The young people who launched the field of Asian American studies in 1968 cherished a set of values that they believed should be nurtured by their education. For them, knowledge needed to be pertinent, beneficial, and accessible to their communities. They believed that education should serve as a fundamental building block of social justice.

IUB’s Asian American Studies Program (AAST) seeks to stay true to this original motivation through innovative and rigorous research, teaching, and service.

Our scholars, practitioners, and students approach the puzzles of inequity and injustice from a variety of disciplinary and intersectional perspectives, spanning the arts, humanities, and social and behavioral sciences. We address common contemporary issues, such as Asian immigration, community development, political empowerment, labor market status, gender and sexual relations, diasporic identities, cultural representations, and civil rights.