"35 Notable Accomplishments and Milestones for Asian American Studies at UCLA"

During the past 35 years, with the founding of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center in 1969, thousands of students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, donors, community leaders, and friends contributed to the development of Asian American Studies at UCLA. Collectively, we have:

TEACHING PROGRAM: Developed the largest Asian American Studies teaching program in the nation, offering over 70 undergraduate and graduate classes annually with enrollments over 3,000, along with B.A., undergraduate minor, and M.A. degrees. This Interdepartmental Degree Program was elevated to the status of a full-fledged department at UCLA in August, 2004.Along with the Center, there is now a Department of Asian American Studies.

AMERASIA JOURNAL: Since 1971, produced Amerasia Journal , the leading multidisciplinary scholarly journal in Asian American Studies that has published over 30,000 pages of scholarly and creative writing by a "Who's Who" of Asian American Studies and Asian Pacific America.

RESEARCH FACULTY: Recruited and supported the largest faculty in Asian American Studies in the nation, with nearly forty professors from over twenty UCLA departments and professional schools from history to film and from English to public health, who do research, teaching, and professional service in Asian American Studies. Professor Lucy San Pablo Burns, who will be an Assistant Professor in World Arts and Cultures and Asian American Studies, is our newest faculty member. She specializes in Filipino American and Asian American theater and performance studies.

ROOTS: Produced Roots: An Asian American Reader in 1971, which was the first of over 200 books that the UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press has produced in the past 35 years. Our Roots was the standard textbook for Asian American Studies courses throughout the nation for many years, and went through twelve printings, and sold over 50,000 copies.

GRADUATE TRAINING: Made UCLA one of two major institutions for the graduate training of scholars for the field of Asian American Studies, and annually produced more M.A. theses and doctoral dissertations on Asian American Studies topics than any university. UCLA alumni are professors and directors of Asian American Studies programs throughout the nation.

JAPANESE AMERICAN RESEARCH PROJECT: Supported the development of the Japanese American Research Project Collection, which under the leadership of the late Professor Yuji Ichioka, has become the largest and most significant archive on Japanese Americans in the world. In recognition of Professor Ichioka's indispensable leadership and commitment, the University Library renamed the collection the JARP-Yuji Ichioka Collection in 2004.

DIVERSITY: Offered the nation's first classes on the experiences of Cambodian Americans, Hmong Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Thai Americans, Gay and Lesbian Asian Pacific Islanders and other communities that are part of the vibrant diversity of today's Asian Pacific America.

COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP: Applauded and supported the bold vision and commitment of many of the Center's founders and early supporters as they provided leadership in establishing many of the leading organizations in the nation from Visual Communications to the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

PUBLIC POLICY: Released major public policy reports on the most compelling issues facing Asian Pacific Americans, with Professor Paul Ong as the research director and in collaboration with LEAP, that were featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, CNN, Time, Newsweek, Far Eastern Economic Review, and other media across the nation and around the world.

ACADEMIC CHAIRS: Established the first academic chair in Asian American Studies in all of American higher education - focusing on Japanese American Studies and currently occupied by Professor Robert Nakamura -- through the generosity of Japanese American alumni and friends in the late 1970s. In recent years, two additional academic chairs - the Korea Times- Hankook Ilbo Chair in Korean American Studies and the George and Sakaye Aratani Chair on the Japanese American Internment, Redress, and Community - have also been endowed and they also are the first academic chairs of their kind.

WEB SITE: Developed an award-winning web site - in the top 5% according to Lycos - that serves as a gateway to information, events and resources in Asian American Studies at the Center. Check it out at: www.sscnet.ucla.edu/aasc.

ARCHIVES: Acquired a number of significant personal and organizational archives such as those of the East-West Players, the oldest Asian Pacific American theater company; the Steve Louie Asian American Movement Collection; the personal papers of renowned human rights activist Yuri Kochiyma; the Korean American Research Project Collection, the professional papers of writer and playwright Wakako Yamauchi, the video and film archive of Curtis Choy; the Anti-Martial law movement Collection, the Kazu Iijima Movement Papers, the Fred T. Korematsu Coram Nobis Litigtation Collection; and the Aiko and Jack Herzig Collection.

