CrossCurrents: Newsmagazine of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center

Edition: Volume 29, Number 1, 2005/2006
Download the CrossCurrents PDF for full articles.

What's News?

• George and Sakaye Aratani Pledge $1 Million Community Advancement Research Endowment at the Center
  George and Sakaye Aratani, who have endowed an academic chair, graduate fellowships, and an undergraduate internship at the Asian American Studies Center, recently pledged $1 million to establish the George and Sakaye Aratani Community Advancement Research Endowment. The endowment will support community-based research and other activities, in perpetuity, by UCLA faculty, staff and graduate and undergraduate students that will benefit and advance the Japanese American community and strengthen the ties between them and the Japanese American community.
• Lane Hirabayashi Joins Center and Department as Aratani Professor
  Professor Lane Ryo Hirabayashi has been appointed as the first George and Sakaye Aratani Professor of the Japanese American Internment, Redress, and Community. The endowed chair is the first and only one of its kind in American higher education. It supports the activities of a renowned scholar, specializing in research and teaching about the unjust incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese from the Americas during World War II, their subsequent postwar campaign to seek redress and a national apology, as well as in the issues, challenges, and trends of the Japanese American community.
• Melany Dela Cruz-Viesca Selected as New Assistant Director of Center
  Melany Dela Cruz-Viesca is the new Assistant Director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. A graduate of UC San Diego and UCLA, she has been since 2002 the coordinator of the Center ’s Census Information Center, a joint partnership with the National Coalition of Asian Pacific American Community Development (CAPACD) and the U.S. Census Bureau. She also serves as managing editor of AAPI Nexus: Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy, Practice, and Community.
• Professor Harry H.L. Kitano Endowment Established
  Hundreds of friends, former students, colleagues, and admirers of the late Professor Harry H.L. Kitano from across the country have generously donated to establish an endowment in his name to support UCLA undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in Asian American Studies. The endowment will be administered by the Center, and annually will support a graduate research fellowship, along with undergraduate and graduate academic prizes.
• Enrique Delacruz, Sr. and Eleazar Abarquez Endowment for Filipino American Studies Established
  Long-time Center supporters and community leaders, Professor Enrique Delacruz and Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz, have established an endowment in the names of their fathers to support research on Filipinos and Filipino Americans. The endowment will support (1) the archival preservation of the Filipino American experience in the United States, particularly progressive community building and (2) the Filipino American Library Collection at UCLA.
• Valerie Matsumoto First Recipient of AAS Distinguished Teaching Prize
  Chiyoko Doris (UCLA alumna, 1934) and the late Toshio Hoshide, of Rockville, Maryland, have established an
  endowment at the Center to recognize outstanding teaching in Asian American Studies among the faculty of the Center’s Faculty Advisory Committee and the department. Doris Hoshide was one of the founders of the Chi Alpha Delta sorority, the oldest Asian American sorority in the nation, and taught elementary school in a concentration camp during World War II. She and her late husband, Toshio, worked for the federal government in Washington, DC after the war, and were active in Asian American affairs in the region. They have been strong supporters of Asian American Studies at UCLA, and have also endowed two undergraduate scholarships.
• Professor Keith Camacho Joins AAS Department
  Dr. Keith Camacho has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the department, effective July 1, 2006. Professor Camacho, who was an Assistant Professor at the University of Guam, received his PhD in History and
  his MA in Pacific Islands Studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He received his BA from the University of Guam. Before joining the UCLA faculty, he will spend six months as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
• Angela Oh and J.D. Hokoyama Selected As UC Regents Professor and Lecturer
  Nationally renowned civil rights attorney Angela Oh was appointed as a UC Regents Professor with the Asian American Studies Department in Fall 2005. A UCLA alumna, she taught two undergraduate classes on race relations and leadership development during her quarter-long teaching appointment. Oh is the author of Open: One Woman’s Journey (UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 2002).
• The Late Yuji Ichioka Honored, New Book Published
  The posthumous publication of Before Internment: Essays in Prewar Japanese American History (Stanford University Press, 2006), by the late Professor Yuji Ichioka, inspired several celebratory events and remembrances. Professor Ichioka was a pioneer in developing the fields of Japanese American and Asian American Studies through his historical writings, teaching, archival collecting, and social activism. This new book is a collection of essays focusing on Japanese Americans during the interwar years. It explores such issues as the Nisei (American-born generation) relationship toward Japan, Japanese American attitudes toward Japan’s prewar expansionism in Asia, and the meaning of “loyalty” in a racist society—all controversial but central issues in Japanese American history. Ichioka draws from original sources in Japanese and English to offer an unrivaled picture of Japanese Americans in these years.
• MA Class of 2007—From the Valley and Beyond
  From China, Florida, Northridge and beyond, the MA in Asian American Studies Class of 2007 comes to the program with their knowledge and experiences in the classroom and the community.

More News...

• Grace Hong Releases New Book
• Marjorie Kagawa-Singer Promoted to Full Professor
• Shu-mei Shih Promoted to Full Professor
• George Sanchez 2005-2006 IAC Postdoc Fellow
• Min Zhou Receives Book Award
• Henry Yu Named One of Top Young Historians
• Nakanishi Co-Chair of Nielsen Council
• Professors King-Kok Cheung and Vinay Lal Selected as EAP Directors
• Remembering Center Visiting Scholar, Masumi Hayashi
• Rolfe Hall Home to AAS Department
• Author Gary Pak Gives Talk on Writing
• Chaplain James Yusuf Yee Book Talk
• Center Organizes Policy Workshop
• UC AAPI Initiative Established
• A Night to Remember: Filipino Legacy Fund Benefit Dinner
• Center Holds Talks on Filipino Labor, Organizing, and Cinema
• CSW Workshops Feature AAS Faculty
• Center Hosts Entertainment Industry Career Forum
• Filipino Studies from Japan Symposium
• Michael Omi Discusses Racial Profiling
• Biju Matthew Talk on Taxi Organizing
• Heart Mountain Draft Resisters Event
• Asian American Writers Congress
• Three MA Alums Receive Tenure
• Department Commencement Highlights
• Dr. Tritia Toyota Joins Center for Research and Special Projects
• Marjorie Lee of Center Library and Reading Room Appointed Librarian
• Center Releases National Study on Asian American Homeownership
• EthnoCom Receives Three Grants
• Celisse Sauceda Joins Department as Administrative Assistant
• New Issues of AAPI Nexus
• Recent Publications from Amerasia Journal

Browse through our archives of CrossCurrents: Newmagazine of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center for all the news and features from the Center.