Asian American Studies Program at San Francisco State University

Asian American Studies Program at San Francisco State University
Name	Asian American Studies Program
Institution	San Francisco State University
Established	1969
Location	San Francisco, California
Director	[Information varies]
Colors	San Francisco State University colors

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Asian American Studies Program at San Francisco State University

The Asian American Studies Program at San Francisco State University emerged amid campus activism in the late 1960s and became a central site for scholarship and community organizing connecting figures such as Grace Lee Boggs, Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, Dorothy Height, Cesar Chavez, and institutions like Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Brown Berets, United Farm Workers, Black Panther Party, and Asian Americans for Action. The Program engaged with movements and events including the Third World Liberation Front (1968), the 1968–69 San Francisco State strikes, the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, and the broader histories of migration from China, Japan, Korea, Philippines, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, and Pakistan.

History

Founded during the 1968–69 strikes that involved the Third World Liberation Front (1968), the Program traces roots to student leaders influenced by activists like Carlos Bulosan, Maxine Hong Kingston, Yuji Ichioka, Richard Aoki, Ira Reid, and organizers from groups such as Asian American Political Alliance and Oriental Students Association. Institutional demands paralleled those at University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, and Hunter College. Legislative and policy contexts included debates spurred by laws like the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and legal moments such as decisions from the United States Supreme Court. Early curriculum and staffing responded to demographic shifts described in studies by scholars tied to Pew Research Center-style demographic research and community histories like those preserved by the Chinese Historical Society of America and the Japanese American Citizens League.

The Program offers undergraduate majors and minors, courses spanning histories and literatures of communities from China, Japan, Korea, Philippines, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and diasporas in cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Houston, Honolulu, and Vancouver. Seminars incorporate texts by authors like Amy Tan, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Jhumpa Lahiri, Maxine Hong Kingston, Carlos Bulosan, Ha Jin, Edwin O. Reischauer, and scholars such as Ronald Takaki, Lisa Lowe, Lisa Nakamura, Gary Okihiro, Helen Zia, Jeffrey Paul Chan, and Evelyn Nakano Glenn. Methodologies draw on archival work connected to Library of Congress, ethnography practiced in the tradition of Clifford Geertz, oral histories like those archived at the Densho Project, and interdisciplinary links to programs at Ethnic Studies Department, UC Berkeley, Department of Asian American Studies, UCLA, Department of Asian American Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Faculty have included activists and scholars who collaborated with organizations such as the Japanese American Citizens League, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, Korean American Federation of Los Angeles, Filipino American National Historical Society, Khmer American National Council, and national funders including Ford Foundation, Gates Foundation, and National Endowment for the Humanities. Research topics encompass internment and incarceration histories tied to Executive Order 9066, wartime labor linked to Transcontinental Railroad construction, migration studies related to the Gold Rush (1849) and World War II, gender and sexuality studies interacting with movements like Stonewall riots, and health equity projects in collaboration with institutions such as UCSF and San Francisco General Hospital. Faculty scholarship appears alongside work published through presses like University of California Press, Duke University Press, Routledge, Oxford University Press, and journals including Journal of Asian American Studies and Positions: Asia Critique.

Student groups affiliated with the Program collaborate with local and national organizations including Asian Pacific American Legal Center, APIENC, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, Filipino Resource Center, Korean Resource Center (Los Angeles), Southeast Asian Community Center, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, Japanese American Citizens League Youth Council, and solidarity campaigns with groups like Black Lives Matter, La Raza, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán, and United Farm Workers. Student-run publications, community radio and cultural events engage with artists and activists such as Cecilia Chung, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Ruth Asawa, Isamu Noguchi, Yo-Yo Ma, and archival collaborators like Chinese Historical Society of America and Japanese American National Museum.

Campus facilities house collections and partnerships with repositories including the Glenn S. Dumke Library, the San Francisco Public Library, the Ethnic Studies Library, the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA, the Japanese American National Museum, the Filipino American National Historical Society, the Chinese Historical Society of America, and oral history projects linked to Densho Project. Archives document events such as the 1968–69 San Francisco State strikes, internment under Executive Order 9066, immigration patterns following the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, and community campaigns against redlining and displacement in neighborhoods like Manilatown, Chinatown, San Francisco, Japantown, San Francisco, Tenderloin District, and SoMa.

The Program influenced the establishment of ethnic studies programs at institutions including University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, San Diego State University, University of Michigan, Stanford University, Harvard University, Cornell University, and spurred public history projects tied to landmarks like Manilatown Heritage Center. Alumni and faculty have become leaders in politics, law, and cultural production with links to figures and institutions such as Kamala Harris, Ed Lee, Norman Mineta, Patsy Mink, Grace Lee Boggs, Margaret Cho, Ali Wong, Joan Didion, and media entities including KQED, NPR, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle. The Program’s legacy continues through collaborations with civic bodies such as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, national initiatives like Smithsonian Institution partnerships, and pedagogical influence on curricula across the United States and Canada.