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Asian American studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that emerged from the civil rights struggles of the 1960s in the United States and provides scholarly and critical analyses from the perspectives of Asian American communities. As an academic field of inquiry, Asian American studies has been uniquely shaped by the evolving historical contexts and dynamics surrounding the ethnic and diasporic diversity inherent in the shifting demographics of an Asian American population that includes more than 40 different self-identified subgroups. With approximately 52 active academic programs on college campuses across the United States, the content and structure of these programs are as varied as the population itself. This entry provides a brief overview of Asian American studies, with a focus on the current landscape of the field.

History

The development of Asian American studies as an academic program took place in the late 1960s, at a time when programs in African American studies, Chicano studies, and ethnic studies were also being established. The emergence of these programs was a direct result of student and community organizing efforts on college campuses on the West Coast. Students and community activists brought to the forefront the problems associated with the absence and marginalization of people of color in the curricular offerings and advocated for academic programs that centered on the experiences of people of color, connected academia with community organizing, and openly challenged systematic oppression based on racial differences. In 1979, the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) was founded with the purpose of advancing the highest professional standard of excellence in teaching and research in the field of Asian American studies and in educating American society about the history and aspirations of Asian American ethnic minorities. The 1980s and 1990s, with the dramatic increase of Asian American college students, experienced an accelerated growth of Asian American studies programs throughout the United States in public and private colleges and universities. In 1991, the East of California Network was established within AAAS to help institutionalize Asian American studies in institutions east of California and to provide regional support for existing programs.

Curriculum

Even though the actual curriculum across different campuses varies, the course offerings generally engage students with critical questions in the social sciences, humanities, and various professional fields—which are informed by theories, methods, and empirical studies developed by scholars of Asian American studies. The broad areas that are often covered in the curriculum include the following:

The social, cultural, economic, political, religious, and environmental consequences of massive demographic shifts within the U.S. population during the past 40 years due to immigration and refugee resettlement—40% of which has come from Asia.

The racialization of individuals and groups as well as the interrelationships among and between various racial groups, historically and currently, who do not fit the bipolar, White-Black paradigm of U.S. race relations.

The economic, political, social, and cultural changes resulting from the globalization of capital, labor, information, and popular media as well as the ways in which transnational, diasporic populations such as Indian, Chinese, and Vietnamese communities in the United States are products of and agents in that globalization process.

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