University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Asian American Studies
University of Minnesota
American Studies
Scott Hall 104
72 Pleasant St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: (612) 626-2022
Fax: (612) 624-3858
Email: aast@umn.edu
Website: http://www.aas.umn.edu/

Director:
Jigna Desai

Core Faculty:
Evelyn Ch’ien
Jigna Desai
Gail Dubrow
Kale B. Fajardo
Karen Z. Ho
Erika Lee
Josephine Lee
Mai Na M. Lee
Richard M. Lee
Yuichiro Onishi
Teresa Toguchi Swartz

General Information:
The Asian American Studies Program

Beginning in 1998, faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students, and Twin Cities artists, leaders, and activists organized the Asian American Studies Initiative at the University of Minnesota. They recognized a need to reframe for Minnesota a discipline traditionally centered in the East and West Coasts and sought to establish an academic presence on campus. In 2003 and 2004, those efforts became a reality when the Regents of the University of Minnesota voted to establish the Asian American Studies Program and undergraduate studies minor, and then to create an Asian American Studies Program.

Our Asian American Studies Program recognizes both the uniqueness of Minnesota's Asian American populations and their commonalities with each other and with other Asian American communities across the nation. Our curriculum, research projects, and outreach work are all shaped by community interests and concerns. And with its locale, community resources, and faculty, the University of Minnesota is helping to create new models of teaching Asian American history, politics, literature, and cultures.

Selected Recent Courses:
America in International Perspective: Post-1965 Immigration
Anthropology of American Culture
Asian America Through Arts and Culture
Asian American Cultural Criticism
Asian American History, 1850-present
Asian American Literature and Drama
Asian American Women's Cultural Production
Asian American Identities, Families, and Communities
The Color of Public Policy
Comparative Race and Ethnicity in U. S. History
Contemporary Perspectives on Asian America
Cultures of Korean Adoption
Hmong History Across the Globe
Imagining Asian America
Service-Learning in the Asian Community
War and Imperialism in Asian American and Pacific Worlds


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