SPRING 2018
Tomás Crowder-Taraborrelli
Office hours: Mondays 11:00- 12:00 p.m. Maathai 414
Introduction to the Pacific
Basin
The prospect of exploring the history of the relationship between two areas of
the world narrowly defined as the Pacific Rim and Latin America poses an
interesting set of challenges. Both areas host hundreds of communities that
have had very complicated histories with respect to their national governments
and other nations. In this course, the main goal will be to determine some of
the most common cultural traits and socio-historical events that shape the
discourse of identity in these enormously rich geographical and cultural areas.
In outlining a narrative history to our enterprise of inquiry, I have selected
readings and films that, for the most part, have to do with violent episodes in
the histories of both of these regions. There are several reasons why I have
chosen this approach: one, is because I believe that violent periods expose the
social and political frictions that, for one reason or another, have been
repressed; secondly, the reasons why these violent periods erupted are
oftentimes still very controversial (theories about their origins capture the
interest of many scholars and artists around the world today); and third,
studying the causes of violent periods can often lead to an understanding of
efforts to establish peace and justice in the affected communities. This is an
interdisciplinary course, and I hope students will be able to engage critically
with the materials and explore their disciplinary interests with passion and
respect for the diverse views presented in the articles, books, and films that
are part of the curriculum.
Goals and Objectives
Some of the goals of this course are: 1) to foster a
critical understanding of human rights in the Pacific Basin 2) to determine
what organizations and single individuals have done to promote social justice
and peace in their communities, and 3) to evaluate the contribution that
artists and intellectuals have made to the ways that communities “imagine
themselves.” Students will be asked to take copious notes during class
discussions and as they complete their readings, and to carry out research for
their final essay.
Assignments
Paper #1 15% (3 pages)
Paper #2 15% (4 pages)
Paper #3 20% (6 pages)
4 Short response papers 20% (1-2 pages each)
Oral Presentations
10%
Participation
20%
Readings
Complete
common readings and any additional readings assigned specifically to you. Take
notes. Come to class prepared to raise challenging
questions about the readings. Question the interpretative authority of the
authors and also of your classmates and professor.
Abbreviations
CR Common Readings- Every student needs to
do the reading and prepare for class discussion
AR
Assigned Reading to 1 student: The student who is assigned the reading
must prepare a 10-minute presentation on the reading and prepare to engage with
other readings or films scheduled for that day.
Written Work
Please type all written work using a standard 12-point font, double-space the
text, leave a one-inch margin on all sides and staple multiple pages. Don’t
forget to put your name and course number on the paper. Late papers will be
marked down 1/3 grade for each day late.
Please follow the APA Style format for citations and
general style formatting. You can find an online version of the APA style
manual at:
Schedule of readings
For the most updated schedule of reading please visit the course's wiki (on
brightspace)
Required Text
Otsuka, Julie. The Buddha in
the Attic. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011
COURSE WEBSITE
COURSE SCHEDULE
Week 1:
Introduction to the course
TUESDAY,
February 6:
Barter, Shane J., and Michael Weiner. “An Introduction to the
Pacific Basin.” The Pacific Basin: An Introduction.(CR) 9 pgs.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. “Culture as the Ideological Battleground
of the Modern World System”. (CR) 25
pgs.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
FILM: Manufactured Landscapes, Dir. Edward Burtynsky [sequence screened in class]
THURSDAY,
February 8:
Byung-Chul Han. “Healing as Killing.” Psycho-Politics. (AR) 4 pgs.
Jenkins, Rhys. “China's Global Expansion and Latin America”.
(CR) 29 pgs.
Organization of groups: 1) Human Rights 2) War and
International Law 3) Culture and the representation of identity 4) History and
memory
Why China matters
TUESDAY,
February 13:
Loyalka, Michelle Dammon. “Introduction.” Eating Bitterness: Stories from the
Front
Lines of China's Great Urban Migration. (AR) 8 pgs.
Loyalka, Michelle Dammon. “The Teenage Beauty Queens.”Eating
Bitterness:
Stories from the Front Lines of China's Great Urban
Migration. (CR) 33 pgs.
FILM:
Last Train Home, Dir. Lixin Fan
(First Part)
THURSDAY,
February 15:
Benjamin, Walter. “Imperial Panorama,” “The Telephone.” Berlin
Childhood
around 1900. (AR) 6 pgs.
Weiner, Michael. “East Asia: Convergence and Divergence.” The Pacific Basin:
An
Introduction.(CR) 11 pgs.
FILM: Last Train Home, Dir.
