Amerasia Journal — LLMpedia

Amerasia Journal
Title	Amerasia Journal
Discipline	Asian American studies; Asian studies
Language	English
Abbreviation	Amerasia
Publisher	UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press
Country	United States
Frequency	Quarterly
History	1971–present

Contents

Amerasia Journal Amerasia Journal is a peer-reviewed academic periodical specializing in Asian Americans and Pacific Asians with intersections across ethnic studies, urban studies, migration studies, and diaspora studies. Founded in the early 1970s amid movements such as the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, the journal has published scholarship, commentary, and archival research connecting activists, scholars, and institutions including University of California, Los Angeles, Columbia University, and University of Washington. Contributors have included scholars and public intellectuals associated with Asian American Movement, Third World Liberation Front, and cultural organizations such as the Asian American Theater Company.

History

The journal originated during protests at campuses like San Francisco State University and University of California, Berkeley that produced demands for ethnic studies programs after events tied to the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the escalation of the Vietnam War. Early editorial collectives drew from networks including the Asian American Political Alliance, the Red Guard Party, and community projects in neighborhoods such as Chinatown, San Francisco, Japantown, San Francisco, and Little Manila, Stockton. Institutional support and disputes involved entities like the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and the Asian American Studies Program at UC Berkeley. Over decades, editorial leadership changed hands among scholars who had affiliations with Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, and public intellectuals linked to the New Left and the Black Panther Party. The journal documented shifting policy contexts, including ramifications from laws such as the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and events like the LA Riots of 1992.

Amerasia Journal covers topics across regional and disciplinary boundaries, addressing communities in locations such as China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Hawaii, and diasporas in cities like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Toronto. The journal publishes work on historical episodes like the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Japanese American internment, and the Philippine–American War; cultural production tied to figures such as Amy Tan, Maxine Hong Kingston, Bruce Lee, Sonia Chang-Díaz, and institutions such as the Asian American Theater Company and the Asian CineVision. It engages scholarship connected to archives like the Densho Digital Repository, museums including the Japanese American National Museum, and research centers such as the Asia Society and the Migration Policy Institute.

Editorial oversight has involved academics and community editors from institutions like UCLA, Columbia University, University of Michigan, University of California, Irvine, and University of Pennsylvania. The journal employs a board with scholars who have held fellowships at organizations such as the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Peer review processes draw reviewers affiliated with departments and programs at Cornell University, University of Chicago, Brown University, University of California, Santa Barbara, and think tanks such as the Brookings Institution. Special issues have been guest-edited by editors linked to projects at the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, and community archives in Seattle and Oakland.

Articles published have influenced scholarship on topics like transnational migration, redress movements, and cultural representation. Works addressing the Model Minority myth, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the history of Japanese American internment have been cited in monographs from presses such as University of California Press, Harvard University Press, and Routledge. The journal has featured contributions by scholars connected to the Asian American Studies movement and by activists involved with organizations like the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium and the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance. Its articles have been used in curricula at University of California, Los Angeles, City College of New York, University of Hawai'i, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and have informed museums and exhibits at the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration and regional cultural centers.

The journal's early years intersected with debates over archival access and press freedom after incidents linked to the Amerasia affair that involved government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and congressional inquiries tied to McCarthyism-era concerns. Later criticism addressed questions of representation and gatekeeping from scholars and community activists at conferences like the Association for Asian American Studies and institutions such as the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies. Debates also engaged methodological disputes involving proponents of ethnic studies versus mainstream scholars from history and sociology departments at universities including Princeton University and Yale University.

The journal is indexed in bibliographic databases and catalogs associated with libraries such as the Library of Congress, the California Digital Library, and university library systems at UCLA, Columbia University, and University of Washington. It is distributed through academic channels and consortia linking presses like the University of California Press and repositories such as the JSTOR platform and the HathiTrust Digital Library. Subscriptions reach academic departments in North America, Asia, and Australia, including programs at National University of Singapore, The University of Sydney, and University of Toronto.

Category:Academic journals