President

Josephine Lee
Term: 2010-12
University of Minnesota
207 Lind Hall
207 Church St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0134
Email: jolee AT umn DOT edu

Josephine Lee is a professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is currently the president of the Association for Asian American Studies. Her most recent book is The Japan of Pure Invention: Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado (University of Minnesota Press, 2010). She is also the author of Performing Asian America: Race and Ethnicity on the Contemporary Stage and coeditor of Re/collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History. Other work includes essays and reviews on modern drama, theater history, performance, cultural theory, and Asian American studies.

President-Elect

Mary Yu Danico
Term: 2010-12
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
3801 West Temple Blvd.
Pomona, CA 91768
Email: mkydanico AT csupomona DOT edu

Mary Danico is a professor of sociology in the Psychology and Sociology Department at Cal Poly Pomona. Her areas of expertise are: Race Relations, Family, Korean American, Asian American community formation, Ethnic Identity, Youth Culture, Asian American Diaspora and Transnationalism, Immmigration/Migration, Social Justice, Multiculturalism, and Peace. She is the author of two books “The 1.5 Generation: Becoming Korean American in Hawaii” and “Asian American Issues.” She is the co-editor of “Transforming the Acadey: Challenging Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia in Higher Education” with Dr. Brett Stockdill (forthcoming 2011, UH Press) and is writing her 4th book on Korean American Diaspora. She is the president elect of the Association for Asian American studies 2010-2012 and was a senior Fulbright scholar in Korea 2005-2006 where she examined reverse migration of Korean Americans and Asian American Diaspora. At Cal Poly, she is the vice-chair of the Psychology and Sociology Department. She is actively engaged in Sociology professional organizations Pacific Sociological Association(PSA, American Sociological Association (ASA), and serves on the board of the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS). She advocates finding passion in life so that you are never “working.”

Secretary/Treasurer

Anna Gonzalez
Term: 2007-10
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
117 Swanlund Admin Bldg
601 E. John St.
Champaign, IL 61820
Email: annag AT illinois DOT edu

Anna Gonzalez is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Before coming to Illinois, she was the Associate Dean of Students at UC Irvine as well as sailed twice with the Semester at Sea Program, most recently serving as the Dean of Students for the Fall 2007 Voyage. As Secretary/Treasurer for the association, she is proud to have supervised the move of the Secretariat Office from Cornell to UIUC and then from UIUC to the University of Minnesota. She has guided the association over several years and during her tenure has ensured the fiscal growth of the Association from $80,000 to over $120,000.

Regional Representatives

Interior West/South

Jennifer Ho
Term: 2012-14
Department of English & Comparative Literature
UNC Chapel Hill
Greenlaw Hall, CB#3520
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3520
Email:jho AT email.unc DOT edu

Jennifer Ann Ho is currently an Associate Professor in the English and Comparative Literature Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research and teaching interests are in Asian American, Multiethnic American and Contemporary American literature and popular culture. Her first book, Consumption and Identity in Asian American Coming-of-Age Novels (Routledge Press, 2005) examines the intersection of coming-of-age, ethnic identity formation, and foodways in late 20th CenturyAsian American coming-of-age narratives and American popular culture. Her current book manuscript, “What ARE You?” Racial Ambiguity in Contemporary Asian American Culture investigates the theme of racial ambiguity in various modes of cultural production (oral history, new media, literature, film, sports journalism) created predominantly by and about Asian Americans in the late-20th century.

Mid-Atlantic

Allan Isaac
Term: 2010-12
Wesleyan University
Department of English
294 High Street
Middletown, CT 06459
Email: apisaac AT rci DOT rutgers DOT edu

Allan Punzalan Isaac, Associate Professor of American Studies and English and Undergraduate Director of American Studies at Rutgers University, is author of American Tropics: Articulating Filipino America (2006), which received the Association for Asian American Studies Cultural Studies Book Award.

He teaches a broad range of courses in theory and literature, Asian American Studies, critical race theory, law and literature, and comparative race studies. He is also on the Editorial Board for Signs and Journal of Asian American Studies.

Mid-West

Martin Manalansan
Term: 2012-14
Department of Anthropology
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
109 Davenport Hall
607 South Mathews Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
Email: manalans AT illinois DOT edu

Martin Manalansan’s broad research interests include the following: sociocultural anthropology, sexuality and gender, immigration and globalization, cities and modernity, food and culture, critical theory, performance, public health, Filipino diaspora, Asian Americans, North America, Southeast Asia, and the Philippines.

