Application Deadline: Friday, December 1, 2023 at 11:59 PM PST

In this course, we will examine the origin of the term “AAPI,” distinct and yet overlapping histories and relations between Asian American and Pacific Islander communities; the emergence and persistence of the model minority myth and its harms. Focusing on the local history of Orange County, we will explore the following key topics: the Vietnam War; U.S militarism in the Pacific; Pacific Islander community formations; Southeast Asian Refugee resettlement and homemaking; and lastly, contemporary Asian American and Pacific Islander advocacy and activism in Orange County. The Asian American and Pacific Islander history component will build the foundation and inform students’ creative production — Zine making. 

Using knowledge acquired during the course and their lived experience as a foundation, students will design and create a multi-part zine — a multimedia independently published booklet consisting of photos, drawings, poems, recordings, and videos — to explore the complex meaning and continuous negotiation of belonging, its potential costs in their experience and that of their community.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

1. Gain experience in working and learning from and with a student collective/community

2. Learn about the similarities and differences in immigration history, cultural practices, and everyday experiences of different ethnic groups within the larger Asian American & Pacific Islander communities

3. Tell stories through multimedia art forms

4. Learn about oral history interviews as a methodology 

5. Create, design, and disseminate stories and course material via an original Zine 

6. Improve public speaking skills