Staff and Faculty

Staff 

Name Contact
Richard Lee
Director, DUS, Asian American Studies
Professor
Department of Psychology

N563 Elliott Hall
612-625-6357
richlee@umn.edu

 

Huab Xiong
Outreach and Program Coordinator
782 Social Sciences Building
hua-xg@umn.edu
Laichia Vang
Student Assistant
782 Social Sciences Building
vang3308@umn.edu

CLA Core Faculty

Name Contact Specialties
Ananya Chatterjea
অনন্যা চট্টোপাধ্যায়
Professor
Department of Dance
ananya@umn.edu Social Justice Choreography, Contemporary Dance of Asia and Africa, Aesthetics, Movement, Women's Studies, Choreography and Performance, Performance in Global Contexts, Politics of Cultural Production, Theorizing Dancing Bodies, Choreography and Social Justice, Contemporary Dance of Asia and Africa
Elliott Powell
Associate Professor
Department of American Studies

104 Scott Hall
ehpowell@umn.edu

 

American popular music and culture, critical race theory and comparative ethnic studies, feminist and queer studies, African American and Asian American studies, music and politics, music and globalization, jazz, hip hop, sound studies
Josephine Lee
Professor
Department of English, Department of American Studies
 310D Lind Hall
612-625-9510 jolee@umn.edu
Dramatic literature, theater history, performance studies Asian American studies
Laura Garbes
Professor
Department of Sociology
925 Social Sciences Building
garbes@umn.edu
Racism, Organizational Theory, Media, Economic Sociology, Cultural Studies
Kale B Fajardo
Associate Professor
Department of American Studies

104 Scott Hall
612-626-7646
kfajardo@umn.edu

 

Philippine studies, Filipino/a American studies, Asian/Asian American studies, American studies, masculinity studies, gender studies, feminist studies, queer studies, migration/immigration/transnationalism/ diasporas/globalization, maritime studies, Pacific World, port cities
Karen Ho
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology

395 Hubert H. Humphrey Center
karenho@umn.edu

 

Cultural studies of finance capital; finance, globalization, and capitalism; ethnography; feminist studies; political economy; United States; comparative race and ethnicity
Pao Houa Her
Assistant Professor
Department of American Studies
W170 Regis Center for Art West

herxx235@umn.edu

Art
Kari Smalkoski  Assistant Professor Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies

414 Ford Hall  smal0009@umn.edu

 

Masculinity, gender and identity, education and political economy, LGBTQ youth as well as youth sports and social capital
Mai Na Lee
Associate Professor
Department of History
937 Heller Hall
612-625-6124
mainalee@umn.edu
Southeast Asia, highland Southeast Asian studies, Southeast Asian American/Hmong communities
Melanie Abeygunawardana
Assistant Professor
Department of American Studies

 

 

Contemporary Asian American and African American literature, critical race theory, and affect studies

 

Richard Lee
Professor
Department of Psychology
N563 Elliott Hall
612-625-6357
richlee@umn.edu
Counseling psychology, prevention science, ethnic minority mental health, international adoption, individual differences, Asian American studies
Teresa Toguchi Swartz
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology
933 Social Sciences Building
612-626-1862
tswartz@umn.edu
Families; intergenerational relations; social inequality; Asian American studies; gender; welfare state; children, youth, and young adulthood
Yuichiro Onishi
Associate Professor
Department of African American & African Studies
808 Social Sciences
612-624-9847
ohni0001@umn.edu
Black radicalism and internationalism, African American history, transnational American studies, critical race studies, Asian American studies

Affiliate Faculty

Name Contact Specialties
Vichet Chhuon
Associate Professor of Culture and Teaching
College of Education & Human Development
359 Peik Hall
612-625-4331
vichet@umn.edu
Motivation, urban education, racial and ethnic identities, adolescent development, school connectedness, immigrant youth, Asian American studies
Bic Ngo
Professor
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
College of Education and Human Development
350A Peik Hall
612-625-7520
bcngo@umn.edu
Culturally relevant pedagogy, urban and multicultural education, immigrant education
Moin Syed
Professor
Department of Psychology
N567 Elliott Hall
612-625-9501
moin@umn.edu
Identity development among culturally and ethnically diverse youth, intersections among multiple identities, educational and career pathways, narrative psychology
Ruby Nguyen
Associate Professor
Epidemiology & Community Health, School of Public Health

Div. Epidemiology & Community Health
Suite 300

612-626-7559
nguy0082@umn.edu

Pubic health; health; immigrant health; family violence; environmental (chemical exposure) health
Michelle Pasco
Assistant Professor
Family Social Science

mpasco@umn.edu

 

Neighborhoods, ethnic-racial concentration, adolescent development, family processes ethnic-racial identity, political identity, discrimination, socialization, mixed methods
Alvin Zhou
Assistant Professor
Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication
325 Murphy Hall
612-625-5088
alvinyxz@umn.edu
Computational social science, social movement, big data, political communication, strategic communication.
Ka I Ip
Assistant Professor
Institute of Child Development
kaip@umn.edu Children of immigrant, cultural contexts, social and neigborhood inequalities, stress, social determinants of health and emotion regulation, children and adolescent mental health, brain and HPA axis development 
Marizen Ramirez
Professor
Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health
1210 Mayo
612-624-3143
mramirez@umn.edu
Public health, epidemiology, injury and violence prevention, interventions, health equity, policy evaluation, racial trauma, adverse child experiences, bullying 
Alvin Wee
Professor and Director Division of Prosthodontics
9-470A Moos Tower 515
wee00008@umn.edu
(1) Major: Clinical translational aspects of color science with regard to teeth/skin and their respective restorative materials
(2) Minor: Early detection of oral and oropharyngeal cancer
(3) Minor: Educational research in the area of restorative dentistry and prosthodontics
Aamina Ahmad
Assistant Professor
English
ahmad291@umn.edu Creative Writing, Fiction, Drama and Writing for the Screen
Kay A. Simon
Assistant Professor
Family Social Science
simo1253@umn.edu LGBTQ+ families and future parenthood, LGBTQ+ youth, Identity and identity development
Xiaoran Sun
Assistant Professor
Family Social Science
sunx0521@umn.edu Family systems and adolescent development; Digital technology and family; Computational social science
V. V. Ganeshananthan
Associate Professor
English
vganesha@umn.edu Creative writing, fiction, non-fiction, journalism, contemporary novels, South Asian diaspora literature, South Asian Anglophone literature, Sri Lanka, Tamil