The Asian American Studies Program
UMass Boston's Asian American Studies Program combines culturally responsive classroom instruction with mentoring, community-building, service-learning, and advocacy. Through this holistic approach, our program addresses the social and academic needs of students, as well as the critical capacity-building needs of local Asian American communities in Boston.
Featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education and highlighted by the Association of American Colleges & Universities as a national model, our program offers the largest selection of Asian American Studies courses, faculty, and community resources of any university in New England. We are part of the UMass Boston School for Global Inclusion and Social Development.
Our alumni include teachers, social workers, health care providers, business entrepreneurs, and leaders of local Asian American community organizations, as well as the first Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees to complete EdM and EdD degrees at Harvard.
Some of UMass Boston's AsAmSt teaching faculty: Professors Shirley Tang, Chris Fung, Patricia Neilson, Loan Dao, Karen Suyemoto. Photo by Peter Kiang.
Contact Us
617.287.5658
AsAmSt@umb.edu
Director: Peter Kiang
This year boasts our largest-ever number of AsAmSt graduating students. Arlene Vu is the 23rd student to successfully design, propose, and finish a 10-course individual major in Asian American Studies at UMB. She accompanies 15 students in 2022-2023 who have completed at least six courses and all AsAmSt program-of-study requirements. They include: Tenzin Dechen (བན་འཛན བདེ་ཆེན), Lily Sirin Horburapa (ศรินทร์ หอบูรพา), Kamalpreet Kaur, Tommy Hoàng Lâm, Stephanie Alyza Gapongli Mastinggal, Jenny Ngeth, Anthony Nguyễn, Jenni Nguyễn, Nyah Pérez, Husnain Shah, Lee-Daniel (LD) Tran, Richard Tran, Ada Tsang, Helen Võ, Dennis Weng (翁鴻彬), and Ping Zhou (周萍). They account for nearly 10% of the 155 students in total who have graduated with AsAmSt concentrations since 2000. Additionally, two AsAmSt alumnae, Maryanne E.M. Chow and Yan Hua Liang (梁燕华), earned master’s degrees in two of the College of Education & Human Development’s graduate programs.