ASIAN AMERICAN & DIASPORA STUDIES PROGRAM
Speakers from universities across the nation discussed the challenges of creating Asian American Studies programs and the importance of student activism at the inaugural 2022 Southeast Conference on Asian American Studies on Saturday. read more about Duke, UNC co-hosts first southeastern regional conference on Asian American Studies »
Duke’s pioneers are the people and organizations who push the University forward, relentlessly reimagining every aspect of our community with boundless energy and passion. They question the status quo and refuse to accept anything that is unjust or unsatisfactory. The pioneers of this year’s Chron15 list trekked through uncharted territories, leading to new academic programs, community connections, athletic success and scientific breakthroughs. Nina King Duke Athletics saw significant changes this year, from… read more about Asian American Studies Working Group Among 2021-22 Chron15: Pioneers »
Since joining Duke in 2018, Esther has made a significant impact on the university through her directorship of the Asian American & Diaspora Studies program. Building on a foundation of advocacy by Duke students, alumni and faculty like AADS founding director Aimee Kwon, Esther successfully guided the creation of a new minor in Asian American & Diaspora Studies. Housed within the Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, this new minor is dedicated to an interdisciplinary study of the people of Asian… read more about AADS Director Esther Kim Lee is awarded the 2022 Dean's Diversity Award »
TEDxDuke 2022: The Bones of Strangers and other Chinatown Stories with Eileen Cheng-yin Chow Instead of asking a stranger, “Where are you (really) from?”, Eileen Cheng-yin Chow suggests that “How did you get here today?” might yield a more meaningful exchange. Learning about the histories of Chinatowns and their inhabitants is to see how people who have been perceived as perpetual outsiders developed powerful strategies for survival and mutual care, in life and in death. And in turn, by shifting our attention… read more about TEDxDuke 2022: “How Did You Get Here Today? On caring for strangers, and other Chinatown Stories” »
Shania Khoo was a freshman in high school in 2014 when Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Mo. The killing of the Black teenager by a White police officer fueled a national resurgence in conversations about race. Khoo began advocating for an ethnic studies curriculum to bring these discussions into her classrooms in Cary, N.C., to educate herself and her peers about structural racism and social justice. She continued that activism at Duke University, building on the work of past organizers in calling for the… read more about The Washington Post: A minor in Asian American studies at Duke is a major win for student activists »
20 years ago, students held Duke’s first teach-in for Asian American Studies – a teach-in that represents only a moment in a much longer lineage of Asian American student organizing, but still a moment worthy of commemoration. Last weekend, AASWG (Asian American Studies Working Group) invited back alumni from the last 20 years who were involved in Asian American organizing spaces during their time at Duke. The alumni spoke about their experiences at a three-part panel centered around ‘resisting, recovering, remembering.’… read more about AASWG's Resisting, Recovering, Remembering Panel »
Asian American history is part and parcel of American history. Asian American experiences emerge within an American context and in relation to the many other cultural, institutional, and political aspects that comprise contemporary life in the United States. And yet, beginning with the initial moments of immigration to the United States by people from Asia, large swathes of white Americans have deemed these histories and experiences as somehow un-American. Several historical moments have laid bare this tendency to… read more about Duke University Libraries spotlights the Asian American Studies collection »
On March 16, 2021, a series of shootings in the Atlanta-area claimed the lives of eight people—including six women of Asian descent. The Duke community came together in remembrance of the victims exactly a year later. Both Duke’s Asian American and Diaspora Studies Program and the Center for Multicultural Affairs hosted events to help Duke’s community grieve the losses of the victims. AADS hosted a panel on March 16 to address the violent sexualization of… read more about Duke's Remembrance of the Atlanta Shootings »
‘An incredible achievement’: Students, faculty prepare for launch of new Asian American Diaspora Studies minor. read more about The Chronicle covers the launch of the new AADS Minor »
The Chronicle covered the AADS panel discussion with speakers including Helen Jin Kim, assistant professor of American religious history at Emory University; Vernadette Gonzalez, professor of American studies at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa; and Kate D’Adamo, a partner with Reframe Health and Justice. Anna Storti, assistant professor of gender, sexuality and feminist studies at Duke, moderated the event. read more about AADS panel discusses Atlanta spa shootings one year later »
After decades of advocacy and a unanimous vote from the Arts & Sciences Council in February, Duke undergraduates have a new option to consider when registering for fall 2022 classes: a minor in Asian American & Diaspora Studies. The Asian American & Diaspora Studies Program (AADS) has partnered with the Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) to offer the thematic minor, which will be housed in AMES and administered by AADS. “AMES really was the natural choice,” said AADS Director Esther Kim… read more about After Student Activism, Duke Launches Asian American & Diaspora Studies Minor »
