Courses

Courses listed below are associated with the Asian American & Diaspora Studies Program. They include classes from across the humanities, social sciences, and professional schools — each with a focus on Asian American content.

Course Numbering
Curriculum Codes

(for students entering prior to 2025)

0-99 Advanced Placement Credit; House Courses; First-Year Seminars;
First-Year Writing; Registrar/Department special purpose
100-199 Introductory-level undergraduate courses; basic skills/activity courses; foundation courses; Focus program courses
200-399 Undergraduate courses above introductory level
400-499 Advanced undergraduate, senior seminars, capstone courses, honors thesis courses
500-699 Graduate courses open to advanced undergraduates
700-999 Graduate only courses (not open to undergraduates)

Areas of Knowledge

  • ALP: Arts, Literatures, and Performance
  • CZ: Civilizations
  • NS: Natural Sciences
  • QS: Quantitative Studies
  • SS: Social Sciences

Modes of Inquiry

  • CCI: Cross-Cultural Inquiry
  • EI: Ethical Inquiry
  • STS: Science, Technology, and Society
  • FL: Foreign Language
  • R: Research
  • W: Writing
Liberal Arts Categories 

(for students entering in 2025 or after)

  • CE: Creating and Engaging with Art
  • HI: Humanistic Inquiry
  • IJ: Interpreting Institutions, Justice, and Power
  • NW: Investigating the Natural World
  • QC: Quantitative and Computational Reasoning
  • SB: Social and Behavioral Analysis
  

To see courses offered during a specific semester, please visit DukeHub and select “Class Search”.

Required Course for Minor (choose one)

Number Title Codes Cross-Lists
AADS 198 Introduction to Asian American History CCI, IJ, CZ AMES 198
HISTORY 198
AADS 201 Introduction to Asian American and Diaspora Studies CCI, HI, ALP, CZ AMES 276
ENGLISH 275
GSF 203
HISTORY 274
ICS 286
AADS 274S Introduction to Asian American Literature CCI, HI, ALP AMES 274S
ENGLISH 274S
LIT 277S

Electives for Minor (choose four)

Students may petition to have one course from the list of “Other Courses of Interest” below as an elective for the AADS minor. Contact the Director for more information. 

