Asian American Studies Now! Contemporary Opportunities and Challenges in Higher Education
Volume 21, Numbers 1 & 2, Spring 2024
The Fight for Ethnic Studies at Sacramento State
By Bao Lo, Annalise Xiaohui Harlow, and Timothy P. Fong
Special Thanks to Neelam Bandhu, Yee Thao, and Marie Lorraine Mallare
ABSTRACT: More than fifty years after student activists of the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) fought to institutionalize Ethnic Studies in higher education, Ethnic Studies continues to face many of the same challenges since its inception, including budget cuts, the lack of university support and autonomy, and political and public backlash. As an unfinished movement that began with the TWLF, the fight for Ethnic Studies in higher education is about the solidarity of students of color to challenge and fight back against the lack of funding and support of university administration that aims to downsize, delegitimize, and eradicate Ethnic Studies from the academy. With students of color at the forefront of this movement to defend and expand Ethnic Studies, AB 1460 was signed into law in the summer of 2020 by Governor Newsom, which mandated an Ethnic Studies course as a graduation requirement in the California State Universities. Student activism is Ethnic Studies praxis and continues to be vital for the advancement and future of Ethnic Studies. This article addresses the student activism that propelled the fight for Ethnic Studies at Sacramento State, and ultimately the passage of AB 1460. We center student voices and the struggles to advance Ethnic Studies in the university. We show how students resisted the disrespect and backlash from some antagonistic faculty and administrators. Students witnessed the ongoing fight for Ethnic Studies, and they also learned that they can transform their education through their own voices and power. The fight for AB 1460 and the student activism that transpired reflects the intergenerational TWLF legacy of Ethnic Studies and reminds us that student activism has and continues to be the foundation for the ongoing fight for Ethnic Studies. We also discuss the impact of one of the courses that meets the new Ethnic Studies requirement, Introduction to Asian American Studies. Students have become empowered through this course, specifically as they have come to see themselves as agents of social change, a key element of the TWLF and Ethnic Studies.
Asian American Studies across the Disciplines: Ethnic Studies-Political Science-Liberal Studies Partnerships in the Time of AB 1460
By Jocyl Sacramento and Danvy Le
ABSTRACT: As California State University (CSU) prepared to implement a new Ethnic Studies requirement, faculty at CSU East Bay developed an Ethnic Studies Pedagogy Faculty Learning Community (FLC). This practitioner’s essay focuses on the creation of the Ethnic Studies Pedagogy FLC and infusing Asian American Studies across disciplines. The FLC’s main objective is to engage faculty in advancing their Ethnic Studies pedagogies and align courses with the learning outcomes of the new requirement. The authors discuss the significance of interdisciplinary collaboration with Ethnic Studies departments and speak to the necessity of supporting faculty in Ethnic Studies pedagogical support.
Femme Labor(ing) for Asian American Studies/Ethnic Studies: Women of Color Faculty Reflect on the First Years of AB 1460 Implementation
By Laureen D. Hom, Shayda Kafai, and Jocelyn A. Pacleb
ABSTRACT: This practitioner essay highlights the work of three women of color scholars involved in the implementation of Assembly Bill 1460 (AB 1460), the recent state law mandating Ethnic Studies as a General Education requirement in the California State University system. We are guided by the political and embodied legacies of AB 1460 and arrive here, standing on the shoulders of student activists to document the ongoing activist work of Ethnic Studies. We come to this work and to this essay from an intentionally transdisciplinary place to reflect on implementing AB 1460 on our campus, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Together, we discuss our praxis in building an interdisciplinary curriculum and amplifying the presence of Asian American Studies in the university, approving cross-listed course proposals, and securing resources to support Ethnic Studies faculty. In this process, we hold space for the emotional and femme of color labor, as well as the tensions and possibilities, that revealed themselves during the implementation of AB 1460.
Navigating Hostile Terrains, Building Across Difference: AB 1460 and the SJSU Ethnic Studies Collaborative
By Yvonne Y. Kwan, Soma de Bourbon, and Christopher Cox
ABSTRACT: Situated with the passage of California Assembly Bill 1460 (AB 1460), this practitioner paper discusses how faculty at San José State University (SJSU) have built coalitional networks to respond to pressures from the neoliberal university for a quick, but not necessarily Ethnic Studies-expertise-informed, implementation. Unlike campuses that had more robust standalone Ethnic Studies departments, SJSU did not have equal footing across all the different units: African American Studies (AFAM) and Chican@ Studies (CCS) have departmental status, but tenure-line faculty density for both are disproportionately low compared to other departments in the College of Social Sciences (COSS). Additionally, Asian American Studies (AAS) and Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) exist as programs housed in the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, with AAS as a minor program and NAIS as a nascent program. To address how we worked together to implement AB 1460, fulfill the need to offer CSU General Education (GE) Area F courses, and build capacity across differences, we address three main points: (1) the promises and pitfalls of GE in a neoliberal university system, (2) strategies for coalition alliance between the programs of AAS and NAIS, and (3) opportunities for growth and expansion.
