The Asian American and Pacific Islander studies program at the University of California, Berkeley has added five new faculty members. Three of the new hires are women.
Long Le-Khac, an assistant professor of ethnic studies, put the rationale behind the cohort’s hiring plainly: “Forty percent of the undergraduate student body at Berkeley is Asian American. We [had] maybe 10 scholars across campus who are specifically trained in Asian American studies and can offer those classes. That’s ridiculous. The need for Pacific Islander studies was even more stark.”
Dr. Le-Hac added that “Berkeley sits at the nexus point of the most consequential power dynamic and axis of change of the 21st century – the relationship between Asia, America, and the Pacific. If we don’t have people studying it, we are losing out on a huge opportunity.”
Kourtney Kawano is a Native Hawaiian from the village community of Nānākuli on the island of Oʻahu. She is an assistant professor in the Berkeley School of Education. Her research focuses on how race and indigeneity affect schooling. Dr. Kawano received a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she double majored in religion and government and minored in education. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in education from the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Charmaine Chua, a native of Singapore, is an acting associate professor of geography. Her work focuses on capitalism and trans-Pacific supply chains. She currently is working on two books The Logistics Counterrevolution: Fast Circulation, Slow Violence, and the Transpacific Empire of Capital and How to Beat Amazon:The Future of America’s New Working Class Struggle. Dr. Chua is graduate of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she majored in English with a minor in political science. She earned a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Minnesota.
Ida Yalzadeh is an assistant professor of ethnic studies who specializes in the Iranian diaspora and Southwest Asia. Previously, she conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard University and was a visiting assistant professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Her research interests include the relationship between race and empire and the fields of diplomatic history. She is currently at work on a book project that focuses on the racialized experience of Iranian foreign nationals from 1953 to 2001. Dr. Yalzadeh is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where she majored in history. She holds a Ph.D. in American studies from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.