Professor Chen and her AAS 390 students at Manzanar.
Asian
American Studies owes its origins to the long hard battle by
students, progressive faculty, and APA community members who fought to
have curriculum that was relevant to their lives, and that would give them
skills to help empower their communities.
- Associate Profesor
- Office: 340 Jerome Richfield
- Phone: 818-677-5690
- Fax: 818-677-7094
- Email:
- Campus Mailcode: 8251
- Personal Faculty Website
- Curriculum Vitae [pdf download]
Scholarship Highlights
- “Constructing a Non-Asian Identity: Asian American Sisters in ‘White’ Sororities,” in Changing Cultures from Within: Communication and Asian American Women, (ed.) Elizabeth Kunimoto (Kailua, HI: Patina Productions, LLC, 2006).
- Ph.D. Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles (199?)
- M.A. Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles (199?)
- B.A. Sociology and Zoology, University of Texas, (19??)
- Teaching about Asian Pacific Americans: Effective Activities, Strategies, and Assignments for Classrooms and Workshops, (co-edited with Glenn Omatsu), (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2006).
- “Deconstructing the Model Minority Thesis: Asian Pacific Americans, Race, Class, Gender, and Work,” in Teaching about Asian Pacific Americans: Effective Activities, Strategies, and Assignments for Classrooms and Workshops, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).
- “Telling Our Stories: Japanese Americans in the San Fernando Valley, 1910s-1950s,” a multimedia exhibition including photos, oral histories, and a 15 minute documentary. A service-learning project for the San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center.
- Haynes Foundation Faculty Fellowship, 2006
Education
Professor Chen joined the department in 2001. Her teaching and research interests include issues of Asian Pacific American adaptation with respect to race, ethnicity, and gender in the U.S. and Latin America; Chinese Americans; Asian American Women; applied research; and intercultural communication. Previous to her appointment at CSUN, she taught at the University of Hawai'i, Manoa in Women's Studies.
Teaching about Asian Pacific Americans, edited by Professors Chen and Omatsu
She is the editor (co-edited with Glenn Omatsu) for the pioneering teaching anthology and resource guide, Teaching about Asian Pacific Americans: Effective Activities, Strategies, and Assignments for Classrooms and Workshops (Rowman & Littlefield, May 2006). Since Winter 2004 She has also been working with Nancy Takayama of the San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center on the project Telling Our Stories: Japanese Americans in the San Fernando Valley, 1910s-1960s, a multimedia exhibition including photos, oral histories, and a 15 minute documentary.
She has also conducted research and written articles dealing with Asian American women in White, Asian-American, and African-American sororities.
Another in-progress project examines the formation of racial identities of Chinese Dominicans in the Dominican Republic and the U.S.
Professor Chen can be found teaching AAS 100 (Introduction to Asian American Studies), AAS 340 (Asian American Women), AAS 361 C (Chinese American Experiences), and AAS 390 (Asian American Communities: Field Practicum.