Building a Home for Asian and Asian American Studies at Cal State LA: A Thirty-Year Struggle and Collaboration
By ChorSwang Ngin
ABSTRACT: This paper is an ethnography on the founding of Asian and Asian American Studies (AAAS) Department at California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA). It starts by describing the early vision in 1993 to bring learning about Asia and Asian American Studies to a public university when neither was available. With external funding, a core group of faculties founded the B.A. Degree in AAAS by combining Asian Studies with Asian American Studies. The paper continues to detail the building of collegial relationships across many disciplines on campus, especially Pan-African Studies (PAS), Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies (CLS), and Latin American Studies (LAS), which led to the creation of an Area and Ethnic Studies Coffee Group. This relationship was not only vital to AAAS when it was threatened with suspension in 2010, but also paved the way for the founding of the Cal State LA College of Ethnic Studies in 2020 in anticipation of AB 1460.
Towards a Critical Pedagogy of Introduction: Ethnic Studies as “General Education” after AB 1460
By Trung P.Q. Nguyen, Ryan Buyco, May Lin, Simmy Makhijani, Saugher Nojan, and Wendi Yamashita
ABSTRACT: This practioner’s essay engages with the structural obstacles and pedagogical approaches toward teaching the “Introduction” Ethnic Studies and Asian American Studies courses in the aftermath of AB 1460. Despite now introducing all CSU students to the tenets of Ethnic Studies courses as part of their general education, the introductory Ethnic Studies classroom has become a space where the decades-long outcomes of defunded education, the dismantling of public good, the sharpening of right-wing politics, and the neoliberalization of the university as transactionary rather than liberatory have come to surface. Against being framed as “useless” or otherwise a “waste of time” (like many other general education courses), the authors, who have experienced these conditions in the Ethnic Studies classroom as the first cohort of Ethnic Studies educators after AB 1460, analyze and critically reflect upon the structural conditions that create what we call the “neoliberalized student” – the forms of foreclosed futures, accelerated crisis in the cost of living, inhumane expansion of student debt, and the saturation of market logic within the realms of everyday life that in turn systematically devalue Ethnic Studies, critical thought, freedom dreaming, and the struggle for liberation through education at the student level. In response, we identify where these ideas have emerged, situate them within their historical contexts, and how to challenge them. Our hope is to outline new ways to reframe the introductory Ethnic Studies and Asian American Studies class as not just about the reproduction of content, but also as a set of strategies to undo these specific structures of neoliberalism that coalesce upon both the student and educator in our particular historical juncture. In doing so, we hope to revitalize those exhausted by the struggle we encounter teaching Introductory Ethnic Studies and imagine new paths of collective liberation through the classroom.
Community to Capitol Advocacy Framework: State-Level Advocacy for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Students in Higher Education
By Cirian Villavicencio and Kirin Macapugay
ABSTRACT: This essay introduces a practitioner framework, Community to Capitol, to guide advocates on making legislative changes that benefit Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) students at the statewide level. Sparked by the Stop AAPI Hate movement and building on the movements behind Assembly Bills 1460 (requiring ethnic studies courses for California State University undergraduates), 1040 (requiring California Community Colleges to offer ethnic studies at each college), and 101 (requiring ethnic studies in California public schools) to recognize the need for ethnic studies requirements in California, the historical and pivotal California AANHPI Student Achievement Program is the first state higher education program in the United States to serve low-income, first-generation, and underresourced AANHPI higher education students. This paper describes the impetus behind the equity movement in the U.S. and recounts chronologically advocacy efforts behind the AANHPI Student Achievement Program, from its inception in 2019 to its enactment in 2022 enshrined in California’s Education Code. This case study includes a reflective analysis to better understand the successes of the overall advocacy effort, weaving best practices including strategic leadership from public representatives, community to institutional partnerships, coalition building, and cross-stakeholder collaboration to formulate the Community to Capitol advocacy framework as a guide for future state-based advocacy.