New England/Central and Eastern Canada

Catherine Fung
Term: 2012-14
Department of English and Media Studies
Bentley University
175 Forest Street
Waltham, MA 02452
Email: cfung AT bentley DOT edu

Catherine Fung is an assistant professor in the English and Media Studies Department at Bentley University. Her research interests include Asian American literature, 20th Century American culture and literature, Post-colonial theory and literature, cultural studies, critical race studies, law and literature, and diaspora studies. Her dissertation, entitled, Perpetual Refugee: Memory of the Vietnam War in Asian American Literature, analyzes the conditions that allow for refugees to be represented, and examines the ways in which memory of the Vietnam War continues to determine discourses surrounding immigration and citizenship. She is currently the Vice President of the Circle for Asian American Literary Studies (CAALS) of the American Literature Association.

Northern California/Nevada

Grace Yoo
Term: 2012-14
Asian American Studies
San Francisco State University
Email: grace Dot yoo Dot phd AT gmail Dot com

Grace J. Yoo is a professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University. She is a community-based scholar, researcher and teacher devoted to teaching and understanding the social and health problems impacting Asian America. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed publications such as AAPI Nexus, Ethnicity and Health, Peace Review, Cross-Cultural Gerontology and Journal of Cancer Education. She is the co-editor (with Edith Chen) of The Encyclopedia of Asian American Issues Today (ABC-Clio), She is also co-editor (with Mai Nhung Le and Alan Oda) of the Handbook of Asian American Health (Springer Publishing). Currently, she is also an editor to a forthcoming textbook, Koreans in America: History, Culture and Identity (Cognella Academic Publishing). As a student, administrator and now professor, she has been committed for the past 25 years to the development and growth of Asian American studies on several different college campuses.

Pacific Northwest, Hawai’i and Pacific Islands, and Western Canada

John P. Rosa
Term: 2010-12
University of Hawai’i at Manoa
Sakamaki Hall B415
Honolulu, HI 96822-2283
Email: rosajohn AT hawaii DOT edu

John Rosa is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa with a primary focus on the history of modern Hawai’i. Dr. Rosa’s research focuses mostly on the social and cultural history of twentieth-century Hawai’i and the histories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. He has published articles on teaching about the history of Hawai’i, about “local” identity in Hawai’i, and the history of “mixed-race” studies. His book Local Story: The Massie/Kahahawai Case and the Politics of History in Hawai’i is under contract with University of Hawai?i Press.

In 2005, the Associated Students of Arizona State University recognized his teaching and community service by awarding him a fellowship and the title of 2005-2006 ASASU Centennial Professor.

He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in History at the University of California, Irvine (1992, 1999) and his B.A., also in History (1990), from Northwestern University. If you really must know, he graduated in 1986 from Damien Memorial High School in Kalihi-Palama.

Southern California

Linda Trinh Vo
Term: 2010-12
University of California
Humanities Gateway Building, Room 3307
Mail Code: 6900
Irvine, CA 92697
Email: volt AT uci DOT edu

Dr. Linda Trinh Vo is an Associate Professor and former Chair of the Department of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. At UCI, she ha affiliations with the Dept of Women’s Studies, Dept of Sociology, and Dept of Planning, Policy, and Design. She received a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, San Diego in 1995 and was a UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow (1994-1996) and a UCI Chancellor’s Fellow (2006-2009). Dr. Vo is is the author of a book, Mobilizing an Asian American Community and the co-editor of three books: Contemporary Asian American Communities: Intersection and Divergences; Asian American Women: The “Frontiers” Reader; and Labor Versus Empire: Race, Gender, and Migration. She also edited a special issue on “Vietnamese Americans: Diaspora and Dimensions” for Amerasia Journal and co-edited a special issue on “Mapping Comparative Studies of Racialization in the U.S.” for Ethnicities Journal and a special issue on “Asian American Women” for Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. She is a series editor for the Asian American Culture and History series published by Temple University Press.

Graduate Student

Ronak Kapadia
Term: 2010-2012
Colorado College
Riley Scholar-in-Residence
Program in Race and Ethnic Studies
Colorado College
Interdisciplinary House
14 East Cache La Poudre Street Colorado Springs, CO 80903
Email: ronak DOT kapadia AT coloradocollege DOT edu

Ronak K. Kapadia is an advanced PhD candidate in American Studies at NYU and the Riley Scholar-in-Residence in Race and Ethnic Studies at Colorado College. His research fields include Comparative Ethnic, Diaspora, and Postcolonial Studies; Queer and Feminist Criticism; Visual, Music and Performance Studies; Critical Security Studies; and Globalization and American Empire. Ronak's forthcoming dissertation project uses the lens of queer diasporic culture to examine the expansion of the U.S global security state in South Asia and the Middle East since 1979. His work has been recognized by the Consortium of Faculty Diversity in Liberal Arts Colleges Fellowship, the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, the Anita Affeldt Graduate Award from the Association for Asian American Studies, and the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award at NYU. He serves as the graduate representative to the board of directors of the Association for Asian American Studies and is also a board member of FIERCE, a member-led community organization working to build the leadership and power of LGBTQ youth of color in New York City.