Greetings from the Chair

Welcome to the UCLA Asian American Studies Department!

Håfa adai and greetings! Welcome to the Asian American Studies Department at UCLA. Our faculty specialize in the study of diverse Asian American communities, diasporas, and histories in the United States and internationally. As an interdisciplinary unit, we also engage the fields of anthropology, gender studies, geography, history, literature, political science, public health, sociology, social welfare, and theater, to name a few. As such, our faculty offer innovative courses about class, empire, indigeneity, race, religion, and sexuality in the Americas, Asia, Oceania and globally. We also work closely with artists, filmmakers, and organizers in Los Angeles; K-12 teachers and curricula developers in California and nationally; public policy entities at the state and federal levels; and top-tier research foundations, institutions, and universities across the country and internationally. A collegial, rigorous, and inspiring group of scholars thus make up the Asian American Studies Department. Together, we produce high-impact research that seeks to achieve equity, justice, and sovereignty.

What does this all mean for students? Ultimately, we train students to develop research projects that matter to their communities, that make a critical difference in the world, and that prepare them for the future. As a result, our students pursue rewarding careers as academics, actors, attorneys, filmmakers, journalists, labor organizers, policy makers, poets, public health practitioners, social workers, teachers and more. Majoring in Asian American Studies helps them to achieve these goals. Please contact our student advisor for additional information.

Go Bruins!

Keith L. Camacho

Professor and Chair, Asian American Studies Department

The Asian American Studies Department at UCLA acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands). As a land grant institution, we pay our respects to the honuukvetam (ancestors) ‘ahiihirom (elders), and ‘eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present, and emerging. 

Upcoming Events

News

ACADEMIC ADVISING APPOINTMENTS & QUESTIONS

Prospective and current undergraduate and graduate students may email Student Advisor Justin Dela Cruz with any questions related to academic advising: justin.delacruz@asianam.ucla.edu.

Department Maintained Google Sheet

Tentative scheduled course offerings may be found here.

*Schedule of courses is subject to change.*

Registrar’s Office Schedule of Classes
Check the Schedule of Classes for the most updated listing of courses.

Why Asian American Studies?

Sahra Nguyen, Asian American Studies Commencement Speaker 2021

Sahra Nguyen is the founder & CEO of Nguyen Coffee Supply — the first-ever specialty Vietnamese coffee company importing and roasting in Brooklyn, New York.

On a mission to transform the coffee industry through diversity, inclusion, and transparency, Nguyen Coffee Supply has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, VICE, New York Magazine, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, and honored with the 2019 StarChefs Rising Star Award.

Early January 2020, Imbibe Magazine featured Sahra Nguyen as one of the #Imbibe75 — people, places, and directions that will shape the way you drink in 2020. She is a Gold House Collective Founder for Spring 2020 cohort, a leading network to celebrate and elevate the Asian American community.