This course forefronts the diversity of experiences between and within the Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the U.S. empire both on the North American continent and in the Pacific. While political and social categories place Asians and Pacific Islanders within the same group, the groups' vastly varied experiences under U.S. empire makes it necessary to challenge the historical narratives that gloss over key contexts that continue to influence Asian American and Pacific Islander American experiences today. Thus, we will engage in an integrated, not conflated, history of Asians and Pacific islanders, paying attention to the specificities of imperial experiences and their effects on race, class, gender, migration, and diasporic patterns. We will explore topics of immigration and migration, labor and trade, citizenship and belonging, race and indigeneity, gender and sexuality, war and militarism, religion and culture in various contexts, including cities such as San Francisco and New York, regions such as the Pacific Northwest and the American South, countries of the Pacific Rim including the Philippines and Vietnam, and the Pacific islands such as Guam, Hawai'i, and American Samoa. |