Asian American Pop!
Asian American Pop! From boba to K-pop, Asian diasporic culture is undeniably the shared lexicon of a global mainstream. In this course, we will engage with recent literary, televisual, and cinematic works to discern what they express about Asian American history, identity, and cultural politics. What is the difference between appropriation and authenticity? What can “popular” representations tell us about “serious” topics such as capitalism, citizenship, and empire? How does Asian American popular culture enact collective desires for belonging and memory? In particular, we will attend to the gendered and sexual circuits of cultural formation, with units on Asian American girlhood and queer diasporas. Texts include: Flower Drum Song, Crazy Rich Asians, and Master of None. Authors may include: Ocean Vuong and Lysley Tenorio.
Asian American Pop! From boba to K-pop, Asian diasporic culture is undeniably the shared lexicon of a global mainstream. In this course, we will engage with recent literary, televisual, and cinematic works to discern what they express about Asian American history, identity, and cultural politics. What is the difference between appropriation and authenticity? What can “popular” representations tell us about “serious” topics such as capitalism, citizenship, and empire? How does Asian American popular culture enact collective desires for belonging and memory? In particular, we will attend to the …Read more
I took Asian American Pop, thinking I would learn about more recent pop cultural trends and whatnot. But the course focused a lot more on Asian American history than anticipated. The class content itself was really interesting, but Wang teaches everything through lectures, where she will ask questions that you must answer with very specific, narrow, and “correct” answers.
A lot of reading, class description is not accurate. A lot of history and theories/concepts. Assignments were not necessarily difficult nor is the materials hard, but her grading is very particular and not clear on what she wants on them. Written Exams & pop quizzes are open-note but difficult and require a lot of critical analysis. Your own interpretation will not be correct. Otherwise, the discussions were fun and lecture was interesting. If you really enjoy reading and nit-picking ideas this is not a bad class.
A lot of reading, class description is not accurate. A lot of history and theories/concepts. Assignments were not necessarily difficult nor is the materials hard, but her grading is very particular and not clear on what she wants on them. Written Exams & pop quizzes are open-note but difficult and require a lot of critical analysis. …Read more
Jennifer Wang is clearly very smart, but sometimes her attitude of superiority gets to me. The exams specifically, even though the material and discussions were interesting, were incredibly unclear, and she does not make comments on your writing to help you improve, just writes a number in a circle. The way she talks, overall, is incredibly convoluted, and many people in my class share that they get confused halfway through her sentences. Sometimes, students can't help but laugh out loud at the unclearness of her questions and answers.
Jennifer Wang is clearly very smart, but sometimes her attitude of superiority gets to me. The exams specifically, even though the material and discussions were interesting, were incredibly unclear, and she does not make comments on your writing to help you improve, just writes a number in a circle. The way she talks, overall, is inc …Read more
Although the course material was super interesting, I found Wang's teaching style to be disengaging. There was no room for discussion or different perspectives on reading, which created a tense atmosphere in class. Pop quizzes and in class essays were graded harshly, often without feedback even after asking her directly, so there was no way to improve on assignments. Professor Wang also has high expectations for students' ability to critically analyze readings with ambiguous meanings.
Although the course material was super interesting, I found Wang's teaching style to be disengaging. There was no room for discussion or different perspectives on reading, which created a tense atmosphere in class. Pop quizzes and in class essays were graded harshly, often without feedback even after asking her directly, so there was …Read more
This class was simultaneously one of the most interesting and worst classes I've ever taken. Professor sucked out everything that interesting and exciting about the class, and really enjoyed flexing her intellectual muscles in a way that didn't give students time to breath. She reacts out-loud to comments so that it's very obvious when you've said something that she doesn't like, and she often misinterpreted my words so that she could correct me loudly. She cares more about testing if you've done the reading than making sure that you've understood it; she does a bad job of explaining, and has said class notes in her class are unreliable. Weird.
This class was simultaneously one of the most interesting and worst classes I've ever taken. Professor sucked out everything that interesting and exciting about the class, and really enjoyed flexing her intellectual muscles in a way that didn't give students time to breath. She reacts out-loud to comments so that it's very obvious wh …Read more
This class is focused on dissecting The material for this class was extremely interesting. The class itself was not too fast paced, and I loved watching the movies and tv shows assigned in class. I don't think that she was a fair grader. I think that she arbitrarily gave A-minuses without sufficient comments.