The Center for Asian American Studies (CAAS) promotes research and education on Asian Americans, particularly Southeast Asian Americans in New England. With communities as collaborative partners, we seek to identify disparities in and develop ways to improve education, health, civic engagement, and cultural preservation and innovation. We aim to foster respect for all forms of diversity, enhance appreciation of intersecting identities, and dismantle structural inequalities.
What is Asian American Studies?
Asian American Studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that studies the historical and contemporary experiences, cultural practices, and community formations of Asians in the U.S. Like other ethnic studies fields (African-American Studies, Latino/a/x Studies, Indigenous/Native American Studies, mixed race studies), Asian American Studies has historically been committed to social justice issues and community research and practice. Asian American Studies is different from Asian Studies in that it is emphatically rooted within the American experience, and the fields have distinct genealogies and methodologies. Nevertheless, in the era of globalization, scholarship in the field has also highlighted international dimensions of Asian American studies (e.g. immigration, human trafficking).