Denise Cruz, Professor of English and Comparative Literature

The pandemic and the surge in anti-Asian violence creates an especially timely moment, but there has been a longstanding demand for courses and research support in the field of Asian American studies. We’re at an important critical moment—for the scholarly community at Columbia, Asian American studies, the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, the English and Comparative Literature department, and for Asians and Asian Americans. It’s a privilege for me to be part of a community on campus that includes scholars and writers whose work has been so formative for the field at large and for my own work. Mae Ngai and Jennifer Lee’s research has been ground-breaking in Asian American studies. Writers such as Marie Myung-Ok Lee, David Henry Hwang (and soon, Jhumpa Lahiri) are authors who are foundational to Asian American literature. We also have incredible strengths in transnational and comparative approaches, including Asian, Southeast Asian, and South Asian studies. Asian American studies at Columbia is unique because of this multidisciplinary community. 

I have to underscore, too, that students are excited by this material. Our classes are full with long waiting lists. Last fall, my class needed to be in the large lecture hall in Pupin, and I recognize with my students that they and I are only in that room because of prior activism on our behalf. While some of my students are Asian or Asian American, many of them are not, and they arrive in my class from a range of majors and interests. I’m always inspired by their sheer enthusiasm and interest in learning more about Asian American literature. And as we discuss in class, Asian American authors have contributed to a rich literary tradition that includes imaginings of the experiences of exclusion, migration, war, and resistance but also vibrant forms of life and community, of what it means to care for each other amid crisis and difficulty.