Department of Asian American Studies Faculty

Professors
King-kok Cheung (Ph.D., UC Berkeley, 1984)
Asian American literature, comparative ethnic literature, Renaissance British literature, Comparative Heroic Traditions.

Lane Ryo Hirabayashi (Ph.D., UC, Berkeley, 1981)
George and Sakaye Aratani Professor of Japanese Internment, Redress, and Community
Japanese Americans, Asian Americans; ethnicity and race in the Americas; ethnography; practice theory.

Marjorie Kagawa-Singer (Ph.D., UCLA, 1988)
Sociocultural aspects of health; cancer and chronic diseases; developing cultural competence in health practice; qualitative research methodology.

Robert Nakamura (M.F.A., UCLA, 1975) Endowed Chair in Japanese American Studies, Associate Director of the Asian American Studies Center
Asian Pacific American film, video, and multimedia projects, the Japanese experience in America, visual life histories of the second-generation Nisei, digital and multi-media technologies.

Don T. Nakanishi (Ph.D., Harvard, 1978), Director, the Asian American Studies Center
Issues of access, representation, and influence of Asian Pacific Americans and other communities of color in relation to major American political, educational, and social institutions; international dimensions of race relations; and Asian Pacific American public policy issues.

Paul Ong (Ph.D., UC Berkeley, 1983)
Race, ethnicity and environmentalism; social inequality; urban labor markets; immigrants in the urban economy; welfare and work; geographic information systems and transportation planning.

Min Zhou (Ph.D., State University of New York at Albany, 1989)
Immigration and immigrant adaptation, immigrant children, race/ethnicity, ethnic economies, the community, and urban sociology.

Associate Professors
Jinqi Ling (Ph.D., Washington State University, 1992)
Asian American literature, new historicist approach to literature, cultural theory, and transnational issues.

David Wong Louie (M.F.A., University of Iowa, 1981)
Creative writing and Asian American literature.

Valerie Matsumoto (Ph.D., Stanford University, 1985)
Asian American History, U.S. 20th Century, women's history, and oral history

Kyeyong Park (Ph.D., City University of New York, 1990)
Urban anthropology, cultural change, social inequality, migration, theory, Korean/Asian Americans.

Henry Yu (Ph.D., Princeton University, 1994)
U.S. cultural and intellectual history, race relations, Asian American history, and history of social science.

Assistant Professors
Victor Bascara (Ph.D., Columbia University, 2000) Cultures of United States imperialism, critical race theory, Asian American and U.S. ethnic literatures, gender and sexuality.

Lucy Mae San Pablo Burns (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2004)
Asian American/Filipino Studies, Feminist Performance studies, community-based theater/cultural projects.

Keith Lujan Camacho (Ph.D., University of Hawai'i, Manoa, 2005)
Pacific Islander Studies, colonialism, decolonization, militarism, migration, and tourism.

Grace Kyungwon Hong (Ph.D., UC San Diego, 2002)
Asian American literature and history, women of color literature and theory, 20th century American literature, women and work, and feminist theory.

Thu-Huong Nguyen-Vo (Ph.D., UC Irvine, 1998)
Vietnamese Diaspora, Vietnamese labor, globalization, governmentality, class, and gender.  Ethnic subjectivity in policies, consumption, literary and cultural practices.

Adjunct Professors
Tritia Toyota (Ph.D., UCLA, 2004) Political participation, contemporary Chinese migration, transnational Asian American communities, race theory, social movements.
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Affiliated Professors
Mitchell Chang (Ph.D., UCLA, 1996)
Associate Professor, Education
Diversity-related initiatives on college campuses, race in higher education.

Clara Chu (Ph.D. Western Ontario, 1992)
Associate Profesor, Information Studies
Information seeking behavior, and critical information studies, international and comparative information services, and transnational Ethnic Studies.

C. Cindy Fan (Ph.D., Ohio State University, 1989)
Population geography, regional development, migration, ethnicity, post-Mao China, quantitative methods, and spatial modeling.

Jerry Kang (J.D., Harvard Law School, 1993)
Professor, Law
Civil procedure, critical race studies, race relations, hate crimes, Affirmative Action, and cyberspace/communications.

Snehendu Kar (Ph.D., UC Berkeley, 1966)
Professor, Public Health
Social interventions health communication and education, population environmental psychology, international health, indicators of health promotion, and primary health care.

Vinay Lal (Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1992)
Associate Professor, History
Indian History, comparative colonial history, postcolonial theory, sexuality in India, politics of culture and knowledge systems, popular Hindi film, South Asian diaspora.

Anna Lau (Ph.D., UCLA, 2000)
Assistant Professor, Psychology
Health care, culture and child psychopathology, and parent-child relations in immigrant families.

Russell Leong (M.F.A., UCLA, 1990)
Adjunct Professor, English; Editor, Amerasia Journal
Creative writing, poetry, Asian American literature.

Vinit Mukhija (Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000)
Assistant Professor, Urban Planning
Housing and land development; urban and neighborhood revitalization; development strategies for low income communities; physical planning and urban design; property rights and social relations and planning institutions.

Shu-Mei Shih (Ph.D., UCLA, 1992)
Professor, Asian Languages and Comparative Literature
Twentieth century literature and cinema from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Asian America, feminism, transnationalism, comparative minority discourse, and inter-Asia cultural studies.

Lois Takahashi (Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1992)
Associate Professor, Urban Planning
Social service delivery focusing on HIV/AIDS and homelessness; NIMBY/community opposition toward human service facilities; social capital and health; social capital and environmental management in Southeast Asian cities.