About the Major

Asian American Studies provides critical interdisciplinary perspectives on the various histories of contact, migration, and settlement of Asian groups in the United States. “Asian Americans” compose a diverse collection of diasporic communities and are becoming increasingly fractured along socioeconomic and geographic lines. In an era of U.S. global hegemony fueled by an increasing military and economic presence in the Pacific Rim, Asian American Studies plays a crucial role in analyzing and shaping economic, political, cultural, and international relations among Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the United States.

At UCR, Asian American students constitute 41 percent of the student body. Presently, this major has two ladder faculty, Professor Edward Chang, (an ethnicist), Assistant Professor Emily Hue (a cultural theorist trained in visual culture and performance studies), and Keith Miyake, (a critical geographer). The growing Asian enrollment and diversity within the Asian American student body and community at large requires hiring faculty who have a specialty in various East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, and Pacific Islander studies.

Faculty

Major Requirements

To earn a bachelor of arts in Asian American Studies you must take:

Core courses required of all majors

  1. Lower-division requirements (12 units)
    1. ETST 001
    2. ETST 005
    3. One chosen from ETST 002, ETST 003 or ETST 007
  1. Upper-division requirements (40 units)
    1. ETST 101A or ETST 101B
    2. ETST 100 or ETST 131
    3. ETST 106 and ETST 191R
    4. 16 additional upper-division units in ethnic studies chosen from courses focusing on the Asian American experience
    5. A minimum of one ethnic studies course chosen from two of the following four areas of emphasis (8 units)
      1. African American Studies
      2. Chicano Studies
      3. Native American Studies
      4. Comparative Issues

Note: no internship courses may be counted toward the upper-division electives in ethnic studies.

Minor Requirements

To minor consists in Asian American studies, you must take:

  1. Lower-division requirement (4 units): ETST 005
  2. Upper-division requirements: 20 additional upper-division units in ethnic studies chosen from courses focusing on Asian Americans
  3. Appropriate prerequisites as needed