Even as a little girl, Dr. Nitasha Sharma aspired to become a college professor like her parents, whose careers let the family spend entire summers or longer in either her mother's native Brooklyn, New York, or her father's native India. She dreamed of long vacations as a grown-up and going home for lunch on weekdays. But during a stay in India…

When Dr. Chia Youyee Vang arrived at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee five years ago, numerous Hmong students along with community residents called for more courses specifically examining their life experiences. Now, her university offers a certificate in Hmong diaspora studies. It's part of a growing tide within Asian American studies--more…

This article describes the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Boston which complements students' career tracks and engages them in the surrounding Asian American community. For many educators, large numbers of graduates are not only a bragging right, but a goal. However, those involved in the Asian American…

Since its inception in 2000, Pan-Asian American Community House's (PAACH's) education mission has bridged Asian-American studies to student life. PAACH initiatives have helped spread Asian-American diaspora to thousands of students at the University of Pennsylvania. They have also helped students determine for themselves what it means to be a…

This article reports on the popularity of golf, which grew in Seoul after it held the 1988 Olympics, and the emergence and competitiveness of Korean golfers in which U.S. college coaches are now witnessing. According to Dr. Kyeyoung Park, an associate professor of anthropology and Asian American studies at the University of California, Los…

With the eyes of the world focused on the Olympic Games in Beijing, Dr. Yosay Wangdi, who's of Tibetan ancestry, expects to hear from colleagues again. She also expects her students to continue discussing Tibet's longstanding conflict with China, just as they did when news reports surfaced of a crackdown that sometimes turned violent against…

Ask the average person what comes to mind at the mention of the Black Panther Party (BPP). Odds are the answer involves armed African-Americans winding up in shootouts with police. Those images have overshadowed the Panthers' free breakfast programs, medical clinics and other efforts to improve poor Black neighborhoods in the late 1960s. Also…

The entire world saw the images of Black New Orleans residents left homeless, jobless and helpless by the arrival and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The pictures and stories dominated mainstream news outlets for weeks. What hasn't been widely publicized, however, are the Katrina-related ordeals of Vietnamese Americans, another socio-economically…