The AAADS Program

The Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies (AAADS) Program, one of the programs under the Department of Ethnic Studies, is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of historical and contemporary experiences of Asian-ancestry groups in local, national, and global contexts. Asian American is a pan-ethnic term designating a racialized population made up of various groups of Asian ancestry, and encompassing both the foreign-born and the U.S.-born.

As initially constituted as a component of the emergent field of ethnic studies in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Asian American Studies program centered on domestic U.S. concerns. It continues to be part of a national activist effort to increase the political, economic and cultural representation of people of color in American life, more specifically, to improve the educational relevance and ethnic diversity of institutions of higher learning. However, the Asian American Studies program has also been responsive to the shifting geopolitical, economic and sociocultural forces most conveniently summed up by the term globalization, and is now increasingly attentive to issues of transnationality and diaspora while retaining its original commitment to community empowerment.

Reflecting the collective strengths of our faculty, our curriculum offers students a deeper understanding of the histories and contemporary realities of the different ethnic groups that comprise the “Asian American” category. Through classroom-based and experiential learning, our students engage with critical issues such as labor, migration, health, representation and cultural production, education, religion, class, gender, generation, law, public policy, and social activism.

Mission

The AAADSP is committed to expanding and enriching the intellectual fabric of the entire academy by contributing to:

  1. the critical understanding of the rich and complex histories and experiences of Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander ancestry;
  2. the framing of this knowledge and understanding within larger intellectual inquiries regarding race and ethnicity in national and global contexts;
  3. the development of critical thinking and innovative learning through a socially engaged research and teaching curriculum;
  4. the promotion of comparative, multi- and inter disciplinary approaches to the study of the historical and contemporary experiences of Asian Americans in local, national, and global contexts;
  5. the strengthening of relationship between the university and the community by fusing academic learning with community engagement.

Location:

Department of Ethnic Studies

506 Social Sciences Building

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA 94720-2570

Questions about AAADS: umk@berkeley.edu

Questions about CAACH: pach@berkeley.edu

General class / enrollment questions: deweystg@berkeley.edu

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