Number Title Codes Cross-Lists
AADS 89S Special Topics in First-Year Seminar
AADS 120CN Asian Foodways in Migration HI AMES 120CN
ICS 127CN
AADS 121CN Sex and Power in Asian Diasporas HI AMES 121CN
GSF 121CN
AADS 138 Popular Music of Asia and Asian America CCI, HI, ALP AMES 137
CULANTH 138
MUSIC 138
AADS 150CNS Asian Diasporic Musicking HI CULANTH 160CNS
MUSIC 150CNS
AADS 152CNS Visualizing Minor Stories: Archives, Museums, Histories HI AMES 152CNS
ARTSVIS 152CNS
DOCST 152CNS
HISTORY 152CNS
ICS 155CNS
AADS 190S Special Topics in Asian American and Diaspora Studies
AADS 229S Asian American Community History CCI, R, CZ HISTORY 229S
AADS 232S Asian American Theater CCI, HI, ALP AMES 182S
ENGLISH 387S
HISTORY 293S
THEATRST 232S
AADS 240S Asian American & Diaspora Psychology: Mental Health, Microaggressions, and the Model Minority Myth CCI, EI, SS GLHLTH 240S
PSY 241S
AADS 254S Unsettling Modernity: Korea, Empire, Diaspora CCI, W, IJ, CZ AMES 254S
HISTORY 252S
LIT 254S
AADS 290 Special Topics in Asian American and Diaspora Studies
AADS 290S Special Topics in Asian American and Diaspora Studies
AADS 313S Race and Medicine CCI, SS AAAS 313S
CULANTH 313S
GLHLTH 313S
GSF 313S
SOCIOL 314S
AADS 320S Asian American and Latinx Literature and Film CCI, ALP AMES 320S
ENGLISH 350S
LSGS 320S
AADS 335 Chinatowns: A Cultural History CCI, R, HI, ALP, CZ AMES 335
HISTORY 228
ICS 336
AADS 337S Decolonization: Histories, Meanings, Struggles CCI, EI, CZ, SS GSF 335S
HISTORY 289S
ICS 335S
AADS 338S Global South Asia: History and Culture of Diaspora CCI, IJ, CZ AMES 388S
GSF 288S
HISTORY 298S
ICS 388S
AADS 339 Critical Militarism Studies across Asia/Pacific/America CCI, EI, IJ, SS AMES 339
GSF 339
HISTORY 339
ICS 387
AADS 364S Race, Gender, and Sexuality CCI, HI, IJ, SS AAAS 242S
GSF 364S
SOCIOL 364S
AADS 372 Two Koreas and the United States: History, Society, and Culture CCI, R, W, SB, ALP, CZ AMES 372
CULANTH 473
GSF 372
HISTORY 473
ICS 378
SOCIOL 373
AADS 382S Intimacies: Sexuality, Nation, and the State CCI, EI, W, HI, CZ GSF 382S
AADS 452 Contemporary Chinese Dance in the Diaspora CCI, CE, ALP DANCE 452
AADS 490S Special Topics in Asian American and Diaspora Studies
AADS 510S New Directions in Asian American Studies CCI, R, CZ AMES 550S
GSF 510S
HISTORY 510S
AADS 690S Special Topics Seminar in Asian American and Diaspora Studies
AMES 171 World of Korean and Diaspora Cinema CCI, EI, HI, ALP, CZ AADS 171
CINE 256
CULANTH 255
LIT 212
VMS 234
AMES 230S Islam in the Americas CCI, W, CZ, SS AAAS 274S
HISTORY 351S
RELIGION 384S
RIGHTS 374S
AMES 309 Chinese Im/migration: Chinese Migrant Labor and Immigration to the US CCI, EI, HI, ALP, SS AADS 309
RIGHTS 309
AMES 335 Chinatowns: A Cultural History CCI, R, HI, ALP, CZ AADS 335
HISTORY 228
ICS 336
AMES 438S Techno-Orientalism: Asian/America, (Post)Human and Science Fiction CCI, HI, ALP, CZ CULANTH 438S
GSF 438S
ICS 407S
LIT 438S
VMS 438S
AMES 609S Transpacific and Global Asia/America: Connecting Divided Histories and Knowledges CCI, HI, ALP AADS 609S
ARTHIST 609S
CINE 609S
CULANTH 609S
GSF 609S
CULANTH 220FS Global 'Mixed Race' Studies CCI, EI, STS, SS AAAS 250FS
EDUC 345S Asians in American Higher Education: Trends and Issues CCI, EI, R, SS SOCIOL 346S
GSF 382S Intimacies: Sexuality, Nation, and the State CCI, EI, W, HI, CZ AADS 382S
HISTORY 183S Gateway Seminar: Civil Rights and Asian Americans CCI, EI, R, IJ, CZ, SS AAAS 133S
AADS 183S
AMES 187S
ICS 183S
PUBPOL 175S
RIGHTS 183S
HISTORY 454S Capstone Seminar - Globalization: Asia and Asian America CCI, R, STS, CZ, SS AAAS 407S
AADS 454S
AMES 437S
GSF 412S
ICS 412S
ICS 297S Cross-Cultural Encounters CCI, CZ AMES 235S
HISTORY 243S
MEDREN 253S
RELIGION 235S
ICS 388S Global South Asia: History and Culture of Diaspora CCI, IJ, CZ AADS 338S
AMES 388S
GSF 288S
HISTORY 298S
POLSCI 205 Introduction to Racial and Ethnic Minorities in American Politics CCI, SS AAAS 257
AADS 205
RIGHTS 205
RELIGION 320S Modern Buddhism in Asia and America CCI, CZ AMES 323S