The purpose of this 1-2 page proposal is to identify a research topic and begin identifying what resources exist for that topic.
The proposal must include the following:
1.) A research question (see below for examples.)
2.) A brief discussion of issues, possible approaches, and so forth. What specific issues will you be interested in analyzing for the research paper? (This section should be at least a page, double-spaced.)
3.) A bibliographic listing of 2 academic sources (books or articles.) You can use any citation style (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.), so long as you are consistent. (Note that while Ian Haney Lopez’s book White by Law can be used as an academic source for the research paper itself, it cannot be used as an academic source for the proposal.)
Here are some possible research topics (you can choose any of the topics below.) You can ultimately research anything connected to Asian American legal and political history.
*How was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act ultimately the codification—and end result—of decades of anti-Chinese sentiment?
*What was the “Asiatic Exclusion League,” and what impact did it have upon immigration from Asia as well as the experiences of Asian Americans in the U.S.?
*How did media imagery make anti-Asian legislation more likely? How did anti-Asian legislation, in turn, impact media imagery of Asian Americans? (Here, you could focus on a specific piece of legislation, such as the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act or Japanese American internment.)
*How have the dual exclusions of citizenship and immigration worked together to “create” an Asian American race that is viewed as “forever foreigner”?
*How did such organizations as the Chinese Six Companies serve to protect Asian Americans from the legal discrimination they experienced?
*What was the Asiatic Exclusion League, and what impact did they have on Asian American immigration?
*How was the internment of Japanese Americans justified by the Supreme Court, and how do some today argue that internment was acceptable (if unfortunate)?
*What specific legal and political challenges did Asian immigrants experience in Hawai’i during the pre-1965 era?
*How did the invention and popularization of the model minority myth reflect the government’s desire to deflect black demands during the civil rights movement, and how did it represent a change in the way Asian Americans had been legally and politically racialized?
*How do such issues as Japanese American internment and the killing of Vincent Chin help provide a context for the current spike in anti-Asian hate crimes during this pandemic?
While part 2 above only needs to be a page, feel free to go further; the more details you provide, the more I will be able to comment back.
The research paper, which is based on your proposal, will be 2,000-3,000 words, double-spaced, with a minimum of 5 sources (at least 3 of which must be academic.)
