Teaching Asian Pacific American Politics at an HSI: Reflections on Lessons Learned and Unexpected Conclusions

Abstract

In Fall 2019 I taught the course “Race and Gender: The Politics of Intersection” and spent the semester to discussing how intersectionality functioned within the Asian Pacific American (APA) communities in the United States and in the larger global context. In the course, we discussed various aspects of intersectionality including how ethnicity interacts with sexuality, education levels, occupational paths, and familial relations for members of the APA community. I teach at a Hispanic serving institution, so for most of these students this was their first introduction to any sort of political science that dealt specifically with the Asian American community. The students made comparisons with their own lives and ethnicities and saw many parallel ideas to their own experiences with ethnicity. In the course I attempted to provide the students with a multi-faceted examination of various aspects of APA intersectionality in broader cultural and economic contexts, using the works of Han, Espiritu, Misawa, Choo, and Hoang, among others. Many of the students in the course were able to use the knowledge from the course materials to confront their own preconceived notions and expand their knowledge of both global and domestic issues confronting the APA community. In this article I will discuss the perceptions of the students in the course as well as overall lessons gained for both the students and me.