The Duke community will come together in remembrance of the victims of the Atlanta Salon Shootings on March 16—exactly one year after the attack. Last March, a series of three Atlanta-area shootings claimed the lives of eight people—six of whom were Asian women. Both Duke’s Asian American and Diaspora Studies Program and the Center for Multicultural Affairs will host events to honor the victims of the shootings and process the horrifying attack. AADS will host a “Brown Bag Conversation” led by Dr. Anna Storti to facilitate… read more about Remembering the Atlanta Shootings »
On February 18, Dr. Anna Storti gave a rich and necessary talk on what she terms “racist intimacies.” She explored the inextricability of race from desire, and the ways this interplay is both grounded in violent histories and entangled in our contemporary. In her analysis of racist intimacies, Dr. Storti reframes the politics of multiracialism and the clashing, converging histories which produce mixed race subjects. What does it mean for Asian America, and Asian/American bodies, to be adhesed to empire’s erotic life?… read more about Racist Intimacies: Asian America in Thrall to Desire »
The Asian American Diaspora Studies (AADS) program is proud to announce its new minor degree! We are in a productive and exciting partnership with the Asian Middle Eastern Studies as our minor will be housed in their department. The Arts & Sciences Council voted unanimously on February 3rd to approve the new minor. The minor itself will consist of five courses with one required introductory course, in which students can choose between “Introduction to Asian American History” (History/AADS 198) or ‘Introduction to… read more about AADS Minor Program Celebration! »
New Minor in Asian American and Diaspora Studies I’m very happy to announce that we have a new minor in Asian American and Diaspora Studies (AADS)! The Arts & Sciences Council voted this afternoon to approve the new minor. It has taken decades of student activism to get to this moment, and I want to thank every one of the students who organized, protested, and demanded that the Duke curriculum reflect our collective and diverse histories and experiences. I want to thank the faculty and… read more about New Asian American and Diaspora Studies minor! »
More than once, the freshman in Professor Anna Storti’s Asian American Feminisms seminar made history. In Fall 2021, Sergio Estrada Adan, Eva Funaki, Lin Lin, Cristal Ortiz, Lina Sinsheimer, and Isha Uppalapati enrolled in the first course designated as Asian American and Diaspora Studies (AADS) at Duke: Professor Storti’s First-Year Seminar in Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies on Asian American Feminisms. Bringing together the fields of GSF, AADS, and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), the… read more about Asian American Feminisms: In Solidarity »
AADS Spring 2022 Speaker Series January 7, 12-1:15 PM ET: "Rethinking Afro-Asian Solidarity from the Muslim Left" with Professor M. Bilal Nasir February 25, 3:30-4:45 PM ET: "Atmo-Orientalism and Olfactory Aesthetics" with Professor Hsuan L. Hsu March 4, 3:30-4:45 PM ET: "Soft Rock, Soft Power" with Professor Karen Tongson March 18, 12-1:15 PM ET: "History on the Run: Knowledge Formation Against State Violence" with Professor Ma Vang read more about AADS Spring 2022 Speaker Series »
"In a virtual Wednesdays at the Center event, Calvin Cheung-Miaw, Assistant Research Professor of History at Duke University, spoke on the activist origins of the Asian American identity, with a focus on how Asian Americans thought about multiethnic and multiracial solidarity in the 1960’s. In his lecture, Cheung-Miaw traced the origins of the Asian American identity to college student activists in the Bay Area of California… read more about Duke's Cheung-Miaw Traces Origins of Asian American Identity to '60s Student Activism and Vietnam War »
The Asian American Diaspora Studies (AADS) program has a new home in the Friedl building on East Campus. Currently, the Friedl building is where the African and African American Studies (AAAS) and Cultural Anthropology department in addition to the Latino/a Studies in the Global South program, which has a certificate, are located. The Friedl building is named for Ernestine Friedl, who passed in 2015 and was the first female dean of Trinity College and a renowned anthropologist. In the spirit of Dr. Friedl’s legacy, which… read more about AADS has moved! »
Duke has hired two new professors as part of a hiring initiative in the Asian American and Diaspora studies program. Anna Storti and Calvin Cheung-Miaw will join the University in the fall, according to an announcement provided by Professor of Theater Studies Esther Kim Lee, who chaired the search committee for the new faculty. Storti will be an assistant professor in gender, sexuality and feminist studies, and Cheung-Miaw will be an assistant research professor in the history department for a year before becoming an… read more about Duke hires two new faculty in Asian American and Diaspora studies program »
We want to highlight the panel at the end of last month that was moderated by the current AADS Program Director, Professor Nayoung Aimee Kwon, with Professor Susan Thananopavarn, Professor Eileen Chow, and Professor Esther Kim Lee. The insights, historical contexts, and reflections that our four professors shared were extremely valuable. You may find Duke Today's coverage of the panel here. read more about The History of Violence against Asian Americans »
Join us for a conversation with distinguished Duke Asian American alumni in Hollywood on Wednesday, April 7, 8pm-9pm ET. Hear from panelists working across the entertainment industry, as they share their career paths, creative processes, and experiences at the intersection of representation, race and storytelling. Register here: Breaking Into Hollywood Registration The panel will feature: Emmy-nominated writer/director Geeta V. Patel ’98 (The Great, The Mindy Project, Fresh Off The… read more about Breaking into Hollywood: A Conversation with Asian American Creatives, April 7 from 8-9pm ET »