Lixin Fan (Second Part)
The Colonial Years in Latin America (Immigration, Slavery and
Race Relations)
TUESDAY,
February 20:
England, Sarah and Ian Read. “Latin America: A living and
changing artifact.”
The
Pacific Basin: An Introduction.(AR)
13 pgs.
Hu-DeHart, Evelyn. “Race Construction and Race Relations.
Chinese and Blacks
in
Nineteenth-Century Cuba”. Encounters:
People of Asian Descent in the
Americas. 8 pgs. (CR)
THURSDAY,
February 22:
Skidmore, Thomas E., Aline Helg and Alan Knight.
“Introduction.” The Idea of
Race in Latin America, 1870-1940. (AR) 4
pgs.
Dulitzky, Ariel E. “A Region in Denial: Racial
Discrimination and Racism in
Latin
America.” Neither Enemies Nor Friends:
Latinos, Blacks, Afro-
Latinos. (CR) 15 pgs.
The Latin American human rights legacy
TUESDAY,
February 27:
Las Casas, Bartolome. In
Defense of the Indians [Selections] (CR) 3 pgs.
Mignolo, Walter D. “Racism As We Sense It Today.” The Modern Language
Association of America. (AR) 5 pgs.
Barter, Shane. “The Age of Colonialism (s).” The Pacific Basin: An
Introduction. (AR) 10 pgs.
THURSDAY,
March 1:
Carozza, Paolo G. “From Conquest to Constitutions: Retrieving a
Latin American Tradition of the Idea of
Human Rights.” (CR) 33 pgs.
Start reading Julie Otsuka's The Buddha in the Attic.
FIRST SHORT RESPONSE DUE ON Sunday March 4 by 6 p.m.!
Japanese Immigration to the United States
TUESDAY,
March 6:
England, Sarah and Michael Weiner. “Migration, immigration, and
settlement
within
the Pacific Basin.” The Pacific Basin: An
Introduction. (AR) 10
pgs.
Sunada Sarasohn,
Eileen . “On Being
Japanese in America.” The Issei: Portrait
of a Pioneer: An Oral History. (AR)
6 pgs.
Otsuka, Julie. The Buddha in the Attic. 1- 60 pgs. (CR)
THURSDAY,
March 8:
O’Brien, David J. and Stephen S. Fugita. “The Concentration Camp
Experience.”
The Japanese American Experience. (AR) 13 pgs.
Otsuka, Julie. The Buddha in the Attic (finish de novel) (CR)
Community Cinema Screening: Dolores - March 8th (Thursday), 7-9 p.m., PAU 216
With intimate and
unprecedented access, Peter Bratt's Dolores tells the story of Dolores Huerta,
among the most important, yet least-known, activists in American history.
Co-founder of the first farmworkers union with Cesar Chavez, she tirelessly led
the fight for racial and labor justice, becoming one of the most defiant feminists
of the 20th century.
http://www.soka.edu/news_events/calendar-of
events.aspx?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D126271087
Active Citizenship
TUESDAY,
March 13:
Loewen, James W. “The Vietnam War in High School American
History”. Censoring
History:
Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, and the United
States. (CR) 22 pgs.
Luther King, Martin. "Nonviolence: The Only Road to
Freedom.” (AR) 6 pgs.
FILM: The Trials of Muhammad Ali (sequence
screened in class)
THURSDAY,
March 15:
Malcom X, "After the Bombing/Speech at Ford Auditorium.”
(CR) 14 pgs. Audio on Youtube (follow
this link).
Marable, Manning. “They Don’t Come Like the
Minister.” Malcom X: A Life of Reinvention. (AR) 30 pgs.
MUSIC:
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
“The Message.” [in class]
The
Economist. “Rappers’
knuckles rapped: A genre’s popularity worries
officials.” (AR)
First Paper due March 27 by 6 p.m.
SPRING
BREAK 3/19-3/23 J
J
Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone
TUESDAY,
March 27:
Roniger, Luis and Mario Sznajder. The Legacy of Human-Right Violations in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. “Preface” and
“Introduction.” (CR) 9 pgs.
Roht-Arriaza, Naomi. “The Actors Behind the Pinochet Cases.” The Pinochet
Effect: Transnational Justice in
the Age of Human Rights. (AR) 17 pgs.
FILM:
The Pinochet Case (sequence screened
in class)
THURSDAY,
March 29:
Roniger, Luis and Mario Sznajder. Chapter 1 The Legacy of Human-Right Violations
in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.(CR) 38 pgs.
FILM:
The Pinochet Case (sequence screened
in class)
Remembering and forgetting
TUESDAY,
April 3:
Sturken, Marita. “Absent Images of Memory: Remembering and
Reenacting the Japanese Internment”. Perilous Memories: The asia-Pacific War(s). (CR) 16 pgs.
