Chien Wen Kung's argument (The Dartmouth, Jan. 31, 2002, "Thoughts on Ethnic Studies") focuses not on the legitimacy of Asian American Studies (AAS), but on the repercussions of granting institutional support through a major or program. According to Kung, the establishment of AAS as a structured academic option would encourage students to limit their "intellectual horizons" by focusing on their own specific ethnic group. He goes on to argue that institutional support for an AAS program would unleash a wave of student demands for their own "pet program[s]."
Kung's characterization of AAS as a "pet program" could not be farther from the truth. AAS is a legitimate academic field recognized through institutional commitments of approximately 40 colleges and universities nationwide. Among the other Ivy League schools, Brown and U. Penn both have AAS programs, while Cornell offers a full department.
By integrating the Asian-American experience into the broader academic curriculum, AAS creates a new lens for critically reinterpreting society and the "truths" purported by traditional readings of history. Rather than limiting the "intellectual horizons" of students, AAS sponsors new perspectives on a host of other subjects. Landmark events in American identity-formation and history such as the Westward Expansion, World War II and the civil rights movement take on new meanings when the impact and influence of Asian-Americans are examined. For example, the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad would not have been possible without the toils and hardships of Chinese-American laborers in the 1800s. World War II as the quintessential moral victory in the 20th century loses some of its glamour when we recall the internment of Japanese-Americans at home. The civil rights movement of the '60s, one of the defining moments in the pursuit of racial equality, cannot be fully understood without acknowledging Asian-American efforts like the Yellow Power Movement.
AAS not only reinforces the identity of Asian-Americans, it also reexamines the identity of the American people as a whole -- who we all are -- and portrays a more complete composite of the contributions of different groups to the creation of an American identity. Like other Ethnic and Gender studies, AAS engages the issues surrounding the intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality and the roles they play in identity formation and marginalization in American society.
The course offerings at Dartmouth are woefully inadequate for a thorough examination of Asian-American issues. In the eyes of Kung, four nonpermanent courses supplemented by guest lectures and one cross-cultural journal sufficiently represent AAS at Dartmouth. His argument is akin to suggesting that a student interested in psychology should be intellectually fulfilled by Psych 1 and a trip to the lab. Just as the field of mathematics encompasses more than the study of multivariable calculus, AAS is a multifaceted academic field involving a broad spectrum of topics. AAS is not just the history of a people, but also their psychology, sociology, arts, literature and politics. Kung's other observation: that "there is nothing preventing the enterprising undergraduate from constructing his own AAS major" is impossible given that there exist only four suitable courses to construct a major of "10 or so courses."
Furthermore, although the addition of AAS classes into disparate departments are a part of our goals, these additions by themselves lack permanence and stability. An institutional commitment to AAS is needed. Given the College's current circumstances, the most appropriate route is the formation of a minor within an AAS program. The establishment of such a program would provide incentives for individual departments to actively pursue the acquisition of qualified professors of AAS and would encourage undergraduate research in one of the fastest growing fields in academia. Additionally, a program may lead to the formation of a department with the ability to hire and recruit tenure-tracked AAS professors. Only through this process can AAS develop permanent legitimacy on campus.
With heightened recruitment of minority students and re-examinations of Dartmouth's mission statement to stress diversity and of the World Cultures requirement to possibly include a Race, Ethnicity and Migration distributive requirement, the College and its student body have a unique opportunity to pursue an institutional commitment to AAS. Dartmouth's support of existing Ethnic and Gender Studies programs is encouraging for AAS at Dartmouth. Incorporating AAS into the Dartmouth curriculum would work in conjunction with current attempts to attract more diverse applicants to Dartmouth while enhancing the diversity of academic thought on campus.
Admittedly, Kung has a point when he argues that diversity should not be the sole motivation for AAS at Dartmouth. Fortunately, this is not the case. An AAS minor, program or department is not just about appeasing the masses. Heightened diversity is just one of the many benefits of pursuing AAS as a legitimate field of study. If Dartmouth wants to be a cutting-edge institution, it must make an institutional commitment to AAS. Through such a commitment, the College will demonstrate its readiness to engage traditional pedagogical structures and explore new frontiers in academia.