THE NEW FACE OF ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICA: EXAMINING DIVERSITY, GROWTH, AND ISSUES THROUGH NUMBERS: The Center, in partnership with the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (NCAPACD), was selected as an official Census Information Center by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and has sought to analyze and advocate for Asian Pacific Americans and Pacific Islanders through the use of census and other quantitative data. In working with NCAPAC, Asianweek, and the Organization of Chinese Americans, it produced the path-breaking book, The New Face of Asian Pacific America: Numbers, Diversity, and Chang in the 21st Century.

OUTREACH & TRAINING: Trained a number of remarkable individuals through our M.A. Program - since its establishment in 1976 as the first graduate program in Asian American Studies -- who have made contributions to an array of fields like Professor Masako Notoji, Professor of American Studies at the University of Tokyo; Teresa Williams-Leon, Chair of Asian American Studies at CSU Northridge; political and cultural writer Jeff Chang; labor organizer John Delorro; muralists Darryl Mar and Tony Osumi; and many others.

CENTER FOR ETHNOCOMMUNICATIONS: Established the Center for EthnoCommunications, which under the leadership of Professor Robert Nakamura, has sought to document and share the Asian Pacific American community through the use of video and other new multi-media technology. A number of award-winning educational films like "Once Upon A Camp" have been produced by the staff and students of the Center, and a Downtown Media Center has been established with the Little Tokyo Service Center. "EthnoCom" has also been replicated at a number of colleges nationwide.

AAPI NEXUS. In 2003, the Center Press, with Professor Paul Ong serving as senior editor, launched AAPI Nexus: Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy, Practice, and Community to address major issues facing Asian American and Pacific Islander communities through community-based public policy and practice-oriented research. The first three issues of AAPI Nexus focused on community development, civil rights, and voting.

PACIFC TIES: Marveled at the outstanding journalism of Pacific Ties, UCLA's student-produced Asian and Pacific Islander newsmagazine, which is nearing its 30th anniversary year and is the nation's oldest Asian Pacific American student publication.

HEALTH DISPARITIES AND INCREASING COMMUNITY AWARENESS: Professors Roshan Bastani, Marjorie Kagawa-Singer and Ninez Ponce of the School of Public Health - all members of the Center's Faculty Advisory Committee - are at the forefront of research and public outreach focusing on the high incidence of breast and cervical cancer among Asian American and Pacific islander women and the need to collect and analyze ethnic specific health data.

GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS: Took pride in the fact that UCLA faculty, graduate students, and alumni received more research grants and national fellowships from the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund than any other institution in the country.

CD-ROM: Developed (with Primary Sources of Connecticut) the first CD-ROM on the Asian Pacific American Experience.

STUDENT-COMMUNITY PROJECTS: Encouraged our students throughout the past 35 years to pursue one of our Center's founding principles of working for the betterment of our communities through volunteer activities, internships, and independent/field studies projects. The Center's Student-Community Projects unit has been a pioneer in the development of community-based leadership training for our students, which has been replicated by other institutions across the country.

ELECTORAL POLITICS: Discovered through research by Professor Don Nakanishi that Asian Pacific Americans have unexpectedly low voter registration rates and non-bloc political party affiliations, which led to voter registration and education campaigns in Asian Pacific American communities nationwide. The Center has also worked closely with the Asian Pacific Institute for Congressional Studies in Washington, D.C. and CAUSE of Southern California in training Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to seek public office.

ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES AS GLOBAL STUDIES. The historical and contemporary experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are of increasing interest to scholars, students, writers, policy-makers, journalists, and others throughout the world. The faculty, staff, and students of the Center continue to be involved in a variety of mutually-beneficial projects, activities, and partnerships with their counterparts at institutions or organizations throughout the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, Europe, Australia, and other parts of the world. Among many other collaborations, Professor Henry Yu, who holds tenured faculty positions at both UCLA and the University of British Columbia, is providing leadership in building a joint Center for Pacific Migration involving the UBC and our Center, while Professor Clara Chu heads an extensive Asians in America research network.

JOINT M.A. PROGRAMS: Developed joint M.A. programs with UCLA's School of Public Health and Department of Social Welfare, with plans to develop additional joint degrees with Library and Information Studies, Law, Urban Planning, and Education.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES/NEW RACE RELATIONS/NEW RESEARCH: Center Professors Jerry Kang ("Cyberrace") and Rachel Lee (The Net and Asian Americans) have been at the forefront in understanding how Asian Americans and the nation's race and ethnic relations have been impacted in new - as well as long-prevalent - ways by innovations in communications technology like the internet.

