Contact Asian, Pacific, and Diaspora Studies
Program Director
Dr. Anita Mannur
amannur@american.eduÌý
The Asia, Pacific, and Diaspora Studies Program (APDS) is one of six interdisciplinary programs which make up the Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies, housed in the College of Arts and Sciences. The APDS program is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of Asia, and the Pacific, as well as their diasporic communities, in a dynamic global context. APDS students critically study the diverse people, cultures, and ideas that move in and across Asia, the Pacific, and their many diasporic communities in the Americas and beyond. Students explore the history and legacies of imperialism and colonialism, as well as the dynamics of gender/sexuality, class, and ethnicity and racial relations. The program’s lively, interdisciplinary course offerings are both deeply local and attentive to national and world-wide frameworks. They are grounded in critical inquiry and a concern for social justice.
Our program offers both an undergraduate BA in Asia, Pacific, and Diaspora Studies and a Minor as well as a Graduate Certificate.
Asia, Pacific, and Diaspora Studies draws from a wide spectrum of experts and courses across the University and the Washington DC region, affording students the opportunity to learn with both breadth and depth. Faculty from a wide variety of departments within CAS as well as from the School of International Service, the School of Public Affairs, and the School of Communications contribute to the program.
The Asia, Pacific, and Diaspora Studies program supports students interested in the acquisition of Asian languages such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Persian, and Arabic.
APDS students are also encouraged to spend time abroad as part of their academic experience. Options include studying in a wide variety of Asian nations or learning about Asian diasporas in a number of locations around the world. If you are interested in studying abroad, please consult with the APDS Director and with an º£½Ç»»ÆÞ Abroad Counselor to .
Header artwork by .
Lily Wong co-edited an anthology, (University of Washington Press 2024), with Christopher B. Patterson and Chien-ting Lin. Lily was also awarded the Solidarity Award at AAPI Women Lead’s Building New Worlds conference. The book foregrounds complex entanglements within, across, and beyond the Pacific — antinuclear coalitions centering Native survivance from Okinawa to the Dakotas to Micronesia, refugee figures and automated empathy in virtual reality, cross-strait erotic intimacy in Taiwanese teahouses — to activateÌýgenerative connections against fixed national and methodological boundaries.
Quynh Vo published a chapter, "Transpacific Rupture: Neoliberal Relationalities and Economic Violence in the COVID Era," in Transpacific, Undisciplined (University of Washington Press 2024).
Suzanne Persard’s series of poems are included in the groundbreaking anthology of Indo-Caribbean translations , (Kaya Press, 2024), edited by Rajiv Mohabir. Suzanne read selections from the book launch in New York City, which was part of the .
Program Director
Dr. Anita Mannur
amannur@american.eduÌý
The faculty of the Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies join with protesters across the world to denounce police brutality and systemic anti-Black violence.Ìý