FILM:
History and Memory, dir. Rea Tajiri. (screened
in class)
THURSDAY,
April 5:
Lee, Erika. “The Chinese Are Coming. How Can We Stop Them.” At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration During The Exclusion Era, 1882-1943.
(CR) 22 pages.
Lee, Erika. “The Keepers of the Gate: U.S. Immigration Officials
and Chinese Exclusion.” At America’s
Gates: Chinese Immigration During The Exclusion
Era, 1882-1943. (AR) 28 pages.
Jelin, Elizabeth. "The Minefields of Memory." (AR) 3
pgs.
Soka Community Cinema: Look and See: Wendell Berry’s Kentucky, Pauling 216, 7 p.m.
Look & See revolves around the divergent stories of
several residents of Henry County, Kentucky who each face difficult choices
that will dramatically reshape their relationship with the land and their
community. Filmed across four seasons in the farming cycle, it blends
observational scenes of farming life, interviews with farmers and community
members with evocative, carefully framed shots of the surrounding
landscape. Thus, in the spirit of Berry’s agrarian philosophy, Henry
County itself will emerge as a character in the film - a place and a landscape
that is deeply interdependent with the people that inhabit it.
Trauma, families and national histories
TUESDAY,
April 10:
Barter, Shane J. “Armed conflict across the Pacific: Patterns
and
possibilities.” The Pacific Basin: An Introduction. (AR) 9 pages.
G. B. Tran's Vietnamerica:
A family’s journey. First Part. (CR) 117 pgs.
(Graphic Novel)
SECOND SHORT RESPONSE DUE ON ANGEL, April 10th, at 6
p.m.
THURSDAY,
April 12:
Singer, Marc. “Time and Narrative: Unity and Discontinuity in
The
Invisibles.” Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods. 14
pgs. (AR)
Tran, G. B. Vietnamerica:
A family's journey. Second part (CR)last 200 pgs.
Identity, ethnicity, national identity and genocide
TUESDAY,
April 17:
“The civil rights issue of our time’: how Dreamers came to
dominate US
politics.” The Guardian, January, 2018.
(AR) 4 pages.
De León, Jason. “Prevention Through Deterrence.” The Land of
Open Graves:
Living and Dying On The Migrant Trail
(CR) 37 pages.
THURSDAY,
April 19:
Stillman, Sarah. “When Deportation is a Death Sentence.” The New
Yorker,
February, 2018. (CR) 13 pgs.
Organize groups for presentations.
Second Paper due April 22 by 6 p.m.
The Pacific War
TUESDAY,
April 24:
Dower, John W. " 'An aptitude for being unloved' ":
war and memory in Japan".
Ways of Forgetting, Ways of Remembering:
Japan in the Modern World.
(CR) 31 pgs.
THURSDAY,
April 26:
Renov, Michael. "Warring Images: Stereotype and American
Representations of
the Japanese, 1941-1991". (CR) 26
pgs.
THIRD SHORT RESPONSE DUE APRIL 30 by 6 p.m.
The Pacific War (continue)
TUESDAY,
May 31:
Dower, John W. War Without
Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War [Chapter
selections for student presentations].
THURSDAY,
May 3:
Dower, John W. War Without
Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War [Chapter
selections for student presentations].
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS
Soka Community Cinema Presents: Iris, Pauling 216, 7 p.m.
Iris pairs the late documentarian Albert Maysles (Grey Gardens, Gimme
Shelter), then 87, with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed
93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York
fashion scene for decades. More than a fashion film, the documentary is a story
about creativity and how a soaring free spirit continues to inspire. Iris portrays a singular
woman whose enthusiasm for fashion, art and people are her sustenance. She
reminds us that dressing — and indeed, life — is nothing but a grand
experiment. "If you're lucky enough to do something you love, everything
else follows."
The Pacific War:The Lessons of War
(cont.)
TUESDAY,
May 8:
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS (if need)
THURSDAY,
May 10 (last class J:
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS (if needed)
FOURTH RESPONSE DUE SUNDAY MAY 15 by 6 pm!!!
May 16 to 22: Final's week
Third Paper due March 20, by 6 p.m.
Bibliography
Barter, Shane J., and Michael Weiner. “An
Introduction to the Pacific Basin.” The Pacific Basin: An Introduction, edited
by Shane Barter and Michael Weiner, Routledge, 2017.
Benjamin, Walter. Berlin Childhood around
1900. Harvard University Press, 2006.
Carozza, Paolo G., "From Conquest to Constitutions:
Retrieving a Latin American Tradition of the Idea of Human Rights" (2003).
