His mien notwithstanding, Bernie Sanders was happy for my first-year seminar (Fall 2019) on Asian Americans.

During 2019 and 2020, I taught three courses on Asian American history: a first-year seminar (FYS) called Asian Immigrants in America (first taught in Fall 2019); a graduate-level course for the American Studies master’s program (Summer 2020); and an upper-division course for History and Ethnic Studies students (Fall 2020). They were the first times that this subject was taught at Pepperdine. The core reading on this subject is Erika Lee, The Making of Asian America: A History (2015), plus a number of journal articles, book chapters, and, in the case of the graduate course, monographs. 

In Spring 2022, the faculty at Seaver College approved a change in the core curriculum, which will be consisted of two basic groups: Foundations courses and Connections courses. (There’s also a much smaller group called Skills.) All students will take the Foundations and they can choose Connections courses to fulfill a number of required categories. I plan to offer the undergraduate upper-division course above as a Connections course to fulfill one of the following categories: historical thinking, US experience, and diverse perspectives. 

For Fall 2022, I have shifted the FYS from a lecture-based course focusing on history to a discussion-based course focusing on fiction. I look forward to the experience in this course with incoming students from the Class of 2026.