Prerequisite: None

Exam Type: Last Class Take-Home

This course examines the legal issues that have confronted Asian Americans in the United States from the 19th Century to the present. It analyzes the various legal and political controversies that have emerged as diverse waves of Asian immigrants settled in the United States and the role of the Asian American experience in shaping U.S. legal history. Among the topics to be discussed are citizenship, immigration exclusion, state-sponsored discrimination, Japanese internment, education, affirmative action, racial profiling, and hate crimes. Drawing on legal cases as well as historical sources, the course considers these topics against the larger backdrop of how questions of race, identity, migration, redress, and equality are playing out in the American narrative.