UCLA ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES CENTER PRESS: Co-Produced (with Visual Communications) the landmark publication on the explosive growth and accomplishments of filmmaking by Asian Pacific Americans, Moving The Image: Independent Asian Pacific American Media Arts. The Center Press has also published a number of other path-breaking 'first" books for the field of Asian American Studies, including those on Asian American sexualities, war and peace, the memoirs of Yuri Kochiyama, and the essays of Angela Oh. The Center Press also has jointly publishes an Asian American series with the University of Hawaii Press.

ENDOWMENTS: Benefited tremendously from the unrivaled generosity of our alumni, corporations, and friends of the Center in building an endowment of over $4 million in scholarships and fellowships for our students; research support for our faculty; funds for lecture series; and an academic chair. A $5 million endowment campaign is currently underway.

ALUMNI: Took enormous pride in the contributions that alumni who took Asian American Studies classes when they were UCLA undergraduates have made to the Southern California area and nationwide like Stewart Kwoh, Executive Director, Asian Pacific American Legal Center; Angela Oh, member of President Bill Clinton's Initiative on Race; Morgan Chu, Managing Partner at Irell and Manella; Dolly Gee, nominee for a federal judgeship; Joel Jacinto, Executive Director of SIPA of Los Angeles; Johng Ho Song, Executive Director of the Korean Youth and Community Center; ABC School Board member Mark Pulido, among many, many others.

BOOK AWARDS: Saw our Center's faculty, staff, and students gain countless accolades, including outstanding book awards from the Association of Asian American Studies, American Sociological Association, American Book Award, Los Angeles Times Book competition, PEN, and others; "best" professor of the year teaching honors; and appointments to presidential commissions and their election to lead major professional associations.

HIGHER EDUCATION: Worked with groups and leaders on campus and in the community to be at the forefront of many of the most significant policy issues facing Asian Pacific Americans in higher education during the past three decades, including the controversies over potential admissions quotas against Asian Pacific American applicants, tenure for Asian American Studies faculty, affirmative action, and curricular reform.

POST-DOCTORAL TRAINING: Provided postdoctoral fellowship training and opportunities for scholars across the nation and world, who have contributed significantly to the field of Asian American Studies like Dana Takagi, Sucheng Chan, Lane Hirabayashi, David Yoo, Steffi SanBuenavantura, just to name a few.

CURRICULUM INNOVATION: Been enriched by the stellar talents and expertise of our community-based leaders, journalists, artists, and educators who have taught many innovative and popular classes like Asian American theater by the late Nobu McCarthy, the Pilipino American Experience by the late "Uncle Roy" Morales, Asian Americans and Law by Stewart Kwoh and Kent Wong, the Vietnamese American Experience by Dr. Duong Pham, Asian American social movements by Glenn Omatsu, Politics, media, and race by Tritia Toyota, Investigative Journalism and Third World Community by K.W. Lee, and Race in American Life by Angela Oh, among others.

LIBRARY: Throughout 35 years, developed one of the two major libraries specializing in Asian American Studies, with a multi-disciplinary collection of books, serials, reports, newspapers, community newsletters and directories, bibliographies, archival collections, videos, and multimedia materials on the Asian American experience. Come visit the Asian American Studies Center's Reading Room at 2230 Campbell Hall.

ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN COMMUNITY DIRECTORY: Annually produced the Asian Pacific American Community Directory (an annotated listing of over 900 Asian Pacific organizations, social services agencies, and media in Southern California) and the National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac (a national directory of Asian Pacific American elected and major appointed officials, and the most current research on Asian American politics).

AMERASIA JOURNAL: Created and maintained the Amerasia Journal Cumulative Bibliography, the first-ever electronic bibliographic database of all books, articles, reports, and other materials published annually on Asian Pacific Americans, which now has over 30,000 references.

HAND-IN-HAND WITH THE COMMUNITY: Since 1969, the Center has pursued one of its major founding goals of maintaining an array of significant, mutually beneficial joint projects and programs with social service agencies, civil rights groups, museums and arts institutions, and educational organizations in Southern California and across the nation. In order for both the Asian American Studies Center and the new Department of Asian American Studies to further develop and thrive it will maintain and expand on its legacy of working hand-in-hand with the community.