ACAM100

What does it mean to be “Asian Canadian” and why does it matter? Taking up this question from diverse perspectives, ACAM_V 100-001 – Introduction to Asian Canadian Studies offers an interdisciplinary introduction to key topics, issues, and methods that animate Asian Canadian Studies.

Some key themes will include:

  • Asian Canadian identity. What does this term mean, where did it come from, and how has it been used? What are its strengths, possibilities, and limits for helping us to understand identity, racism, migration, belonging, and colonialism?
  • Issues related to community organizing and activism, relations between community and the university, and ways to mobilize and connect academic learning with broader communities.
  • “Hot topics” in Asian Canadian Studies and communities: popular culture and representation, health and the model minority, technology and AI, and Asian-Indigenous relations.

Through interactive lectures, activities, and discussions, we will explore these central themes with attention to diverse communities and contexts. We will examine a range of texts – from scholarship to social media, film to food, podcasts to personal reflections, guest speakers, and more! You can expect to learn about important topics and issues related to Asian Canadian identity, communities, histories, contemporary politics, and popular culture – what these are informed by and what they do in the world.

Why take this course?

  • Explore pressing issues and topics within Asian Canadian studies, including identity, migration, colonialism, community, politics, activism, and popular culture.
  • Fulfill the BA Place and Power degree requirement.
  • Gain exposure to ideas, insights, and methods from a diverse range of academic disciplines.
  • Engage with issues and topics that are relevant to students with academic and career interests in teaching, law, policy, community organizing, politics, urban planning, media, writing, museums, archives, and more.
  • Learn how to mobilize scholarship to understand and inform public, community, and personal work, including your own positioning in relation to Asian Canadian Studies.

This course has no pre-requisites or co-requisites. No textbooks are required. All course materials are available online for free or at no extra cost to UBC students.

In 2025W, ACAM_V 100-001 will be offered in Term 2 on Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30 am – 11:00 am. It will be taught by Dr. Alifa Bandali from the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice. For more on ACAM 100 from Dr. Bandali herself, check out her interview with ACAM Podcast Host Rhea Mann here.

*Please note that ACAM 100 does not count towards the required courses for the ACAM minor because it is not a 300/400 level course.