The Cultural Capital of Asian American Studies: Autonomy and Representation in the University

by Mark Chiang

Overview

Originating in the 1968 student-led strike at San Francisco State University, Asian American Studies was founded as a result of student and community protests that sought to make education more accessible and relevant. While members of the Asian American communities initially served on the departmental advisory boards, planning and developing areas of the curriculum, university pressures eventually dictated their expulsion. At that moment in history, the intellectual work of the field was split off from its relation to the community at large, giving rise to the entire problematic of representation in the academic sphere.
Even as the original objectives of the field have remained elusive, Asian American studies has nevertheless managed to establish itself in the university. Mark Chiang argues that the fundamental precondition of institutionalization within the university is the production of cultural capital, and that in the case of Asian American Studies (as well as other fields of minority studies), the accumulation of cultural capital has come primarily from the conversion of political capital. In this way, the definition of cultural capital becomes the primary terrain of political struggle in the university, and outlines the very conditions of possibility for political work within the academy. Beginning with the theoretical debates over identity politics and cultural nationalism, and working through the origins of ethnic studies in the Third World Strike, the formation of the Asian American literary field, and the Blu’s Hanging controversy, The Cultural Capital of Asian American Studies articulates a new and innovative model of cultural and academic politics, illuminating the position of ethnic studies within the American university.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814717011
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2009
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Mark Chiang is Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: Institutionalization and the Crisis of Representation 1

1 From Cultural Politics to Cultural Capital 23

2 Contradictions in the Emergence of Ethnic Studies 57

3 Disciplinary and the Political Identity of Asian American Studies 93

4 The Political Economy of Minority Literature 139

5 Asian American Cultural Capital and the Crisis of Legitimation 173

Notes 213

Bibliography 235

Index 245

About the Author 251

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The five chapters of the book engage in a systematic analysis of key moments and texts that have shaped the field in its current form...represents a fine work of scholarship and a significant contribution ot the field of Asian American studies" -John Su,The Journal of Asian Studies

"Chiang directly challenges many shibboleths of Asian American Studies. For just this reason, The Cultural Capital of Asian American Studies is certain to be a watershed work in the field of Asian American literary and cultural studies."
-James Kyung-Jin Lee,University of California, Santa Barbara

Editorial Reviews

"The five chapters of the book engage in a systematic analysis of key moments and texts that have shaped the field in its current form...represents a fine work of scholarship and a significant contribution ot the field of Asian American studies"

Journal of Asian Studies - John Su

"Chiang directly challenges many shibboleths of Asian American Studies. For just this reason, The Cultural Capital of Asian American Studies is certain to be a watershed work in the field of Asian American literary and cultural studies."

James Kyung-Jin Lee

"Chiang directly challenges many shibboleths of Asian American Studies. For just this reason, The Cultural Capital of Asian American Studies is certain to be a watershed work in the field of Asian American literary and cultural studies."

-James Kyung-Jin Lee,University of California, Santa Barbara

"The five chapters of the book engage in a systematic analysis of key moments and texts that have shaped the field in its current form...represents a fine work of scholarship and a significant contribution ot the field of Asian American studies"-John Su,Journal of Asian Studies

From the Publisher