The Academic-Activist Matrix: Mobilizing Ethnic Studies to Confront the Neoliberal University
By Long T. Bui
ABSTRACT: This article discusses the institutional challenges and opportunities of implementing Asian American Studies (AAS) and Ethnic Studies (ES) college curriculum in the University of California and beyond. These personal observations are built on my involvement in the national, community, and student-led movement for Ethnic Studies in the state and across the nation. While scholars and educational practitioners have already documented the difficult history of implementing these programs—building them into full-fledged departments with faculty lines with a strong number of majors—there is still room to consider other pertinent social issues.
Connecting scholar-activism in the UC system with AAS-mobilizing efforts in CSU and in elite private liberal arts schools, I discuss the following issues related to the implementation of ES as a state requirement: (1) academic senate faculty participation in governance, (2) engaging student activism and apathetic faculty, (3) forging inter-institutional collaboration across school systems, (4) fighting for faculty unions and political associations, (5) reducing over-professionalization of the field, and (6) challenging administrative surveillance and infringement on academic freedom. As a central theme, I speak to the “academic-activist matrix” to engage differently educational activism within the academic-military-industrial complex, considering the endless possibilities for re-creating the university that we collectively desire and want.
Building Against the Constraints of the University: Teaching Ethnic Studies and Asian American Studies at an HSI/AANAPISI and PWI
By Marimas H. Mostiller and Giselle D. Cunanan
ABSTRACT: This paper outlines the points of contention that we, the authors, as junior faculty have teaching Asian American Studies and Ethnic Studies at a Hispanic Serving Institution/Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (HSI/AANAPISI) state university and private Predominantly White Institution (PWI). We discuss the lasting influence of our first experiences with Ethnic Studies as graduate students at San Francisco State University, and how these experiences shaped our critical approach and pedagogy in our doctoral programs and jobs. We observe the institutional shortcomings that affect our home departments, noting how the university treats Ethnic Studies, its racialized faculty, students, and people. We invite others to think with us beyond the microcosms of our institutions.
(Mixed) Asian American Studies across California State University Catalogs: Advancing AB 1460 through Multiracial-inclusive Courses
By Jacob P. Wong-Campbell and Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero
ABSTRACT: Assembly Bill 1460 codified Ethnic Studies coursework as an undergraduate graduation requirement across the California State University (CSU) system. In its focus on four historically defined racialized core groups, the legislation is silent on the role of Critical Mixed Race Studies in advancing its mandate. Through Critical Content Analysis of CSU academic catalogs, we quantify a dearth of courses explicitly mentioning multiraciality across the system and highlight the unique contributions of, and opportunities for, Asian American Studies departments who have and continue to serve as vital partners in increasing curricular visibility of multiracial identities and experiences.
More Than an Afterthought: Centering Critical Pacific Islands & Oceania Studies in Ethnic Studies
By Jeremiah C. Sataraka
ABSTRACT: In the field of education and Ethnic Studies in the United States, Critical Pacific Islands and Oceania Studies (CPIOS) is the latest academic response to the growing needs of Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (NH/PI) communities. California Assembly Bill 1460 was a victory for Ethnic Studies, but the lack of recognition of NH/PI communities by Ethnic Studies educators runs the risk of continual NH/PI erasure. This article calls on Ethnic Studies scholars and Asian Americanists to separate Asian American Studies from CPIOS and introduces Kava and Loi-On’s (2022) CPIOS framework as an important curricular intervention.
Teaching Toward Justice and Liberation: Asian American Educators on the Implementation of Ethnic Studies in California K–12 Public Schools
By William Gow, Tracy L. Buenavista, Jasmine Nguyen, Virginia Nguyen, Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, and Karen Umemoto
ABSTRACT: The passage of Assembly Bill 1460 and Assembly Bill 101 is set to radically transform the relationship that California students have with the field of Ethnic Studies. When fully implemented, these bills will require that all students graduating from either a public high school or the California State University (CSU) system take a course in Ethnic Studies. However, the passage of these bills has not ensured that all students will be provided a critical grounding in the field of Ethnic Studies. Indeed, the implementation process has raised a series of unanswered questions.
