Asian American Studies Graduate Minor
for the Graduate Minor in Asian American Studies
Graduate Degree Programs in Asian American Studies
Graduate Minor in Asian American Studies
The Asian American Studies Program offers a graduate minor in Asian American Studies that is interdisciplinary in nature. The graduate minor is designed to complement the graduate work of the students’ area of concentration.
Admission
Students must be in good academic standing in a graduate or professional program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and demonstrate an interest in Asian American Studies. Those wishing to apply to the minor must submit a written statement indicating why they wish to pursue the minor, demonstrate successful completion of one course in Asian American Studies at the undergraduate or graduate level, and provide written approval to pursue the minor from their graduate advisor and graduate program director. The written statement should specifically discuss how the student’s prior academic training and/or work experiences are related to Asian American Studies, how a graduate minor in Asian American Studies fits into their major academic program on campus, as well as how the minor would contribute to future professional development. The written statement and other supporting material must be submitted to the Director of the Asian American Studies Program.
for the Graduate Minor in Asian American Studies
For the Graduate Minor in Asian American Studies to appear on the academic transcript, the student must successfully petition the Graduate College to add the Graduate Minor in Asian American Studies to their academic records.
For additional details and requirements refer to the department's Graduate Program's webpage and the Graduate College Handbook.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| AAS 501 | Theory and Methods in AAS | 4 |
| or AAS 561 | Race and Cultural Critique | |
| AAS 590 | Asian Am Studies Seminar | 4 |
| Two graduate courses from an approved list of Asian American Studies courses at either the 400 or 500 level. | 8 | |
| Total Hours | 16 | |
for the Graduate Minor in Asian American Studies
- Theoretical Approaches: Graduate students acquire proficiency in the field and area of Asian American Studies, and more generally the field of Ethnic Studies. This includes knowledge based in intersectional, comparative, and interdisciplinary approaches and critical theories. While largely based in an area approach to the United States, Asian American Studies is also deeply concerned with transnational, diasporic, and global studies. Students learn the theories and methods of the social sciences and humanistic approaches toward the graduate concentration in Asian American Studies.
- Critical Inquiry and Discovery: Applying theories in Asian American Studies, students develop skills of critical inquiry that draw on intersectional and comparative approaches. As a mode of discovery students exercise their skills using methods of the social sciences and humanities through verbal communication in the classroom and written research projects. Students are asked to apply their critical modes of learning in original and unique projects of discovery through advanced research in a professional concentration.
- Effective Teaching and Community Engagement: Graduate students study analytical concepts and models of community engagement related to the history of Asian American Studies. Reflection based on these approaches provides a context from which to understand the role of classroom learning and the application of theories of social change in community engagement.
- Social Awareness and Cultural Understanding: Graduate students learn the dimensions and breadth of intersectional analysis. This includes the social, cultural, economic, and political issues concerning Asian Americans, and in relation to other social groups. The different social theories of power are examined to understand the categories of analysis such as race, gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion, and disability, to name a few.
- Intersectional Analysis and Interdisciplinary Methods: Graduate students gain an understanding of the global dimensions of intersectional approaches in a broad range of fields and disciplines including literary, historical, cultural and ethnographic methods. Through the study of migration and diaspora, the broad understanding of individual and collective dynamics are observed, analyzed, and theorized. Students are presented with comparative frameworks to understand how race, gender, and sexuality, for example, are thought of from a number of vantage points. Students are introduced to the practice of interdisciplinary methodologies that emerge out of Asian American Studies and related fields.
for the Graduate Minor in Asian American Studies
Department of Asian American Studies
Head of Department: Junaid Rana
Department of Asian American Studies website
Asian American Studies email
1208 W. Nevada, Urbana, IL 61801
(217) 244-9530
Overview of Grad College Admissions & Requirements
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences website