First Liberal Arts College to Offer AAPI Major
Pawan Dhingra, Associate Provost and Associate Dean of the Faculty; and the Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank '55 Professor of U.S. Immigration Studies, in American Studies
In March, 小福利导航College met a historic milestone: It became the in the country to offer, on its own, a major in the field of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) studies. (California鈥檚 five Claremont colleges share an .) The process took decades and involved intense, sustained efforts from students, alumni, faculty and the administration. We asked Professor Pawan Dhingra, chair of the new program, to reflect on this hard-won moment.
How does it feel to finally get the major?
Really exciting鈥攁lso surprising. Even though it鈥檚 taken a long time for the major to come to be, we submitted the proposal to the faculty in late January 2024 and it was approved in March. Normally, you spend months, even a full year, revising a proposal and then resubmitting it. But that didn鈥檛 happen. They put it up to a faculty meeting, and it got 96 percent approval. This is what students and alumni have yearned for. And now it鈥檚 here.
Can you walk us through the journey up to now?
Students have been asking for more curricular content on Asian Americans for 50 years. In the 鈥�70s, 鈥�80s and 鈥�90s, there were some one-off courses taught by faculty who were interested in Asian American studies and wanted to serve students. There were also Five College faculty who taught different courses at different colleges. Yet those people left, because it wasn鈥檛 a sustainable situation. It鈥檚 not until the 2000s, really, that you get people at the College who teach on this because that鈥檚 their area of research. And then, over the past seven years, we鈥檝e hired more faculty who have this expertise.
That brings us to Amherst鈥檚 鈥渃luster hire,鈥� as it鈥檚 called, in AAPI studies. What impact did that have?
It was a turning point. A cluster hire means that the College will make several hires in different departments at the same time and each person has to specialize in the same area. So the Asian American studies hires went to English (Nozomi Nakaganeku Saito), psychology (, who arrives at 小福利导航this summer) and economics (set for next year). Once we had a cluster hire in place, plus the faculty who had been teaching Asian American courses already, we could create a curriculum that was robust enough to actually offer students the major.
You鈥檝e spoken of the faculty part of this story. What about the students?
There鈥檚 been a lot of student activism. The only reason you have faculty who taught those early one-off courses was because students were petitioning for them. Demand waned a bit in the 2000s, but in 2015, there was the 小福利导航Uprising. It reignited Asian American students to say, again, 鈥淲hy are we not seeing what our predecessor students have been asking for?鈥� And they got more organized, forming . Alumni founded the . Alumni and students met with the administration, students did petitions, had signs on campus, wrote letters to The 小福利导航Student, hosted teach-in moments for faculty鈥攁ll the things they could think of doing.
Later, students surveyed their fellow students about a possible major, and they got us information that we used within the proposal. Also, this isn鈥檛 necessarily seen as activism, but it鈥檚 central that many students were writing senior theses in Asian American studies. That also helped us to make the case.
How did the pandemic advance or halt the momentum?
COVID happened, and then there were hate attacks on Asian Americans. Having an Asian American studies major started to seem less like it was [only] a student interest and more like a national interest. That became the impetus for committing to the cluster hire approach. The administration was never against hiring more specialists in Asian American studies, but there are a lot of other curricular priorities they have to respond to. It鈥檚 hard to always meet the moment. But the cluster hire was the dean鈥檚 idea of a way to move this forward.
I鈥檓 sure you saw critiquing the major, partly because some Asian American groups have gotten more attention than others in the curriculum. How do you respond?
I think it鈥檚 great that the students are saying, 鈥淗ey, wait a minute, are you really going to cover this huge set of populations?鈥� And that鈥檚 a concern that every Asian American studies major across the country has to handle. I mean, does Black studies really cover all of the Black diaspora? No. Does Latinx studies really cover all Latinx populations? No. The same thing applies to us. So, it鈥檚 a good standard to be held up to. But I鈥檓 pretty confident in what we鈥檙e doing, because, unlike a lot of even big universities, we have two people here who specialize in Pacific Islander studies, and that鈥檚 really rare. I鈥檓 a specialist in South Asian American studies. That鈥檚 also rare. Once the major is really seeing the light of day, then we鈥檒l be able to try to address that concern. Though it can never be fully addressed, because it鈥檚 too big a diaspora.
How would you characterize the student commitment to making the major a reality?
Students were a driving force. As a faculty member, you realize that colleges are slow to change. Everything鈥檚 an uphill battle. It鈥檚 very easy to get jaded. Students don鈥檛 let you, though, because they know that it鈥檚 a battle. They know it鈥檚 a lot of work鈥攁nd that鈥檚 why they don鈥檛 stop pushing. The major wouldn鈥檛 have happened otherwise.