This article brings together a diverse group of Asian American Studies stakeholders to discuss the future of high school Ethnic Studies in California. We ask: How will the mandate to teach high school Ethnic Studies shape the implementation of the CSU Ethnic Studies Area F requirement? Given that more than sixty percent of teachers in California self-identify as white and many have never taken an Ethnic Studies class, who will teach this new Ethnic Studies curriculum? How should California teachers navigate the conservative backlash attempting to ban the teaching of Ethnic Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Young Adult books with themes focused on race and sexuality? Who will create the textbooks and lesson plans that will be used in these courses, and how do we ensure they remain rooted in foundational Ethnic Studies principals? Finally, and perhaps most importantly, will CSU and California state bureaucrats dictate the answers to these questions, or will high school students themselves, more than nearly eighty percent of whom are students of color, have a voice in their own Ethnic Studies education?
For this article, we have recorded and transcribed a roundtable discussion focused on these and related questions. Roundtable participants have had the opportunity to lightly edit their responses for clarity before publication.
Content is Not Enough: What High School Teachers Taught Us About Developing Asian American Activism Curriculum
By Katherine H. Lee and May C. Fu
ABSTRACT: This practitioner essay documents challenges the authors faced as they co-authored high school curriculum on Asian American activism for a forthcoming textbook about Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies. It exposes how collaborative projects between university professors and high school instructors can unintentionally reproduce power inequities by privileging researchers’ content knowledge over the pedagogical expertise of high school instructors. The authors consider how university instructors can collaborate more effectively with high school instructors and contribute to Asian American Studies curriculum development in ways that actually engage high school instructors’ curricular and pedagogical expertise.
Policy isn’t Enough: Learning from Ethnic Studies K-12 Teachers
By Artnelson Concordia and Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales
ABSTRACT: Although there is a need to celebrate California’s wins around Ethnic Studies (ES), including the signage of California State University’s Assembly Bill 1460 into law, the passing of policy is not enough. In the rush to implement ES, there is a hyper-focus on which courses should be eligible to fulfill ES requirements based on curriculum content. This essay takes a different perspective and focuses on weaving the voices of ES practitioners to explore what we believe is necessary for a principled implementation.
“Flattening” Asian American Studies in Secondary Education: Strategies and Recommendations for Conceptualizing the Field in Public Schools
By James O. Fabionar and Jesse Mills
ABSTRACT: In recent years, political pressure to address systemic racism, police brutality, and racialized violence in California has resulted in the passage of laws and policies that mandate public schools, colleges, and universities to require Ethnic Studies courses. Amidst this expansion, an array of policies and practices are emerging within and across systems that reflect what is believed to be core knowledge in Ethnic Studies and subfields like Asian American Studies. This article distills observations from one site among these different systems—secondary schools—and describes a “flattening,” or watering down, of Asian American Studies in emerging curricula and instructional practices. It discusses four forms of flattening—subsuming, reducing, decontextualizing, and omitting—and offers recommendations for responding to these tendencies.
Building a Culture of Care: The Development of an Ethnic Studies Faculty Learning Community
By Arlene Daus-Magbual, Maharaj Desai, Kira Donnell, Jee Soo Kang, and Grace J. Yoo
ABSTRACT: There has been growing interest in Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) as a tool to build community and increase teaching effectiveness for faculty in institutions of higher education. This paper seeks to understand qualitatively the impact of an Ethnic Studies FLC on increasing faculty capacity to improve pedagogy and better serve undergraduates who are first-generation, low-income, or come from underrepresented Asian American and Pacific Islander groups. Qualitative approaches were used including open-ended comments from surveys (n=50), focus group (n=8), and in-depth interviews (n=10) collected between 2018-22. Results from these interviews include the following themes: expanding faculty capacity to support students holistically, developing pedagogies of care in the classroom, and creating spaces for faculty to thrive and cultivate community.
Self-Care for Asian American Studies Faculty
By Hannah Moon and Timothy P. Fong
ABSTRACT: Academic life has always been challenging enough, but new challenges continue presenting themselves to Asian American Studies faculty. During the first pandemic of our lifetimes, we have witnessed increasing anti-Asian hate and violence, calls for greater activism around racial and economic injustice, and greater attention to the needs of underrepresented and underserved Asian American and Pacific Islander students on our campuses. Emotional stress and overwork are centered in increasingly common complaints from Asian American Studies faculty across the nation. This article focuses deliberately on the need for Asian American Studies faculty to practice mindfulness and self-care to reduce stress, avoid burnout, and help maintain overall health and wellbeing. Practicing mindfulness and self-care helps individuals better adapt to changes, build strong personal and professional relationships, and recover from setbacks. This article will provide helpful strategies to better manage academic pressures, tricky interpersonal relationships, and uncertain future plans. Mindfulness and self-care encourage maintaining a healthy relationship with oneself, translating into a more focused, attentive approach to the multiple demands of academic life.