Asian American Studies Department

Explore the Experience of People from Asian and Pacific Backgrounds in the United States

Welcome to Asian American Studies. Our classes are open to all students interested in exploring the experience of people from Asian and Pacific backgrounds in the United States. These classes fill key graduation and transfer requirements in a number of areas. Working with students Asian American Studies has organized programs on: Asian American community leaders and political participation, media stereotypes of Asian Americans, growing up in early Chinatown, Angel Island Immigration and Detention Center, early Asian American Women, workplace issues for Asian Americans.

Our Programs

The Asian American Studies department offers courses year-round at two campuses and now offers a certificate and an AA-T in Asian American Studies. Many of our courses are transferable and can be used to pursue a degree at a four-year university.

Learn More About the Asian American Studies Program

Statement in Support of Black Lives Matter

Asian American Studies supports Black Lives Matter and dismantling systemic racism. As a discipline Asian American Studies grew with African American Studies out of the Third World student strikes at San Francisco State and UC Berkeley.

We stand in solidarity with the African American community and African American Studies. We stand with you in not only advocating for an end to police violence, but we stand with you in efforts to identify and tear down systemic racism.

We have identified three areas where we can express our commitment and welcome suggestions for additional actions Asian American Studies can take at CCSF:

One area where Asian American Studies can support the African American Community is in the curriculum within classes. Within Asian American Studies classes we can help our students see more clearly, describe more in depth the systemic racism which has historically affected both African Americans and Asian Americans and continues to affect us today in different ways. We teach about the historical laws that were set up to disenfranchise African Americans which then were passed onto Asian Americans but often had a longer standing impact on the African American community. We will look at our curriculum and identify where instructors should help students make these links.
The second area where Asian American Studies can support the African American community is in support for crucial community issues identified as priorities by the African American community, including police accountability, restorative justice, the prison industrial complex, and local and national reparations. In all areas, especially where we have shared history, we welcome the opportunity to build bridges. When San Francisco NAACP and other local African American leaders called for reparations in 2019, we covered this issue in some of our classes. The Japanese American community’s successful historic struggle for redress and reparations for the World War Two incarceration of the West Coast Japanese American community and the passage of the 1988 Civil Liberties Act presents us with a natural starting point for discussing current calls in the African American community for restorative justice We welcome the opportunities to collaborate with you on creating opportunities to explore critical community issues within the City College and San Francisco community.
The third area where Asian American Studies can support the African American community is by looking for opportunities where we can support departments, programs, faculty, students and community members. If we do not automatically see these opportunities, please bring them to our attention.

Explore the Experience of People from Asian and Pacific Backgrounds in the United States

Our Programs

Statement in Support of Black Lives Matter

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