Honors Collegium 132: New Women and Activism from America to Asia

Honors Collegium 132

New Women and Activism from America to Asia

Enrollment: Open to College Honors/College Scholars students

Course Description: Spanning of academic disciplines and regional boundaries by looking at women’s movements in U.S. and East Asia in early 20th century, with examination of how issues of women’s rights, labor rights, and race/nation identities united and divided women across classes and national borders. Examination of suffrage movement in 1913 New York and parallel movements in East Asia (Japan, Korea, China) that adopted and adapted some of these same ideas to their own unique historical circumstances. Use of highly successful Reacting to Past historical role-playing game titled Greenwich Village, 1913: Suffrage, Labor, and New Woman.

Jennifer Jung-Kim

Jennifer Jung-Kim (she/her/hers) earned a Ph.D. in Korean History from UCLA. She teaches courses on Korean history and popular culture, as well as Asian foodways in the UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. She also teaches Asia-related courses in the International and Area Studies program and this course in the Honors Collegium rogram. She is an advocate of interactive learning through Reacting to the Past pedagogy and is on the Reacting advisory board. In her spare time, she eats a lot Asian food and watches a lot food shows and K-drama as “research.”

Q & A

What is your home department at UCLA? Asian Languages and Cultures

How long have you been teaching your HC seminar? Since AY 2014-15.

What is your favorite part about teaching this HC seminar? I love incorporating Greenwich Village 1913: Suffrage, Labor, and the New Woman, a Reacting to the Past game, into our class. Students take on roles of suffrage, labor, and other leaders in 1913 NYC and debate key issues in character. It’s really a fun way to learn!

What do you find to be the most compelling about the subject matter of this seminar? In our class, we look at political, labor, and social activism in America and Asia a century ago, but it’s interesting how we are still grappling with many of the same issues today. Whether it’s in the early 20th century or today, we are all trying to make the world a better place.

What are the learning objectives for this course? Our focus on a single historical turning point and student role-playing has the following objectives:

students gain much more insight into the historical forces at play in the particular moment being examined and, more largely, into the complexity of the interaction of historical forces and actors behind major turning points in general;
students do significant research into a historical situation and the systems of ideas informing that situation; and
students hone their skills in developing and advancing arguments in a debate format.

Student Feedback

Honors Collegium 132: New Women and Activism from America to Asia

“Dr. Jung-Kim is a fantastic professor. I am so happy that I got to end my last quarter at UCLA with her and immensely enjoyed her class from start to finish. This class introduced to the world of reacting, and I absolutely loved it. Getting to act as characters from the past was such a unique experience, and I firmly believe it allowed me to learn the content better as I was actively engaging with the material. The reacting game truly made the game so fun, and implored me to get to know my classmates better because we were interacting with each other so much. Everyone put their heart and soul into the game–and it was a blast to witness and be a part of. I also enjoyed the second half of the class when we learned about feminism in Asia, as these were topics that I had never learned about before. It was really fun drawing parallels between Greenwich and Asia. Dr. Jung-Kim is extremely knowledgable and brilliant. She is kind, compassionate, and empathetic–anything you could ask for. Thank you so much for making my last quarter at UCLA such a blast, Dr. Jung-Kim!”

“Professor Jung-Kim is amazing! This course was interesting, interactive, and enriching. Reacting to the past was entirely new to me, and I was skeptical at first. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how fun this was once we got into it. It was such a creative way to teach! This is one of my favorite classes I’ve taken at UCLA. Thanks Professor Jung-Kim!”

“Before this course, my knowledge of history was quite limited. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the creative and innovative approach, especially the role-playing, was enlightening. Transitioning to learning about East Asia right after Greenwich Village was fascinating, especially observing how different parts of the world responded to women’s suffrage.”