Our Program

Overview

Founded in 1991, the Asian American Studies Program at University of Wisconsin-Madison is the oldest Asian American Studies program in the Midwest. Our program provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to develop a sustained intellectual focus on Asian American racial formation, history, literature, culture, and social concerns. Undergraduate students from any major who take 12 credits of coursework can earn a Certificate in Asian American Studies; additionally, those who take 2 courses in HMoob American Studies can earn an HMoob American Studies Emphasis. Asian American Studies is led by a core group of tenure-track faculty who have joint appointments in Asian American Studies, as well as lecturers and graduate students. We also have a Program Advisory Committee of over 20 affiliate faculty and staff from our interdisciplinary partners across campus.

Learning Outcomes

Students who earn a certificate in Asian American Studies will enhance learning in the following areas:

  1. Advance understandings about Asian American racial formation in the U.S.
  2. Increase and deepen ability to critically analyze how race works together with ideas about gender, sexuality, class, and nationality to shape social identities and their status in U.S. society
  3. Enhance insights into how Asian Americans are situated in relation to other minoritized groups such as African Americans, Latinxs, and Indigenous peoples in the U.S.
  4. Develop a set of social, historical, and/or cultural contexts from which to make sense of current events