Research
  • book cover
    Professor Emeritus Pallassana Balgopal Releases New Book
    AAS celebrates Professor Emeritus Pallassana Balgopal on his most recent publication: "Theory and Practice of Social Group Work in Indian Society." Dr. Balgopal is a beloved member of both the Department of Asian American Studies and the University of Illinois School of Social Work. He is an educator, researcher, and practitioner with more than sixty years of teaching, curriculum development,...
  • Medina by the Bay book cover
    Medina by the Bay: Scenes of Muslim Study and Survival
    Maryam Kashani  From the Black Power movement and state surveillance to Silicon Valley and gentrification, Medina by the Bay examines how multiracial Muslim communities in the San Francisco Bay Area survive and flourish within and against racial capitalist, carceral, and imperial logics. Weaving expansive histories, peoples, and geographies together in an...
  • A book cover with a yellow and red background. Red and black text reads "With Stones in Our Hands: Writings on Muslims, Racism, and Empire." Editors: Junaid Rana and Souhail Daulatzai
    With Stones in Our Hands: Writings on Muslims, Racism, and Empire
    Junaid Rana After September 11, 2001, the global War on Terror has made clear that Islam and Muslims are central to an imperial system of racism. Prior to 9/11, white supremacy had a violent relationship of dominance with Islam and Muslims. Racism against Muslims today borrows from centuries of white supremacy and is a powerful and effective tool to maintain the status quo....
  • A book cover featuring a photo of a woman carrying a book under her arm. Only the lower half of her face is visible. Text overlaid on the book reads "The Intimate University." Author Nancy Abelmann. A subtitle along the bottom reads "Korean American Students and the Problems of Segregation"
    The Intimate University: Korean American Students and the Problems of Segregation
    Nancy Abelmann The majority of the 30,000-plus undergraduates at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign—including the large population of Korean American students—come from nearby metropolitan Chicago. Among the campus’s largest non-white ethnicities, Korean American students arrive at college hoping to realize the liberal ideals of the modern American university, in which...
  • A book cover featuring a still from a black-and-white film. A woman rests her head against a man's shoulder. His hand is on her hair, as if to comfort her. The image is overlaid with calligraphic characters and colored blue. Text reads: "South Korean Golden Age Melodrama: Gender, Genre, and National Cinema." Editors Kathleen McHugh and Nancy Abelmann.
    South Korean Golden Age Melodrama: Gender, Genre, and National Cinema
    Kathleen McHugh | Nancy Abelmann Immediately following the Korean War, South Korea’s film industry flourished with vibrant local production of high-quality films. Characterized by its stunning melodramas, this "Golden Age" of South Korean cinema produced a body of work as historically, aesthetically, and politically significant as that of other well-known national film movements...
  • A book cover featuring a purple background. Overlaid in lighter purple is a block print-style illustration of a flower. Text reads: "Five Faces of Exile: The Nation and Filipino American Intellectuals." Author Augusto Fauni Espiritu.
    Five Faces of Exile: The Nation and Filipino American Intellectuals
    Augusto Fauni Espiritu Colonialism and empire have rarely been seen from the perspectives and experiences of the colonized. Five Faces of Exile addresses this gap by exploring a wide range of perspectives on colonial, anti-colonial, and postcolonial developments. More specifically, it explores American empire in the...
  • A book cover featuring a black and white photo of a crowd seen from above. A motion blur gives the image the impression of hasty movement. A red field is below. Text reads "Transnational South Asians: The Making of a Neo-Diaspora." Editors Susan Koshy and R. Radhakrishnan.
    Transnational South Asians: The Making of a Neo-Diaspora
    Susan Koshy | R. Radhakrishnan Transnational South Asians examines the interrelationship between South Asian diaspora and globalization. It shows how the international division of labor has been redrawn by labor migrations from South Asia, how...
  • A yellow, white, green, and red book cover. A collage of abstract images and the lower half of a woman's face on the right side. Title reads "Sexual Naturalization: Asian Americans and Miscegenation." Author Susan Koshy.
    Sexual Naturalization: Asian Americans and Miscegenation
    Susan Koshy Sexual Naturalization offers compelling new insights into the racialized constitution of American nationality. In the first major interdisciplinary study of Asian-white miscegenation from the late nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century, Koshy traces the shifting gender and racial hierarchies...
  • A black and white book cover. Two stylized, silhouetted figures stand between twisting pillars. The figure on the left appears to be trapped in the tight space, while the figure on the right is dancing. Text reads: "Imperial Blues: Geographies of Race and Sex in Jazz Age New York" Author Fiona I.B. Ngo.
    Imperial Blues: Geographies of Race and Sex in Jazz Age New York
    Fiona I. B. Ngô In this pathbreaking study, Fiona I. B. Ngô examines how geographies of U.S. empire were perceived and enacted during the 1920s and 1930s. Focusing on New York during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Ngô traces the city's multiple circuits of jazz music and culture. In considering this cosmopolitan milieu, where immigrants from the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto...
  • A book cover featuring a black and white photo of several Japanese children leaning out a window, their hands outstretched in the two-fingered sign for either victory or peace. One holds an American flag. Text in cursive-primer print reads: "Wherever I Go, I Will Always Be a Loyal American: Seattle's Japanese American Schoolchildren During World War II." Author Yoon K. Pak.
    Wherever I Go, I Will Always Be a Loyal American: Schooling Seattle's Japanese Americans during World War II
    Yoon K. Pak Wherever I Go, I Will Always Be a Loyal American is the story of how the Seattle public schools responded to the news of its Japanese American (Nisei) students' internment upon the signing of Executive Order...