In Amherst and places like it, in both the teaching ranks and the student body, the descendants of immigrants from Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, the Phillipines and the nations of South and Southeast Asia have become a large presence. Like other children and grandchildren of immigrants before them, they have made clear their interest in learning and teaching about their history and their culture. They insist that their stories are valuable in themselves and as part of the ongoing process of reinterpreting American culture and society. With a few exceptions, scholars and teachers who have contributed to the study of Jewish novels, Italian religious festivals, Slavic workers' unionizing drives, African American abolitionism, Mexican American dual migration flows and other now familiar themes, have no trouble recognizing the value of Asian American perspectives. They do not doubt the value of the political critique of dominant institutions and interests that is the inevitable result of opening the curriculum to the perspective of those whose ancestors have been derided as "coolies" or interned in detention camps. Nor do they shy away from the inevitable result of contemplating more contemporary forms of racially-loaded terms such as "the model minority" and "Asian over-achievers."
Over the last decade, the American Studies department at Amherst has sought to incorporate multi-ethnic perspectives as fully as possible into its curriculum. In almost every course it offers, the department gives prominent attention to questions of race and ethnicity. In some courses such questions are the central focus, as in the forthcoming junior seminar, "Race and Races in American studies," or in past courses on "American Indians" or "Race and Ethnicity in America." In most courses taught as American Studies 11 or American Studies 12, literature by African Americans or Asian Americans or Latina/os illuminates subjects as diverse as "The City," "The American West," "America in the 1930s" and the like. With specialists in African American, Latino and Asian American studies on the faculty, the department's courses have come to be conceived, planned and taught from a multi-ethnic perspective.
However, while African American and Latina/o studies are represented by regular members of the department, Asian American studies is taught by a visitor, and it is that position we hope to regularize in the near future.
In some places, separate departments or programs are devoted to African American, Latino and Asian American studies. In others, programs in Ethnic Studies take on all three (and others). At Amherst, the long-established Black Studies department is an African diaspora studies program,with one of the foci being African American studies. At a larger institution, it is possible that separate departments might be created in Latin American diaspora studies and Asian diaspora studies, but it is unlikely that Amherst could field so many departments or programs.
Moreover, there is a very good pedagogical and scholarly reason to keep these forms of study together in one department: American Studies as a field has shown how to incorporate scholars from an astonishing range of departments and sub-disciplinary perspectives into a sometimes messy but always creative common enterprise. The annual American Studies meeting, held a few weeks ago in Atlanta, testifies to this success. The program was filled with panels on subjects that included racial inequality in urban education, Asian migration, Latino television, Asian and Asian American action movies, multi-ethnic labor organizing and many other subjects. The result of this mix of subjects (and multi-ethnic mix of participants) is-to use a much over-used word-synergistic. A stronger American Studies and a stronger Asian American studies will eventuate when scholarly questions are addressed and answered in the midst of this exciting and fertile conversation. So far, American Studies at Amherst, like the field as a whole, has been able-and eager-to incorporate Asian American studies in its curriculum, and hopes to do so into the foreseeable future.
Frank Couvares is the E. Dwight Salmon Professor of History and American Studies. He is also the chair of the American Studies department. He can be reached at fgcouvares@amherst.edu