The centerpiece of the Asian American Studies Program's curriculum is its undergraduate minor. Open to all undergraduates throughout Cornell University, the minor affords students an opportunity to develop an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Asians in the hemispheric Americas.
Our award-winning faculty knows that what our students do in the lecture hall and the seminar room is inextricably linked to the world beyond. What students learn about cultural practice and community formation, racism and white supremacy, political struggle and social justice – whether in theoretical terms or in everyday practice, whether through literature or anthropology or cultural studies or history – forms a frame for not only how they see the world but how they engage with it.
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I had never thought that a field like Asian American Studies could even be remotely connected to my interests or my struggles. After all, I was just a Mexican/Puerto Rican kid from Chicago. But then I took Intro to Asian American Studies the spring of my freshman year . . . I learned about Yuri Kochiyama fighting alongside Malcolm X and the Puerto Rican Young Lords. I learned about Larry Itliong's work with the United Farm Workers and Cesar Chavez. I realized that the struggles I viewed as so separate from my own were actually intimately connected.
— Barbara Cruz ‘19
"Book of the Week” series (#BOTW)
Originally designed by program manager Alexis Boyce to promote the Asian American Studies Resource Center, AASP student employees post weekly blurbs of books chosen from the resource center’s collection. “It’s a way for the students to retain a sense of continuity and stay connected to each other,” said AASP director and associate professor, Christine Bacareza Balance.
“Social and cultural historians are calling for us to document what it means to be living in this moment right now,” said Balance. “I think of these posts in that tradition.”
