Journal and other community publications [Course Handouts – available from the instructor throughout the course & and by Library Electronic Reserve – under Eric Mar – password = servethepeople]

Requirements:

Assignments      70%
   & Participation in Class
Group Presentation     10%
Community Research Project   20%

Regular Attendance and Participation:

I expect every student to make her best efforts to participate in the class discussions and in small group projects. Therefore, regular attendance is absolutely necessary.  Warning: repeated missed classes will severely lower your final course grade.
Policy on late work:
20% reduction of grade (for example, and “A” paper which is turned in one week after the due date will be given a “B“ grade.  If that paper is turned in 2 weeks after the due date, the grade will have fallen to a “C”.




 

Education is not neutral.
It is for the liberation or for the domestication of people,
for their humanization or their dehumanization,
…whether the educators are conscious of this or not.

Paulo Freire, Brazilian Educator


[1] [1] San Francisco attorney Eric Mar is the former director of the Nor. Calif. Coalition for Immigrant Rights and past Asst. Dean and Professor of Law at New College Law School in SF.  He is active in a number of grassroots and community organizations such as the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), Media Alliance & the National Lawyers Guild. A longtime immigrant rights activist, Eric began his activism and community work as a student at UC Davis and with APSU, the Asian Pacific Islander Student Union in the early 1980’s. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Multiracial Justice and APIforCE (Asians & Pacific Islanders for Community Empowerment).  Last November, 95,000 SF voters elected Eric to the SF Board of Education.