CALL FOR PAPERS OPEN FOR 2026! 

 

About Us
The Asian American Research Journal (AARJ), co-sponsored by the Asian American Research Center (AARC) and the Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies (AAADS) Program at UC Berkeley, is a platform for research and scholarly work that centers Asian American experiences, identities, and communities. The AARJ is published annually with the intent to uplift and empower students while expanding dialogue and knowledge surrounding Asian American histories, cultures, and lived realities. We are especially committed to amplifying voices, perspectives, and topics that have historically been underrepresented or excluded from academic spaces. 

 

Volume VI: Bodies of Belonging

This theme invites contributors to explore how embodiment shapes experiences of belonging, exclusion, and identity in Asian American contexts. We welcome interdisciplinary work that considers the body as a site of culture, politics, history, and resistance; as well as a site where health, biology, environment, and social condition intersect. Topics may include (but are not limited to) health and illness, disability, mental health, aging, reproductive justice, genetic and intergenerational factors, gender, sexuality, labor, migration, incarceration, surveillance, environmental exposure, and community care. How are certain bodies made visible or invisible, protected or neglected, valued, or marginalized? How do policies, institutions, and cultural norms shape physical and mental health outcomes, risk, and access to care? How do migration histories, diasporic movement, and structural inequality become embodied across generations? We especially encourage work that highlights experiences, communities, and forms of knowledge that have historically been overlooked or excluded from academic research, and that challenges dominant assumptions about whose bodies and lives are considered worthy of care, protection, and belonging. 

 

Submission Topics: 

Agriculture, city planning, diasporic studies, demography, economics, education, environmental justice, family, food studies, ethnicity and race, gender and sexuality, genetic ancestry, history and politics, identity, intersectionality, law, linguistics, literary/visual representations, media and pop culture, public health, psychology, religion, science and technology, social justice, sociology. 

 

Submission Criteria: 

• We are accepting research papers and academic essays from all academic disciplines that meaningfully engages with Asian American experiences
• Submissions must be authored by current UC Berkeley undergraduates and graduate students, or a UC Berkeley alumni who completed their degree within the past four years with research conducted through a UC Berkeley-affiliated lab or organization
• A full manuscript is not required for initial review. Please submit an abstract (350-450 words) that clearly summarizes your research question or argument, methodology or approach, key findings, and the broader discussion, contributions, or scope of the project.
• We do not accept previously published work, but do allow simultaneous submissions.

More information can be found at the submission link, for further questions please reach out to harnoorgill@berkeley.edu