Evelyn Nakano Glenn is a scholar of cultural discourse, comparative historical studies of race, and the relationship between class gender, race, and labor markets. She completed her B.A. at the University of California, Berkeley and Ph.D. at Harvard University. Glenn was hired in 1990 to fill a joint position in the AAADS program and the Gender and Women's Studies department; she split her time teaching between Gender and Women's Studies, the AAADS program, and Ethnic Studies doctoral program until retirement in 2015. Below is an interview with the professor for the 50th anniversary of the AAADS program.
How has the program changed in that span of time?
Perhaps the most significant change was in the name and focus from "Asian American Studies" to "Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies," In the earlier period, there was a felt need to assert the "Americanness" of the Asian American experience and to emphasize the commonalities in the experiences and treatment of Asian Americans and other communities of color (African American, Native American, and Latinx). We used concepts such as "third world minorities" and "internal colonies" to characterize these commonalities. Framing our situations in these ways fostered political solidarity among these groups who demanded that the University create Ethnic Studies programs and departments. Also, it seemed important in that early period to claim an "American minority" identity, rather than transnational identity to counter the dominant trope of Asian Americans as perpetual foreigners. By the early 2000s, however, it became clear that Asian American Studies needed to recognize the global dimensions of Asian migration and the value of exploring the connections and aporias in the experiences of Asian communities across the globe
What are your proudest contributions to the program and field?
I am proud of my leadership as founding director of the Center for Race and Gender, which nurtured research and writing on women of color, undocumented students, and helped foster a sense of community among faculty and students of color.
How do you characterize your intellectual, social, political work within the field of Asian American studies?
My early research focused on gender, race, and labor, specifically Japanese American women in domestic work, based on oral history interviews. I coined the term « racial division of women’s work » to describe the concentration of women of color in paid domestic and caring labor. My later work focused on comparative histories of Asian Americans, Mexican American, and African American labor and citizenship. My community involvement has focused on redress for Japanese Americans who were unjustly interned during World War II, on the extension of rights to household workers, and support for for undocumented immigrant student at Berkeley and elsewhere.
What are the most pressing questions or critical issues facing Asian Americans today, and how can AAADS address them?
Two issues come to mind. First, especially relevant for those of us in the academy, is the question of what can we do to counter the efforts of anti-affirmative action activists to use Asian Americans as stalking horses to undermine affirmative action in college admissions? More generally, how can we continue to strengthen alliances with other groups of color and to challenge white privilege?
Second, is what can be done to stem the rising tide of violence directed at Asian Americans ? Though linked to the present-day Covid 19 epidemic, anti-Asian violence is, in a sense, an American tradition. Historian Jean Pfaelzer has documented large scale mob attacks, arsons, and lynching that drove Chinese out of Seattle, Tacoma, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Modesto and scores other cities and towns during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Contemporarily, Asian Americans have reached a critical mass such that they have some political voice. Thus, they have successfully lobbied Congress to pass legislation classifying violence directed at Asian Americans as hate crimes that are tracked and monitored by the federal agencies. Here too, organizing and forming alliances with Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans and others fighting violence against people of color and women seems important.