In the past few months that the Student Committee for APA Studies has worked to push for APA Studies at the College, we've run into variations of the same question: "There's already the Asian Languages & Civilizations (ALAC) Department. What's the point of APA Studies?" This isn't a trivial question; it demonstrates a severe lack of understanding of the fundamental nature of APA Studies. But it is the easiest to address because all it requires is a clear definition of the differences between Asian and Asian American Studies. Asian Studies is literally studies of Asia: Asian history, culture, politics, economics, you name it. The United States is mentioned only in passing in Asian Studies, if at all. Asian American Studies is exactly what the name suggests: the study of Asians in America. Like Asian Studies, it covers all sorts of fields: history, literature, sociology, etc. But unlike Asian Studies, the United States figures as, if not more, prominently than does Asia.
Take me for an example. I'm a second-generation Korean American and, as much as I hate doing it, I always take care to stress the "American." Not that I'm particularly patriotic-my values are about as liberal as you can get, and Ann Coulter would probably accuse me of "hating America." I emphasize "American" to make sure that people don't get a one-sided impression of me because of my ethnicity. Ask me where I'm from, and I'll say Los Angeles. I feel no ties to the so-called "mother country" other than the fact that I have a few relatives (whom I've met perhaps two or three times) who happen to live there. I took one class in the ALAC Department my freshman year and was bored throughout the entire semester because it was so irrelevant to my life. Asian Studies has nothing to do with me, but Asian American studies has everything to do with me.
This leads me to the second question that we run into: What's the need for APA Studies on campus, other than to benefit the handful of interested students of Asian heritage? That is, is APA Studies only going to serve students like me? The answer to the second question is a resounding NO. Again, the mere asking of this question demonstrates a lack of understanding of APA Studies. To quote a recent handout by the Student Committee for APA Studies, "APA Studies would allow students to engage in the experiences of Asian Americans in their interactions with other ethnic minorities, with the dominant society, and with Asian diasporic communities, thus broadening their understanding of multiculturalism and globalization." The Committee goes on to say that its goal is "to educate a diverse student body and to prepare them to be knowledgeable about issues of race, ethnicity and culture in contemporary multiethnic society in the U.S." Although Asian Americans tend to be the only students with enough vested interest in this subject to sacrifice their precious college time to push for this need, APA Studies would benefit the entire college community as a whole, not just Asian American students.
I could spend hours arguing for the need for APA Studies at the College, but for the sake of space, I'll move on to the next difficulty, which is the lack of a department to claim responsibility for APA Studies. The way faculty hiring at the College works is that whenever a space opens up, the faculty members of the department in question argue for a professor in such-and-such field to be hired. Without a department, as is the case with APA Studies, there's no one doing the arguing. And it's been like this for more than three decades now. The fight for APA Studies at Amherst can be traced back to 1972, when the first student activists began raising attention for the issue. Concerned Asian and Asian American students sent a letter to the College asserting that, "Provisions for the pursuit of Asian American Studies are inadequate. Conditions conducive to the expression of Asian and Asian American perspectives do not exist within this educational institution." Activism in this area continued until 1991, when the College hired Jan Lin, the first-ever APA Studies professor to be based out of Amherst. This position, however, was part-time and designated to go to either an Asian American or a Latin American studies faculty member. Lin's contract was not renewed after three years, and the position was passed onto a Latin American studies professor.
In 2001, the College failed to recognize the Five-College APA Certification Program, despite the fact that the other four colleges approved the program, on the grounds that Amherst did not have enough professors in the field to make a meaningful contribution. Soon after, the editorial board of The Amherst Student ran an editorial that read: "The College was mistaken when it failed to recognize the APA Studies Certificate Program in the mid 1990s. It continues to be mistaken by not recognizing APA Studies and it would be mistaken if it did not recognize the program as soon as possible." The editorial stated that the certification program would have provided an incentive to hire more full-time faculty members, which the College still has made no moves towards doing.
And here we are in 2004, making the same demands that stretched from 1972 to 2001 almost in verbatim. As of this academic year, there is finally another APA Studies professor, but once again the position is only part-time and not tenure-tracked. There will be a grand total of one APA Studies course per semester at Amherst for three years, and then who knows what will happen? The College has made progress in terms of no longer pitting Asian American and Latin American Studies against each other, but in my eyes that's just fixing a ridiculous mistake that the College never should have made in the first place. There's still a long way to go.
Chae can be reached at jchae@amherst.edu