By Ji Hyun Lim
From the late 1960s, when Asian American studies programs were a fledgling interdisciplinary field at Bay Area universities, to the late ’90s when University of Texas students protested for a program, the struggle to institutionalize the study of the Asian Pacific Islander American community has swept across the nation.
Currently, there are at least 43 undergraduate Asian American studies programs around the country and APIA students represent the largest minority group at many schools, with 23 percent at Stanford University and up to 30 percent at some of the University of California campuses.
Mia Carter, interim director of the Asian American studies program at the University of Texas, Austin (UT) said that because of high numbers of APIAs at the university — some 21 percent of the school’s population — and the demand for Asian American studies courses by the students, UT began its program two years ago.
Students struggled to get it implemented. Three years ago, they organized a sit-in at the Tower, where UT administration is housed. Ten students were arrested. The protestors claimed that the growing APIA population would play a significant role in the cultures and institutions of Texas and UT should accommodate Asian Americans students with a specialized program. The 10 who were arrested, called the UT10, were able to put enough pressure on administration to have a program available a year later.
UT10’s legacy still lives on. AARG! (Asian Americans Relations Group) is the larger organization that eventually developed on UT’s campus. As powerful role models, UT10 held committee meetings and encouraged students to become involved with the development of the program.
UT now joins the likes of campuses such as U.C. Berkeley and UCLA, which have had programs for over 30 years. Elaine Kim, professor and dean in the graduate division of ethnic studies at U.C. Berkeley was one of the founders of the Asian American studies program there. She came as a graduate student in 1969 and taught one of the first Asian American studies classes as a teacher’s assistant. With a scarcity of books and materials, Kim and her colleagues attempted to fuse various traditional disciplines to develop a cross-disciplinary field. The program has grown to 200 students in introduction classes, 60 people in upper division and 20 people in seminar classes.
UCLA’s Asian American studies center was established 1968-69 and the teaching program began in 1978. Like U.C. Berkeley, some of the first instructors of Asian American studies were graduate students. Now, the campus has 40 faculty members in various disciplines who are attached to the Asian American studies center. UCLA is one of the few schools with a master’s program as well.
Assistant Director of the Asian American Studies Center Dennis Arguelles pointed out that Asian American studies is a distinct field. However, more and more East Asian studies scholars are crossing over to fields such as Asian America studies.
“There is a connection between the two,” Arguelles said. “Right now, it’s key that the general public, as well as the Asian Americans, have an understanding of the history and the unique experiences of Asians.”
Arguelles said that San Francisco State began the first ethnic studies program in 1969 as a reaction to student demands. During that time, students of color including African Americans, Latinos, Asian Pacific Islander Americans and Native Americans united and protested to establish ethnic studies programs. Like UT, these programs were born from student pressure.
Arguelles, who took Asian American studies courses as a undergraduate and graduate student said that his classes helped prepare him to understand how he could support and give back to the community.
“It does prepare you for non-profit and community organizing,” Arguelles said. “It also helps prepare you for jobs in the mainstream. A lot of the graduates in the master’s program go on to Ph.D programs in history, sociology, economics, public health, and they eventually become professors in these specialized fields.”
Murtaza Sutarwalla was one of the first to declare Asian American studies as his major at University of Texas. He intends to pursue law.
“It will be a good background to deal with ethnic issues, second generation immigration communities and how we need to establish ourselves in America,” Sutarwalla said. He added, “If there’s going to be a pan-Asian movement in America, you’re going to have to understand every ethnic group.”
Sarah Park, a UCLA senior and Asian American studies major, plans to use her degree to teach ethnic studies at high school level. Currently, there are less 10 high schools in the California that offer Asian American classes. Park claims many younger students are petitioning to implement ethnic or Asian American studies programs in their schools.
Elaine Kim agrees there needs to be more Asian American studies in the high school level.
“I think we need to do more to better prepare students to be high school teachers,” Kim said. “Right now, we’re gearing the education toward the graduate program and the graduate program is musty scholarship that is being taught at some university rather than kind of work that needs to be offered through grades K-12.”
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