ASNAMST 12SI: The Mindy Kaling Cinematic Universe

Course Description

Every brown person has an opinion on Mindy Kaling - the only woman of color writer on The Office, the first woman of color with her own primetime sitcom. This course will use Kaling's works as a springboard to engage with contemporary South Asian American racial formation, including episodes of The Office, The Mindy Project, and Never Have I Ever, in conversation with other pop culture phenomena like Indian Matchmaking, Ms. Marvel, and comedic works by Hasan Minhaj, Aziz Ansari, and Kumail Nanjiani. Moving beyond the model minority myth, the course will explore South Asian Americans as agents of both progressive change and oppression, paying close attention to intersections of caste and religion within the diaspora.