Association for Asian American Studies
2014 Elections
President – Elect (2015 – 2016; President 2016-2018)
Eleanor Ty
Eleanor Ty is Professor of English at Laurier U where she served as Department Chair (5 years).
Four of her ten book publications are in Asian American and Asian Canadian literature and film,
including, Unfastened: Globality in Asian North American Narratives (U Minnesota P, 2010),
and Asian Canadian Writing Beyond Autoethnography (Honorable Mention, AAAS Lit Book
Award, 2008).
I would support and expand our mandate of facilitating scholarship, activism, and teaching in
Asian American Studies by ensuring strong membership, from established and younger scholars,
from the U.S. and beyond, from academics, community and government workers. Previous
experiences include: Chair, MLA Division on Asian Am Lit; Chair, Lit Book Awards Committee
2011; on-site organizer, AAAS Toronto (2001); co-convenor of Canada’s largest annual
gathering of Social Sciences and Humanities scholars, “Congress 2012” (7,500 delegates). I am a
good administrator and would very much like to work with the AAAS team.
Cathy Schlund-Vials
I am currently an Associate Professor of English and Asian/Asian American Studies at the
University of Connecticut (Storrs), where I serve as director of the Asian and Asian American
Studies Institute at UConn. I am the author of two monographs: Modeling Citizenship: Jewish
and Asian American Writing (2011) and War, Genocide, and Justice: Cambodian American
Memory Work (2012).
My experiences as an administrator have made me intimately aware of the challenges our
programs face at the local, state, and national levels. And, as recent events involving academic
freedom underscore, we must tirelessly attend to the all-too-often ignored pressures facing
graduate students and faculty (inclusive of contingent, tenure-track, and tenured ranks). As a
former AAAS program co-chair and board member, I bring to this position a knowledge of the
wonderful work that has been done, and would continue to strengthen the association’s
commitment to mentoring and interdisciplinary scholarship.
Northern California Representative (2015 – 2018)
Kim Geron
My name is Kim Geron, and I seek the Northern California region position for the AAAS. I
am Professor of Political Science at CSU East Bay and received a BA in Labor Studies from
CSU Dominguez Hills, and a MA and PhD in Political Science from UC Riverside, and teach
courses in American Government and Public Policy.
My research interests include race and ethnic politics, social movements, and immigration
policy. I currently conduct research on Asian American politics. With co-authors Lai and Lui, we
published the Snake Dance of Asian American Activism: Community, Vision, and Power and
have published several articles and book chapters on racial politics. I am Co-Director of Student
Services Operation for Success (SSOS) at CSU East Bay – funded by the U.S. Department of
Education, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI),
and serve on the Board of Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.
Dawn Lee Tu
Director, Asian Pacific American Student Development, UC Berkeley
Ph.D. in Cultural Studies, UC Davis, MA in American Studies, NYU
My research focuses on how inequality is created by the expansion of neoliberal policies in
higher education by examining the experiences of Asian Americans, spaces of transformative
resistance, and the operationalization of Diversity. Over the past decade, AAAS has been an
home for my work as a scholar and diversity specialist. My experience bridging academic and
student support areas includes being the Site Committee co-chair for the 2014 AAAS conference
and founder of South Bay First Thursdays, an AAPI community-building organization. I am
serving on the Programs Committee for the APAs in Higher Education annual conference.
If elected NorCal rep, my priorities would be to create more engagement opportunities for
regional members (especially graduate students), collaborations with CBOs, and greater
utilization of technology to strengthen AAAS infrastructure.
Wesley Ueunten
Wesley Ueunten is an associate professor of Asian American Studies at SFSU. He has been
active in Bay Area Okinawan and Japanese American community organizations as well a
performer of Okinawan music. He has written numerous publications on Okinawans in the
diaspora, while opposing the continued U.S. militarization of Okinawa.
I have been a member of various community organizations, an activist, musician, and academic
and traveled between places I have called home: Hawai’i, Okinawa, Japan, and Bay
Area. Continuous movement has revealed many forms of oppression in both large and small
contexts and how these forms of oppressions are not separable. My travels and travails have also
led me to witness many forms of resistance to oppression and to arrive at the idealistic conviction
that our struggles must not be separated if we hope to make any progress. I hope to contribute to
AAAS with this conviction.
Grace Wang
I am Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of California, Davis. I received
my PhD from the University of Michigan’s Program in American Culture and am the author of
Soundtracks of Asian America: Navigating Race through Musical Performance (forthcoming,
Duke UP). Other publications include essays in journals such as American Quarterly, Amerasia,
and Journal of Transnational American Studies. I view my research and service as intertwined,
focused broadly on issues of diversity, equity, and community arts. I’m honored to be nominated
for this position as AAAS has been an important institutional home for me since I attended my
first conference as a graduate student. I’m interested in bolstering collaborations with local
organizations, artists, and international colleagues and building on existing strengths to ensure
the organization’s continued intellectual and political vibrancy for future scholars.