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Asian American Studies Department at SFSU
AAS Department Chair–Lorraine Dong, PhD
AAS MA Program Coordinator–Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, PhD
AAS Administrative Analyst/Specialist–Becky Mou
Asian American Studies (AAS) Department, the largest of five departments/unit in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, was created as a result of the 1968 Black Student Union/Third World Liberation Front Student-led Strike. A settlement was signed on March 20, 1969 to establish the country’s first and still only School (now College) of Ethnic Studies at SF State with the following four units: American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Black (now Africana) Studies, and La Raza (now Latina/o) Studies. AAS began its first semester with 17 different courses in Fall 1969. In 1994, the Department was recognized by the Asian Pacific American Education Advisory Committee of the California State University (CSU) Chancellor’s Office as an “exemplary” program.
An AAS baccalaureate major was launched in Fall 1997, with the first BA class of ten graduating in 1998. The CSU Chancellors Office later approved the AAS master’s degree program to officially begin in Spring 2000.
AAS at SF State is also the largest AAS Department in the nation. It currently has 16 tenured/tenure-track faculty and 7 Asian American ethnic units dedicated to teaching, studying, and serving the diverse Asian American communities: Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, South Asian, Southeast Asian (Cambodian and Vietnamese), and Asian of Mixed Heritage. With 11 graduate and 41 undergraduate courses, AAS has a comprehensive program of study on the Asian American experience, with a commitment to serving the University, our students, and the Asian American communities.
