Teaching Asians in American Film and Television
Scott Kurashige
Some students do everything in their power to avoid taking history classes. But I think, given the chance, I can show many of them that history is far more exciting than they realize. With this crowd in mind, I created this course, “Asians in American Film and Television.” I have no special training in media studies, so this eventually becomes a somewhat traditional history class focused on cultural imagery. About halfway through the course, many of the students realize that this is the stealth version of my Asian American history survey, using film and media representations to discuss the critical issues I tackle in that other class, such as race, gender, and transnational politics. Fortunately, most of them have bought into the course by that point.