The Fight for Asian American Studies at Harvard Continues
January 25, 2008
Students say it’s not just about identity politics
At the end of last year, students at Harvard University once again found themselves campaigning for an Asian American studies program. And now, at the beginning of 2008, there has still not been much progress made.
While many would be surprised that such a prestigious and seemingly diverse institution — where Asian students make up roughly 18 percent of the student body — does not have such a program already, many consider this a continuation of struggles that began more than two decades ago.
In the 1980s, protests were organized on campus and hundreds of signatures were obtained for a petition pushing the administration to hire an Asian American professor. But no permanent professors were ever hired.
Today, there are only four Asian American courses at Harvard, and all of them are taught by the same visiting professor, Eric Tang, from the University of Illinois — who will be leaving next year. “It is not something that universities value. They don’t see it as essential to the core curriculum,” Tang told Diverse magazine.
Harvard’s faculty argues that, at the moment, there is neither enough funds nor student interest to justify a full concentration, or even a full-time professor, in Asian American studies.
The Harvard Asian American Association’s co-chair, senior Phoebe Zen, disagrees. “That’s one of the leading complaints that I hear about a program like Asian American studies, that it’s not popular enough among students,” Zen said. “I think that the problem with that is that there has to be a clear distinction made between a curriculum’s popularity and its inclusion in academia.”
Zen added that there are certain other concentrations and majors, like physics and the classics, where few students are enrolled, “but I think that few people would say that these programs are not important.
“Asian American studies is an increasingly blooming field, and it’s one that is interdisciplinary, so students can be fully equipped to analyze and employ critical thinking skills in a very complex world,” Zen continued. “So, again, it comes back to the idea of it being important in academia.”
Michael Liu, a founding member of the Asian American Resource Workshop in Boston, believes that funding is a “bull—-” excuse. “Harvard has a record endowment of 26 billion, with more money than it knows what to do with,” Liu said.
For the moment, the Asian American Association at Harvard plans to focus on developing an independent Asian American studies track within the existing East Asian studies program.
The university already has extensive programs in both African American and Latin American studies. “It is a big concentration here,” said Zen about African American studies. “We’ve had very prestigious professors in this concentration in the past, such as Cornel West. It’s very popular.”
But is Asian American studies an important and relevant area of academia, or more about identity and politics? What of the comparable ethnic studies courses at Harvard? A recent posting on a student Web site attempted to address these questions: “It seems like ethnic studies are dictated, in part, by market forces. Only if there is sufficient demand will ethnic studies be deemed ‘of value.’ … But maybe this view is inherently prejudiced. After all, it is the historical undervaluing of ethnic studies — and the history of minority communities in general — that has underscored the need for such studies in the first place.”
Harvard makes its diversity a selling point. But like many Ivy League universities, Harvard has traditionally been conservative about recognizing the historical and cultural contributions of Asian Americans.
Regardless of these obstacles, the students at Harvard are gaining support and momentum. They have established contact with other East Coast colleges, such as Hunter College, where Asian students are currently facing a similar situation, and Columbia University, where students won their struggle for a curriculum more than a decade ago. And the Harvard students are not likely to give up soon. “We think that Asian American studies is so important,” Zen said. “That’s why we are working so hard. We believe in this so much.”
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5 Responses to “The Fight for Asian American Studies at Harvard Continues”
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i got into harvard for undergradute but i didn’t go b/c i thought they did not treat asian american students right. we were just stereotypes. so, i went to columbia instead and found more opportunities at nyu, so i transferred there. keep working. harvard, like many PEOPLE, don’t see asian americans as having a ‘race card’ to pull - - like with the african american community, out of political correctness and white guilt, you must have african american studies but with asian americans… not really… which is model minority myth in action… keep fighting!
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I am looking at graduate programs in English literature for next year, and I was shocked to find that Harvard doesn’t have an Asian-American studies professor, let alone a program. I am planning to specialize in 20th century American and Asian-American, so I don’t think I’ll be applying to Harvard. That one of the most prestigious institutions in the nation does not prioritize the history and culture of Asian-Americans is disheartening. Other institutions–private and public schools–have been actively looking for faculty and working towards institutionalizing this young but dynamic field of study. Kudos to the Asian American Association for trying to get the university administration to wake up.
While it is disappointing that some institutions may not offer classes in Asian-American studies, it might come as a surprise that sometimes, the most critical people of Asian-American studies courses come from Asian/Asian-Americans themselves. Having taught a course in Asian-American literature, students have conflicting feelings about taking an Asian-American literature course either because they do not value it themselves or worse, find their parents dissuading them from enrolling in these courses because it will not be “helpful” to their success. While it does not surprise me that larger society may at times be ambivalent if not dismissive when it comes to emerging studies in ethnic studies, it does surprise me that ethnic groups themselves would play in to the dominant culture by undermining the classes that might serve to challenge ignorance, bigotry, and racism. Apart from addressing issues around hiring at universities, Asian/Asian-Americans should be asking themselves tough and exploratory questions about the dangers of self-hate.
Dennis Recio, SJ
English Department
University of San Francisco
I don’t think it’s accurate to dismiss Asian American ambivalence about ethnic studies as “self-hate.” A lot of the curriculum in modern Asian American Studies is problematic on many levels. I remember taking a class as an undergrad, and I was horrified to read many of the awful texts by David Henry Hwang and Maxine Hong Kingston that were somehow sold to us as empowerment. Hwang is a good example. Somehow we were expected to feel empowered by reading a story about an Asian guy dressing as a woman in order to get a white guy to marry him. Some might find that empowering; I certainly didn’t.
Anyway, I think it’s important to have Asian American Studies, but let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that having such classes means that we shouldn’t raise the standards of those classes. I’ve blogged about this issue here:
http://www.thefighting44s.com/archives/2008/01/27/the-fight-for-asian-american-studies/