Asian American Studies Activism

Members of the Dartmouth Asian American Studies Collective pose outside of Rauner Library in January 2021. Photo by Laura O'Neil for the New York Times

In 1999, the Pan Asian Council published a proposal to improve Asian American student life on campus, including establishing Asian American Studies at Dartmouth. This proposal marks the first recorded instance of Asian American Studies advocacy at Dartmouth, but it would certainly not be the last.

"Dartmouth has no Asian-American department or program... Without the inclusion of Asian-American Studies, there are no avenues for Dartmouth students to learn about the history and understand the issues of Asian-Americans.
The Pan Asian Council, in a letter written to the Committee on Student Life Initiative, 1999

An article from the D, reporting the College's plans to promote Asian American Studies in 2004

Two years later, in 2001, a group of Dartmouth faculty led by government professor Dave Kang drafted of a statement in support of both Asian American Studies and Korean Studies. The signatories included both Asian Studies professors, such as Asian and Middle Eastern Studies chair Dennis Washburn and Asian American Studies- affiliated professors Vernon Takeshita and Josna Rege.

On the student side, members of DAO, or Dartmouth Asian Organization, began advocating for Asian American Studies under DAO's Asian American Task Force in 2002. To raise awareness, the group held informative meetings, organized visits from influential scholars, and published opinion articles in The Dartmouth. Several years later, in 2004, student interns in OPAL’s Pan Asian office collected over a thousand signatures and led a letter writing campaign in support of Asian American Studies. At the time, this effort appeared to succeed: Associate Deans of Faculty Lenore Grenoble and Michael Mastanduno announced that the College would start searching for a tenure-track Asian American Studies professor and would establish a feasibility committee dedicated to establishing an Asian American Studies major and minor. Evidently, the efforts of the committee never came to fruition, possibly because of the departure of critical faculty members.

"As a community, we believe that the development of an AAS minor is a viable possibility and can become a reality with a firm commitment by the College. The time is right for the College to act on this issue."
Members of the Pan Asian Council in an open letter addressed to the Dean of Faculty, 1 March 2004

Asian American Studies activism appeared again around ten years later in 2014, when an independent Asian American Studies department was included by student organizers in the "Freedom Budget," along with departmental status for Dartmouth's existing ethnic studies programs. The Freedom Budget was a list of demands by student activists aimed at making Dartmouth equitable for marginalized students, and it generated controversy when the activists occupied Parkhurst Hall to protest the lack of administrative response. In 2015, Asian American activist group 4A (Asian American Students for Action), presented a plan for an Asian American Studies minor to the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies department in 2015, and then a proposal for a major and minor in early 2016. In 2016, a group of “concerned alumni” also sent an anonymous letter to Dartmouth administration, criticizing the College’s lack of Asian American Studies in light of a claimed support for diversity and the existence of Asian American Studies programs at other comparable institutions.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Atlanta shooting, a group of faculty led by WGSS Professor Eng-Beng Lim released a petition in 2021 outlining a plan to bolster Asian American Studies on campus. The Dartmouth Asian American Studies Collective, a newly-formed student activist group, published their own petition in the fall of that year advocating for an Asian American Studies program. Both petitions received over one thousand signatures, and DAASC's activism was covered by both the Dartmouth and the New York Times. In response, Dean of Interdisciplinary Programs Matthew Delmont is currently forming a steering committee to investigate future steps that Dartmouth can take towards implementing Asian American Studies.

"It is now more vital than ever that Dartmouth fulfills its commitment to anti-racist pedagogies and equity for all students."
DAASC, "A Call for Asian American Studies at Dartmouth," 2021

Asian American Studies advocacy at Dartmouth stretches at least twenty-five years into the past, yet no academic program exists to this day. The nature of this work is cyclical, with promising surges in advocacy that ultimately result in little change.