LITERATURES OF THE ASIAN DIASPORA
A FOCUS GRANT PROJECT in
Comparative Literature at Penn State
INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXTS
As mentioned above, the Pennsylvania State University is a large multi-campus institution (“one university, geographically dispersed”). The Department of Comparative Literature, which is taking the lead in this project, is part of the School of Languages and Literatures at University Park, the largest campus of Penn State and the location of most of its graduate programs. Since the early 1970s, the Department's mission has included the teaching of world literature; since the mid-1980s, our mission has also included offering six language curricula, including three Asian languages, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Our department offers the Ph.D., M.A., and B.A. in Comparative Literature, a 5-year joint B.A./M.A. program, a B.A. in Japanese, and an undergraduate minor in World Literature. For several years we offered a summer institute for graduate students on the topic of teaching world literature. Our curriculum includes courses on Asian literatures, but not (yet) much attention to the Asian diaspora. However, we offer a range of historical, generic, or thematic courses in which literatures and other cultural productions of the Asian diaspora could be incorporated, or their representation expanded.
Faculty members participating in this project from Penn State campuses at four other locations — DuBois, Worthington-Scranton, Altoona, and Abington — also teach courses in which Asian and Asian-diasporic material can be represented. Their courses include U.S. literature, Latin American literature, religion and literature, Literature and Empire, etc. Each of these campus locations has a distinct setting and environment. DuBois has a small town setting; Altoona is a small city; Worthington-Scranton and Abington are relatively more urban. Their clienteles also vary. For example, at Abington, which is close to Philadelphia, there is a significant population of students with a South Asian (Indian and Pakistani), Cambodian, or Korean heritage, as well as students with a Caribbean heritage that includes Indian descent. The diversities among our campus cultures will help us expand our sense of the ways in which Asian literatures can be meaningful to a wide range of “American” student audiences.
As for the larger institutional context, the Pennsylvania State University is a comprehensive public university with extensive facilities and library resources (4.2 million volumes with computerized on-line catalogs and indexes), an international academic community of students and scholars, and extensive cultural programming.
Cultural Contexts: Globalization and World Literature
Mini Conference, June 19-21, 2003
Syllabi for Teaching the Literatures of the Asian Diaspora
Other Resources: Suggested Readings
Comparative Literature at Penn State
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