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Asian American/Diaspora Studies

Description
The interdisciplinary graduate group in Asian American/Diaspora Studies offers students a focused study of the history, politics, and culture of Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. Asian American studies is not only a growing interdiscipline, but also a rich and transformative intellectual tradition. The graduate group offers training in the theories and methodologies of Asian American/Diaspora Studies for students who wish to include this area of area of expertise in their graduate experience. Asian American/Diaspora Studies foregrounds a transnational, comparative, and intersectional framework within the context of the United States and the broader Asian diasporas.

An intersectional approach emphasizes the fact that race is defined by and mutually constituted by various identity categories and social locations including those of gender, sexuality, nation, religion, and class. Our programming, research, and teaching examines the ways in which empire, state power, racist nationalism, and capitalism have created displacement, migration, exclusion, resistance, and injustice in the United States and in Asian diasporas.  We also foreground the multiple social, historical, cultural, religious, epistemological, and political inequalities and violences that have shaped Asian American experiences. Programming is designed to help students explore the diversity of Asian American communities, and the history and present conditions of Asian American racial formation in local, national, and global contexts.

Leadership
The primary contact for this group is Erika Lee (Department of History and Asian American Studies Program).  Additional members of the leadership team are Jigna Desai (Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies), and Jo Lee (Department of English).

Membership

Please direct questions about the new interdisciplinary graduate groups to Vicki Field, Director of The Graduate School’s Office of Interdisciplinary Initiatives, field001@umn.edu or 612-625-6532.