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Undergraduate spring application deadline is December 1 for spring term.

HIST 373 US-Japanese Relations from a Racial Perspective

This course examines US-Japanese relations from a racial perspective from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. We will examine official and popular discourse and media representations produced by both Americans and Japanese of race in the context of changing diplomatic and geopolitical relations of the two countries. Students will consider how the concepts of race and ethnicity were used to construct national and transnational identities. In addition, students will learn about past events, issues, and ideas in the two countries in order to compare, contrast, and analyze how race was mobilized to justify, as well as challenge social hierarchy and regional or global hegemony. COMPETENCE STATEMENT: Knows and understands specific concepts and approaches to history at an upper division level well enough to analyze racial issues in US-Japanese relations.

Prerequisites

Learning outcomes

General

  • Evaluate change, continuity, causes and effects of historical events, movements, and ideas involving race in the US-Japanese relations, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
  • Describe diplomatic, military, political, economic, and socio-cultural elements which influenced racial constructions, identities and exclusions in the US-Japanese relations, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
  • demonstrate knowledge of various characteristics of global and domestic forms of racial constructions, identities, and exclusions in the US -Japanese relations, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
  • analyze various causes and effects of racial thought and tensions in the US -Japanese relations, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
  • critique how race and racism were socially constructed in the US -Japanese relations, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
  • articulate various personal and societal responses to racism at multiple levels (individual, community, national, transnational and racial) in the US -Japanese relations, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.
  • learn to be a world citizen by understanding different approaches to racial problems reflecting unique historical, political, economic, and socio-cultural backgrounds from a global perspective, consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctively characteristic of upper-division courses completed at a comprehensive university.

Minnesota Transfer Curriculum

Goal 5: History and the Social and Behavioral Sciences

  • Employ the methods and data that historians and social and behavioral scientists use to investigate the human condition.
  • Examine social institutions and processes across a range of historical periods and cultures.
  • Use and critique alternative explanatory systems or theories.
  • Develop and communicate alternative explanations or solutions for contemporary social issues.

Goal 8: Global Perspective

  • Describe and analyze political, economic, and cultural elements which influence relations of states and societies in their historical and contemporary dimensions.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of cultural, social, religious and linguistic differences.
  • Analyze specific international problems, illustrating the cultural, economic, and political differences that affect their solution.
  • Understand the role of a world citizen and the responsibility world citizens share for their common global future.