Research Project

Identify a historical or a contemporary figure in fiction, popular culture, media, or in history that in your opinion serves as a stereotype. This person can be a contemporary or a historical subject. Your method should be two-fold:

1. Describe the figure, argue for its enduring contribution to stereotypes of Asian women by situating it historically within the history of Orientalist, feminist, and other frameworks and strategies that we have studied in this course;
2. Identify a body of knowledge that tries to confront a particular stereotype of Asian women. That can be films, photographs or other visual media, research articles, ethnography and fiction. Paper topics must be approved by the professor, with proposals, abstracts, and preliminary bibliographies due in Week #8.

Present your findings in a clear narrative, and be sure to contextualize your work within the historical debates in Orientalism, gender studies, and colonialism that we have studied in the course. Summarize your findings in a 5 page paper using standard formatting.