Issue date: 1/25/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Matt Cianfrani "Harold and Kumar" star Kalpen Modi delivers the keynote speech during Asian Pacific American Heritage Week last November. [Click to enlarge]

Professor Modi has arrived on campus.

For this semester only, Kalpen Modi - more popularly known as Kal Penn - is an adjunct professor in the Asian American Studies Department, teaching ASAM 109: Asian Americans in the Media.

For Modi, teaching has always been of interest.

Over the last three years Modi has guest-lectured across the country on topics ranging from media conglomeration to race and gender identity.

"What I really found most interesting was the ability to take the experiences that I had as an actor and find how they were socially relevant," Modi said.

Modi said his interest in social issues led him to start doing research of his own on the side.

When it came to deciding where to teach his research, he said he wanted to find a place that had one of the most cutting-edge ASAM programs.

After giving a guest lecture at Penn last November, he was convinced this was the place for him.

"The resources here are some of the best in the world," said Modi.

"It's pretty rare to find such talented researchers teaching classes on subjects I certainly never had in high school or as an undergrad," he added.

Modi hopes his class gives students a deeper understanding of media imagery and the history behind it.

"I would love for them to independently think about imagery beyond the concept of race - to be able to look at and deconstruct certain images that we're taught to think of in a certain context and understand why they're so significant," he said.

"We all watch movies," he added, "and there's a significance to those movies beyond entertainment that I hope the students are able to recognize after this class."

While many professors elect to assign textbooks they have written, Modi has chosen to make use of some of the films in which he has starred, including The Namesake and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.

Continued...

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