Korean America

Fulfills the US requirement for History MajorsIn this course we will study Korea, the United States, and the imagined, cultural, and political space in between these places (Korean/America). This is not a course about high politics or foreign relations, though those will frame our readings and discussion. Instead, we'll explore how missionaries, colonialism, military conflict, globalization, migration, and pop culture have forged and maintained connections between the two countries. We'll also think about Koreans and Americans and Korean-Americans themselves. What is Korean-American identity and culture? What is a transnational, or diasporic, Korean identity or culture? How have these identities and cultures changed over time? And how do these insights translate and apply more broadly: to Asian Americans in general, or to other groups of Americans?