Neoliberalism continues to exacerbate systemic racism and restricts efforts to address racial and social justice issues. Consequently, there has not only been an increase of public concern, but students are constantly driven to organize around their experiences. Asian American students are currently and have historically been one of these…

This chapter provides critical insights into transformative leadership, a leadership approach guided by equity, social justice, and emancipatory education, based on the practices of eight Asian American women in community college administration. The authors engaged in critical narrative inquiry and conducted semi-structured interviews with each…

As predominantly White institutions (PWIs), independent schools in the United States can alienate students who are either not White or do not possess the cultural capital necessary to navigate those spaces. Scholars have argued that alliance/affinity spaces help students of color acclimate to PWIs and help create a sense of belonging. My work with…

In this qualitative study, Samuel D. Museus analyzes how relative racialization processes and their dynamics shape Asian American college students' racial justice activism. The findings from his qualitative interviews with activist Asian American undergraduates reveal how these students perceived relative racialization processes as raising…

Steeped in the AsianCrit theoretical framework, the current study examined how anti-Asian hate impacted the mental health of Asian and diasporic Asian doctoral women in STEM. Six emergent themes were identified: 1) Witnessing and Experiencing Anti-Asian Hate; 2) Lack of Institutional and STEM Departmental Support; 3) Impact of Anti-Asian Hate on…

Structural oppression continues to be one of the most pressing problems in U.S. society, and college students have always played a major role in addressing systemic inequities. Yet, much remains to be learned about the experiences of students advocating social justice in higher education, and there is a paucity of research on Asian American…

Purpose: Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are not known for producing a high number of racial activists. On the contrary, scientific discourse often traffics in race-neutral language and ideologies, all the while producing racist science and technologies. This research explored the relationship between racial…

Through a critical discourse analysis of three Asian American organizations' rhetoric around race and education, we explore the activism of Asian Americans working against affirmative action and other race-based educational policies. We examine the way these groups engage ideological discourses regarding race, civil rights, and the freedom to…

Context: Systemic oppression is one of the most pressing problems in U.S. society. However, relatively little is known about the process by which college students become committed to social justice agendas. In addition, systematic empirical inquiries that examine how Asian American students, in particular, develop such commitments are difficult to…

Children's literature is a powerful way to engage young learners in understanding the civil rights movement (CRM); yet at the same time, most children's books focused on the CRM often create ahistorical, inaccurate depictions by only focusing on a few key people such as Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr. or events such as the March on…

This paper documents the involvement of students who advocated for what eventually became the federal designation for Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs). Through interviews with 12 student activists, we document students' motivations for mobilizing, as well as the challenges they encountered.…

Activist research that conducts social investigation and analysis can be the key first step in organising at the grassroots and movement building. This paper critically analyses two research reports titled 'The Foreign Exchange of Hate' (Sabrang/Coalition against Genocide 2002) and 'In Bad Faith' (Awaaz South Asia Watch 2004) produced by…

The intersection of COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd has refocused attention on the hitherto hidden, but pervasive, impacts of race and racism in the US. As this essay will argue, examining anti-Asian racism and anti-Blackness in the context of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter movement, allow a deeper understanding of how white supremacy…

The Midwest regional context complicates Asian American college student activism and social justice efforts; so understanding these dynamics can equip higher education practitioners to better support these students.

Student leadership and activism on college campuses has received more widespread attention in recent years, with attention to how student identities inform these organizing efforts. But, how students make sense of their leadership and activism practices is less understood, particularly in graduate student contexts and for different marginalized…