MOUNTAIN MOVERS: Student Activism & The Emergence of Asian American Studies

by Russell Jeung (Editor), Karen Umemoto (Editor), Harvey Dong (Editor)

Mountain Movers: Student Activism and the Emergence of Asian American Studies is a joint project of scholars affiliated with the Asian American Studies programs at SF State, UC Berkeley, and UCLA who came together to co-edit the book. This publication commemorates the 50th anniversary of all three programs that were established in 1969. This volume is not meant to serve as a comprehensive history of the emergence of Asian American Studies, as the founding of program s across the country each have their unique origin story. Nor do the activists who are profiled in this book reflect the entire cross section of activists who participated in the movements of the 1960s or who are active today. These three campus program histories and the nine profiles included in the publication provides, however, a sampling of the range of ideas, activities, backgrounds and approaches related to student activism. Additional oral histories conducted by each of the respective programs are also available.

Genres: Education

Unknown Binding

About the author

Russell Jeung is a leading sociologist of Asian Americans, race, and religion. He is professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University.

The author of books on race and religion, he lives in Oakland, California, with his wife, Joan, and three children. They attend New Hope Covenant Church.

All proceeds of At Home in Exile book sales and speaking engagements will go to New Hope's ministries for refugee families.

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.5 stars) finally got to finish this — an inspiring and revitalizing book; learning about past work and movements helped me find confidence re: pushing for AAS and expand my ideas of what’s possible!!

[Athena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mountain Movers was put together with a lot of love. The book's sub-subtitle is "Commemorating 50 Years of Asian American Studies at SF State, UC Berkeley & UCLA," which gives a better idea of its focus. About 90 percent consists of essays by people who were involved in the early years of the Asian American and Third World student movement at those three California universities. A thread running through these essays is how Asian American studies (and ethnic studies in general) was never supposed to be about just taking classes and producing research. It was meant to build power by fostering a collective consciousness and directing institutional resources to the community work that many Asian American students were already involved in. (I got to experience this legacy ~30 years later when I was in college -- in the intro to Asian American studies class I took, about half the course hours were dedicated to on-site work with community organizations.)

This book is a much-needed reminder of how Asian American politics took shape around a politico-economic understanding of Asian immigrants' role in US society in relation to US imperialism in Asia. Even so, the essay authors show different sensibilities about what it means to build community power. There are some essays where radical awareness dissipates into inclusion in liberal institutions -- having culturally aware services like mental health care, being recognized as a voting bloc, etc. These were ... not inspiring. Also, a lot of essays go into detail about who did what when. This makes sense for a commemorative book but slows things down.

I did not like that Richard Aoki comes up a bunch of times as a respected figure, with no mention of the fact that he was an FBI informant for the Black Panther Party. What?? And generally, the book is thin on reflection about cross-racial organizing. For the Los Angeles context, I think Laura Pulido's Black, Brown, Yellow, and Left: Radical Activism in Los Angeles has a stronger account of Asian American organizing in the context of other racial justice organizing.

The last 10 percent of Mountain Movers is by people who came of age in the '90s and got to benefit from the legacy of institutionalized Asian American studies at SF State, UC Berkeley, and UCLA. These essays work well since they address how Asian American politics has shifted due to changing demographics after the Vietnam War and 1965 Immigration Act.

There are lots of cool archival photos and documents throughout the book. It's all very well thought-out; it just gets kind of slow and repetitive. It would be ideal to choose excerpts and discuss them in a group or class. It's also a great book to leave at student centers and other collective spaces because you can get something out of it just by flipping through, looking at pictures, and reading bits here and there.

[Lauryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book for AAS 40 and was so psyched when one of my "aunties" was featured in it. She was my mom's college roommate and friend from Hui O 'Imiloa Hawaii Club when they were at UCLA, so cool. Def recommend this book because it has really inspiring and empowering stories about ethnic studies + AA identity.

[Edrick Willie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating to read these stories of student activism from the Third World Liberation Front to the modern day as university campuses are unleashing armed cops on their students peacefully protesting the genocide in Gaza.