After decades of support from faculty, alumni, and students, the university has established the Stanford Center for Asian American Studies ( AARCS) was launched. The new center, located within the College of Humanities and Sciences, will provide a research hub for faculty, students, and the public to support and expand Stanford scholarship on Asian Americans.
Generous gifts from a global community of donors, including alumnus Eric Lee, will fund the new center co-founded by H&S faculty members Gordon H. Chan, Stephen Sano, and Jeanne Tsai. are. Chan, the Olive H. Palmer Professor of Humanities and professor of history, will serve as the center’s first director starting in fall 2024.
“Thanks to our faculty, alumni, and students who have struggled over the years to advance Asian American studies, Stanford University is committed to the role it can and must play in building knowledge about Asian Americans. We have evolved to understand it,” Chan said. “Having this university research center in the region has the potential to spark a new wave of innovative, community-engaged research on Asian American issues.”
The history of Stanford University and its founders, Leland and Jane Stanford, is intertwined with that of Asian Americans and the Asia-Pacific region. Chinese workers played a major role in building the transcontinental railroad that established the fortunes of Leland Stanford University, and later the university itself. Currently, 27% of Stanford University’s undergraduate student population is Asian American.
“We are grateful to our incredible faculty and alumni community for launching this important research center. We could not be more excited about the outpouring of support and great ideas,” said Vernon R. and Lisbeth of H&S. – Warren Anderson Dean Debra Satz said. . “Long overdue, this center will focus research on Asian Americans – their lives, history, contributions and struggles.”
increase momentum
A pivotal moment highlighting the need for Asian American studies at Stanford occurred in 1989 when students staged a peaceful sit-in in the president’s office. Among other demands, students called for the creation of a Latino and Asian American studies program. In response, the university hired Chan and David Palumbo Liu, the Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor at H&S, to help establish Asian American studies at Stanford.
A few years later, the university established an Asian American Studies program as part of the Center for Comparative Studies of Race and Ethnicity. But the mission to advance Asian American scholarship was not yet complete, said Sano, the Harold C. Schmidt Chair of Choral Studies, professor of music, and current director of the Asian American Studies Program. That’s what it means.
“This program primarily focuses on mentoring undergraduate students,” Sano said. “This center will further enrich existing programs by fostering interdisciplinary research on Asian Americans. The two will have a symbiotic relationship.”
Tsai, currently associate dean of the H&S Psychology Department, was a student at Stanford University at the time of the 1989 sit-in.
“As a psychology major, I realized that this field is supposed to be about all kinds of human behavior, but it mainly focused on Western theory and Western data,” Tsai said. Ta. “I wanted psychology to speak to my experience as an Asian American.”
This led her to become interested in the emerging field of cultural psychology and research into cultural differences in emotional and behavioral norms.
In 2020, Stanford University’s 1991 graduates (including Tsai and Lee) were planning their 30th reunion. Looking for a way to make a meaningful contribution to Stanford University, Lee and other classmates remembered the sit-in. Their focus quickly shifted to the subject of Asian Americans as anti-Asian violence spiked during the dark days of the pandemic. They turned to their classmate, Mr. Tsai, who was then the dean of the Asian American Studies program.
Ms. Tsai connected her classmates with Mr. Chan and Mr. Sano, and the plan for AARCS was hatched. Significant funding from the alumni association also followed.
“World events in recent years are forcing us to think big,” said Ly, co-founder and CEO of KarmaCheck and co-founder of LinkedIn. “By supporting this effort at Stanford University, we hope to lead a transformation in Asian American scholarship that will impact how the United States thinks about the experiences and contributions of Asian Americans. ”
Cast a wide net for the future
AARCS develops a broad approach to Asian American subjects and promotes the study of Asian Americans and the Asian diaspora. As well as H&S, we support interdisciplinary research in the faculties of education, engineering, law, medicine, sustainability and business. The center also aims to connect students and scholars with policy makers, cultural producers, and community members.
This winter, the center held its first call for seed grant applications. Applicants were asked to submit ideas that address one of AARCS’ three areas of interest: research, education, and community support. This appeal received an energetic response, with AARCS awarding eight grants.
“It’s been really interesting to see our undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty make connections in the ways that they’re thinking about what Asian America is in their research,” Sano said. spoke.
AARCS is currently developing programs for the coming years, including holding public meetings to address anti-Asian violence and bias that limit Asian American participation in leadership positions in business, higher education, and politics. Formulating ideas.
“There’s a public need that we’re responding to, and we want the center to have a public-facing component as well,” Chan said. “It’s really important to go beyond the Stanford campus.”
first seed grant project
The first AARCS Seed Grant funds the following projects:
Eugene Park, assistant professor in the School of Education, explores how Asian American and Pacific Islander teacher candidates in the Bay Area Teacher Education Program bring their racial identities to bear as they prepare to become social justice teachers. We plan to study how to consider this.
The South Asia Center will develop a working paper on South Asian American art and build a regional network through collaboration with the South Asian Literature and Arts Festival, which will be held at Stanford in September.
Hannah Dapis, a doctoral candidate in education, conducted archival research at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University to determine the extent to which the universities’ Asian American studies programs influenced resources and inclusion in formal curricula. I’m planning to compare.
Jennifer Lee, a doctoral candidate in contemporary thought and literature, studies early American Korean-language periodicals housed at the University of Southern California and explores their role in shaping modern Korean and Korean American identities. I plan to understand.
Lillian Wolfe, a doctoral candidate in education, will study how interracial Asian American female adoptees’ connections to their birth culture are influenced by the adoptive parents’ cultural engagement styles. be.
British PhD candidate Christine Xiong works with the National Archives in San Francisco and the University of Hawai’i at Manoa’s Archives on the Transpacific Crossing of The Picture Bride, bridging Asian American literature and critical maritime studies. We plan to conduct research.
Alexandra Huynh, an undergraduate American studies major, plans to study how the Vietnamese refugee experience has contributed to the relationship between the Vietnamese American community and the U.S. criminal legal system.
Kaelin Wei-ming Ong, an undergraduate urban studies major, interviewed community development coordinators in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo to learn how their notions of Asian American identity influenced their community development efforts. We plan to document whether there are any.
