Looking East, Looking West: Expanding Asian American History at MIT

This course will be team-taught by a historian of modern Japan and a historian of modern France. It will offer students the opportunity to dive into the history of connections and exchange between East Asia, principally China and Japan, and Western Europe and the United States since the 17th century. Over a third of MIT undergrads identify as Asian American, and more than half of all international students at MIT come from Asia. While MIT has strong course offerings in Asian history and culture, there are relatively few courses that offer students the opportunity to study what happens when Asian objects, ideas, and people—like themselves, their own families, or their friends and classmates—traveled around the world.