Professor Park
Winter 2008
This class meets in 1425 Phelps Hall, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9 to 10. Professor Park's office hours are from 11 to 1 on Mondays, in 5050 HSSB. His e-mail address is jswpark@asamst.ucsb.edu. For a copy of the syllabus, please click here.
Sample Essay Questions, First Exam
The first exam will cover all of Jared Diamond's book and Erika Lee's book. The first exam will also cover all materials presented in lecture from the first day of class until January 30th. The first exam will be on February 1, not January 25.
1. Jared Diamond describes the husbandry of livestock as a "lethal gift," as both a tremendous blessing to Europeans and Asians as well as a deadly threat. How was this "gift" truly "lethal," and how did it give the surviving Europeans and Asians a clear advantage over other peoples who had not had this "gift"?
2. In writing about the economics of colonialism, most scholars have agreed that certain commodities were in high demand throughout the world by the late 19th century, and that organizing the production of these commodities was having a tremendous political and economic impact on several regions of the world. Please give examples of two specific commodities that were in high demand, and please discuss how production of these commodities impacted the regions where they were produced.
3. Please give examples of three theories of race—either religious or scientific—proposed by European or American race theorists before 1900 that tended to support the notion of European, white racial supremacy.
4. Drawing from lectures as well as from Erika Lee's work on Chinese Exclusion, please explain the political and social forces behind the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
5. Why were so many Chinese leaving China by the mid 19th century, despite
several efforts throughout the world to stop their immigration?
Sample Essay Questions, Second Exam
The second exam will cover materials from Erika Lee's book and Eiichiro Azuma's book. The second exam will also cover all materials presented in lecture from February 4 to Februry 20th. The second exam will be on February 22nd.
1. Please explain how the regulation of emigration differed between China and Japan in the late 19th century. Also, please explain the factors that led to different forms of immigration control within the United States against Chinese and Japanese immigration.
2. Please explain at least three major structural changes to Japanese society as a result of the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
3. Drawing from Professor Azuma's work, please explain how the kibei represented a unique set of persons caught between two empires.
4. Please explain the central arguments put forward by Takao Ozawa in his bid for American citizenship in 1922. How was his case related to the Alien Land Laws of 1913 and 1920?
Sample Essay Questions, Third Exam
The third exam will cover materials from Catherine Choy's book and from Sucheng Chan's book, as well as materials presented in lecture from February 25th through the March 12.
1. In her book about Filipino American nurses, Catherine Choy discussed at length a number of public incidents involving "foreign nurses" and the discrimination they faced in the United States. Please describe these instances, and please discuss how Choy frames these as part of a larger pattern of discrimination against this group of immigrants.
2. Please explain how the economy and society of the Philippines came to depend so heavily on foreign remittances after 1960.
3. Please explain how class and colonial identities shaped political and economic conflicts within Southeast Asia after 1945. In turn, please explain how these conflicts shaped the migration of Southeast Asians to the United States after 1975.
4. Please discuss how patterns of resettlement for Southeast Asian refugees resembled patterns of resettlement faced by Japanese American internees after World War II. Please explain how federal policy makers came to support these policies.
5. In her book on Cambodian American refugees, Sucheng Chan discussed at length
a recurring set of psychological and other adjustment problems faced by these
refugees. Please explain these problems, and please explain how many of these
immigrants dealt with them as they resettled in the United States.