Scholarly Works. Paper 581.
De León, Jason. “Prevention Through
Deterrence.” The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying On The Migrant Trail.
University of California Press, 2015, pp. 23-37.
Dower, John W. " 'An aptitude for being
unloved' ": war and memory in Japan". Ways of Forgetting, Ways of
Remembering: Japan in the Modern World. The New Press, 2014.
Dower, John W. War Without Mercy: Race &
Power in the Pacific War. Pantheon, 1987.
Dultizky, Ariel E. “A Region in Denial:
Racial Discrimination and Racism in Latin America.” Neither Enemies Nor
Friends: Latinos, Blacks, Afro-Latinos,” edited by Anani Dzidzienyo and Suzanne
Oboler, Palgrave Macmillian, 2005, pp. 39-58.
Gambino, Lauren. “The civil rights issue of
our time: how Dreamers came to dominate US politics.” The Guardian. 27 January
2018.
Han, Byung-Chul. “Healing as Killing.” Psychopolitics:
Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power. Verso, 2017, pp. 29-32.
Hu-DeHart, Evelyn. “Race Construction and
Race Relations. Chinese and Blacks in Nineteenth-Century Cuba.” Encounters:
People of Asian Descent in the Americas. Ed. Rustomiji-Kerns, Rajini Skrikanth
and Leny Mendoza Strobel. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999.
Jelin, Elizabeth. “The Minefields of Memory.”
NACLA.
Jenkins, Rhys. “China's global expansion and
latin america.” Journal of Latin American Studies , vol. 42, no. 4, Nov. 2010,
pp. 809–837.
Las Casas, Bartolomé, and Stafford Poole. In
defense of the Indians. Northern Illinois University Press, 1992.
Lee, Erika. “The Chinese Are Coming. How Can
We Stop Them.” At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration During The Exclusion
Era, 1882-1943.” University of North Carolina Press, 2003, pp. 23-73.
Loewen, James W. “The Vietnam War in High
School American History”. Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan,
Germany, and the United States. Hein, Laura and Mark Selden. Armonk: M.E.
Sharpe, 2000.
Loyalka, Michelle Dammon. Eating bitterness:
stories from the front lines of Chinas great urban migration. University of
California Press, 2012.
Malcom X. “After the Bombing/ Speech at Ford
Auditorium.” YoutTube.
Marable, Manning. “They Don’t Come Like the
Minister.” Malcom X: A Life of Reinvention.
Martin Luther King, Jr. “Nonviolence: The
Only Road to Freedom.” Teaching American History,
teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/nonviolence-the-only-road-to-freedom/.
Mignolo, Walter D. “Racism As We Sense It
Today.” The Modern Language Association of America.
O’Brien, David J. and Stephen S. Fugita. “The
Concentration Camp Experience.” The Japanese American Experience.
Otsuka, Julie. Buddha in the Attic . Anchor,
2012.
Renov, Michael. "Warring Images:
Stereotype and American Representations of the Japanese, 1941-1991." The
Culture of Japan as Seen Through Its Leisure. Ed. Linhart,S., and Sabine
Frühstück. State University of New York Press, 1998.
Roniger, Luis and Mario Sznajder. The Legacy
of Human-Right Violations in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.
Oxford University Press, 1999.
Roht-Arriaza, Naomi, “The Actors Behind
Pinochet Cases.” The Pinochet Effect: Transnational Justice in the Age of Human
Rights.” University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005, pp. 208-237.
Sarasohn, Eileen Sunada. The Issei, portrait
of a pioneer: an oral history. Pacific Books, 1990.
Skidmore, Thomas E., Aline Helg and Alan
Knight. The Idea of Race in Latin America, 1870-1940. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1990.
Stillman, Sarah. “When Deportation is Death
Sentence.” The New Yorker, February 2018.
Sturken, Marita. “Absent Images of Memory:
Remembering and Reenacting the Japanese Internment”. Perilous Memories: The
asia-Pacific War(s). Ed. Fujitani, T., Geofrey M. White, and Lisa Yoneyame,.
Durham: Duke University Press, 2001.
The Economist. “Rappers’ knuckles rapped: A
genre’s popularity worries officials.” 25 January 2018.
Tran, GB. Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey.
Villard, 2013.
UN General Assembly. (1948). "Universal
declaration of human rights" (217 [III] A). Paris. Retrieved from
http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
Wallerstein, Immanuel. “Culture as the
Ideological Battleground of the Modern World-system.” The Essential
Wallerstein. New York: New Press, 2000.
