Research Projects


Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) Policy Initiative
The UCLA Asian American Studies Center (AASC) launched its Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) Policy Initiative in the midst of the pandemic in 2021. We build on our long history as a recognized leader in Asian American Studies with a track record of excellence in applied policy research, publications, and leadership development. The aim of the AAPI Policy Initiative is to support and produce research in collaboration with nonprofit advocacy organizations and policy makers to uplift AAPI perspectives in civic life and public decision-making in California and across the nation. As a nonpartisan research entity housed under AASC, the AAPI Policy Initiative will conduct applied research, develop and disseminate research reports and policy briefs, collaborate with stakeholders in policy formulation, conduct implementation and policy evaluation, and facilitate engagement between stakeholders, policy makers, and government decision-makers. [more]
University of California Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy Multicampus Research Program (UC AAPI MRP)

Over 70 faculty across the University of California committed to improving the lives of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in California through applied policy research and collaboration. [more]

U.S./China Media Brief (2012)

"Understanding U.S.-China Relations through Mass Communication and Public Education"

To create, promote, and disseminate a more balanced understanding of the interrelationship of the countries, peoples, and cultures of the United States and China through the tools of mass communication and public education. [more]

Children of the Atomic Bomb
This website provides the who, what, and why of UCLA's involvement with the development of the atomic bomb and nuclear issue for over six decades. The consequences of the nuclear age -- and nuclear weapons -- on human beings and their environment is perhaps the greatest single threat to all of us today. The nuclear threat affects all nations -- among them, the U.S. and Russia, the two nations who possess the most weapons of mass destruction -- as well as those nations who do not. The University of California at Los Angeles -- its scientists, engineers, physicians, and laboratories -- has had a long-standing and unique involvement with the development of the nuclear bomb and of the Nuclear Age. [more]
UCLA Center for EthnoCommunications
EthnoCommunications was founded in 1996 as a national institution under the auspices of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center to utilize media and communications technologies to document, preserve, and highlight ethnic cultures and society.
UCLA Asian American Studies Center and the National Asian Pacific American Community Development Data Center (APACDDC)
The Center, in partnership with the National Coalition for Community Development, was selected as an official Census Information Center by the U.S. Bureau of the Census to analyze and advocate for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through the usage of quantitative data. Its research publications include the groundbreaking book, The New Face of Asian Pacific America: Numbers, Diversity, and Change in the 21st Century (edited by Eric Lai and Dennis Arguelles, published by the UCLA Asian American Studies Press in conjunction with the Organization of Chinese Americans, National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, and Asian Week). Through informative essays and hundreds of charts and photographs, this book is the first demographic analysis of recent census data on the Asian American and Pacific Islander population. [more]
National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac
As Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders become increasingly involved in the nation's politics at the local, state, and national levels, there is a need to document, update, and analyze their activities and chart their participation both qualitatively and quantitatively. Since 1976, Don T. Nakanishi and James Lai have annually produced the National Asian Pacific Political Almanac, the most comprehensive guide on Asian American and Pacific Islander politics. The almanac contains analytic essays and empirical data on AAPI political participation as well as a directory listing over 2,000 AAPI office-holders throughout the nation.