What happens at the crossroads of space and ethnicity? This seminar explores the myriad ways in which “Chinatown” has circulated as ‘memory, fantasy, narrative, myth’ in the dominant cultural imagination in the last century and a half, and how the lived realities of overseas Chinese communities, Asian American history, and changing conceptions of ‘Chineseness’ have productively engaged with these real and phantom Chinatowns. Though the emphasis of the seminar will be on cultural and theoretical issues concerning the ‘Chinatown’ phenomenon rather than on a socio-historical study of Chinatowns around the world, for their final projects participants are encouraged to pursue different disciplinary approaches to the subject—such as studies in urban history, architecture, ethnography, economics, or creative endeavors.