Students say Kal Penn’s Asian American Studies Class A Hit

By John | Monday, May 5, 2008 | 2 Comments

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If you may recall, last year, I reported that Penn was going to be teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. Not only is Kal Penn a successful actor, but he’s a pretty good college lecturer, according to the University of Pennlysvania’s independent student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, reporting in “Students say Kal Penn’s Asian American studies class was a hit:”

“Actor Kalpen Modi-more fondly known as Kal Penn – conquered Hollywood after his hit movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. But, with students raving about his Asian American Studies class as the semester ends, it seems Modi has conquered something perhaps more significant than teenage humor: the field of academia. “I was a little skeptical at first about what credentials gave him the right to teach a class at Penn,” said a College senior and Cinema Studies major …”By the end of the class, I realized it wasn’t his academic credentials that got him here, it was his experience in the field – which is equally valuable,” she said. Modi, who served as an adjunct professor in the Asian American Studies Department, taught ASAM 109: Images of Asian Americans in the Media this past semester. His interest in teaching at Penn stemmed from the lectures he had given about how race and gender identity play out in the media, in addition to Penn’s robust ASAM program which Modi discovered last November.”

Too bad Penn’s lectures aren’t online (or maybe they are?). It would be really interesting to hear Penn’s, as well as other Asian American actors and actresses about their experiences on Asian Americans in media and how they view Asian American history and studies from an academic standpoint.

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8Asians.com » Kumar Goes to Washington says:

April 8, 2009 at 7:00 am

[...] In his role, Penn will essentially be an “emissary” to the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities, along with arts and entertainment groups. It really isn’t a big departure for Penn if you’ve followed his involvement in Obama’s 2008 election campaign; Penn was an active, vocal volunteer, often appearing on talk shows like Larry King Live and traveling the country. Do a simple search on YouTube for “Kal Penn Obama”, and you will find a large collection of videos of Penn on the campaign trail. This isn’t Penn’s departure from acting — last year, Penn was a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania for an Asian American Studies course titled, … [...]
8Asians.com » A New White Castle for Kumar – Kal Penn Goes to Washington says:

July 28, 2009 at 6:02 am

[...] who is Indian-American, has a deep interest in policy and in promoting Asian-Americans in the arts. Last year, he taught a course at the University Of Pennsylvania on how Asian-Americans are portrayed in the media. Although he played a terrorist in 2007 on [...]