It’s been a busy three years at Duke for Theater Studies Professor Esther Kim Lee. Along with her appointment in Theater, she holds positions in International Comparative Studies and Asian American and Diaspora Studies—and she was the faculty director for the Focus Program’s new Immigration and Citizenship cluster for the fall semester.
The Focus Program (FOCUS) allows first-year, first-semester students to study a topic from multiple perspectives through interdisciplinary clusters of no more than 18 students. “These small groups allow freshmen to connect to campus quickly,” explains Lee.
Students must apply to FOCUS, and each cluster contains 3 to 4 courses taught by Duke faculty. For the fall semester, 15 clusters were offered—from cognitive neuroscience and law, to global energy, to the Middle East and Islam in a global context. The Immigration and Citizenship cluster was notably comprised of three Duke faculty women of color. “It was a privilege to teach with Professor Jessica Namakkal [International Comparative Studies Program] and Professor Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe [Duke Center on Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference], both of whom are incredible teachers and researchers,” Lee said.
The three courses within the cluster presented a multidisciplinary approach to citizenship and explored how debates around race, colonialism, genetics, and immigration shape ideas about who is and who isn’t "included." Using examples from Europe, Asia, and the Americas, each course examined Asian immigration to the United States and the Americas through comparative case studies.
Lee’s course, “Performance and Citizenship in Asian America,” studied Asian American history, laws, immigration, and citizenship. Students interviewed people who identify as Asian American, transcribed the interviews, and created a performance piece based on the transcripts that they presented at the end of the semester. Because of the pandemic, the weekly in-person group dinner was replaced with an online Monday night guest speaker or film—but the goals remained the same. “The students were exposed to the history and studies of culture from an Asian American perspective, as well as a global perspective,” Lee says. “And they were able to develop interests around a topic while meeting peers with the same interests.”
Theater Studies