In Defense of Asian American Studies: The Politics of Teaching and Program Building

by Sucheng Chan, Roger Daniels (Editor)

In Defense of Asian American Studies  offers fascinating tales from the trenches on the origins and evolution of the field of Asian American studies, as told by one of its founders and most highly regarded scholars. Wielding intellectual energy, critical acumen, and a sly sense of humor, Sucheng Chan discusses her experiences on three campuses within the University of California system as Asian American studies was first developed—in response to vehement student demand—under the rubric of ethnic studies.  Chan speaks by turns as an advocate and an administrator striving to secure a place for Asian American studies; as a teacher working to give Asian American students a voice and white students a perspective on race and racism; and as a scholar and researcher still asking her own questions. The essays span three decades and close with a piece on the new challenges facing Asian American studies.  Eloquently documenting a field of endeavor in which scholarship and identity define and strengthen each other,  In Defense of Asian American Studies  combines analysis, personal experience, and indispensable practical advice for those engaged in building and sustaining Asian American studies programs.

265 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 2005

About the author

Sucheng Chan is a Chinese-American historian, scholar, and author, recognized for her contributions to Asian American Studies. She was the first to establish a full-fledged autonomous Department of Asian American Studies at a major U.S. research university and became the first Asian American woman to hold the title of provost in the University of California system.
Born in Shanghai in 1941, Chan and her family moved to Hong Kong in 1949, Malaysia in 1950, and later to the United States in 1957. She earned a BA in Economics from Swarthmore College (1963), an MA in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi (1965), and a PhD in Political Science from UC Berkeley (1973).
Chan taught at several UC campuses, including Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, and San Diego. She retired due to post-polio syndrome but continued to contribute to the field, donating her extensive collection of research materials to academic institutions. She has authored and edited numerous books on Asian American history, immigration, and race relations, including This Bittersweet Soil: The Chinese in California Agriculture, 1860–1910 (1986) and Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America, 1882–1943 (1991).
Throughout her career, Chan received numerous accolades, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (1988), multiple Outstanding Book Awards from the Association for Asian American Studies, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the same organization in 1997. She is married to Mark Juergensmeyer, a scholar of religion and global studies.

Reviews

[Stephanie Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye-opening, personal account of the organizational and political struggles to create the field of Asian American Studies. Sucheng Chan, one of the founders of AAS, wrote this book as a collective memory of how she started programs at UC Berkeley and UCSB. She divides the book into three, roughly chronological, parts: origins of the field, pedagogical challenges, and the future of Asian Americans. This book is not an empirical study but rather Chan’s observations and experiences as a program builder. Nevertheless, her first-hand experiences provide a glimpse into the organizational, political, and philosophical struggles that she and several of her colleagues endured to build an AAS program on their campuses. It makes me appreciate my program here at Indiana University even more.

The second section focuses on adapting her Asian American Studies courses to diverse Asian student populations during the 1970s and 1980s, especially recent immigrants with limited English language skills. Although student demographics have changed, I still learned pearls of pedagogical wisdom that still applies to today’s professoriate.

In the third section, Chan touches on (then in 2003) emerging issues within the field—the lack of graduate training, the distancing of community-oriented mission, and diasporic, transnational Asian communities. Written in 2003, she does not touch upon the urgent issue of the rising issue of contingent and adjunct faculty in AAS.

Chan is an incredibly articulate writer. Because of the decades of experience justifying the existence of AAS, she’s developed a talent to shift and adapt her style to different audiences and simplifying field-specific jargon. So glad that I took the time to read this book for my dissertation. It’s particularly helpful for folks who are interested in the origins of Asian American Studies as a field.