Annotated List of Online Resources
The web possesses incredible potential as a research tool for students of Asian American Literature. However, it also possesses the potential to mislead and misinform the unwary on just about any topic. The best, most reliable information is that provided by refereed journals and scholarly books.
"Refereed" or "peer-reviewed" means that other scholars in the field have read the articles and agreed that they are of sufficient quality to be published.
Refereed Journals
Amerasia
This Asian American Studies journal has been in publication since 1971, and has a search engine for topics covered in past issues available on their web site. The same site also gives detailed infromation about he UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Check your local college library for bound and current issues of Amerasia.
Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies: This journal, founded in 2010 and indexed by the MLA, is fully online and accessible to all without a subscription. It focuses on analyzing Asian American Literature with the classroom in mind. Special issues have been produced on mixed race identity, food culture, and popular visual culture.
Journal of Asian American Studies
This interdisciplinary journal, founded in 1998, focuses on Asian American issues and is produced by the Association of Asian American Studies. Some libraries will have electronic access to this via Project Muse or Jstor databases.
MELUS: Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-ethnic Literature of the United States.
Focused on literature and literary criticism, MELUS is the most important journal for the study of Ethnic American literature and it has individual articles, reviews, interviews, and occasionally whole issues devoted to the study of Asian American literature. MELUS can be found in both print and electronic form and most colleges and universities will provide students with access to full text MELUS articles for printing, downloading, or emailing.
Suggested Scholarly Books
San Jose State University - King Library
This site lists a variety of books on Asian American literature, history and sociology. It is designed for users of the San Jose State's King Library with direct links to the catalog for each book but the titles are widely available.
Asian American Studies Center at UCLA
A site literally cluttered with great information about new books in the field, events and other kinds of information. UCLA has an Asian American Studies Department.
CSU Stanislaus' "Asian American Literature: A Selective Bibliography"
This bibliography is divided into pre-1950 and post-1950 sections and then subdivided by ethnic group.
The site originated around 1995 and was last updated 8-11-2000. This list contains many texts that would be of interest to those taking on the theoretical and cultural issues important to the study of Asian American literature.
Michigan State University Libraries' Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Resources
This site provides some statistics on Asian Americans along with references with links directly to the MSU catalog in a manner similar to the SJSU page above. Last updated: October 18, 1999
Asian American Bookstores and Book Publishers
A short selection of publishers and bookstores which carry or specialize in Asian American Literature
Arkipelago Philippine Books
Arkipelago bills itself as the Filipino Bookstore. They have an online catalog. Provides books from Southeast Asian and Asian American authors.
Asian American Writers' Workshop
A non-profit writers' organization geared towards Asian American writers and promoting Asian American literature. Sponsors creative writing workshops, readings, and programs. Located in New York. Check out the "Books" section to find some great texts that are otherwise not as well distributed as they are put together.
Eastwind Books of Berkeley
The University Avenue store offers readings by established and up and coming Asian American authors. The website is also very helpful for its recommended and featured books.
The Filipino and Filipino-American Cyber-Library
An Amazon.com affiliated site with convenient categories and a large assortment of Filipino American texts.
University of Hawaii Press
Publisher of books on Asian, Asian American, Hawaiian, and Pacific studies. The University of Hawaii Press also publishes several journals related to Asian and Pacific Studies. They also operate as a kind of regional popular press, but given the demographics of that state, even general texts are sometimes appropriate to the field of Asian American literature.
Kaya
Publisher of "asian/diasporic literature and culture." As an independent press, Kaya offers a range of texts that you usually won't see in big commecial bookstores. They generally make quality books and their anthology Premonitions is particularly beautiful.
Temple University Press
Has some important works of Asian American scholarship in their series Asian American History and Culture. This is one of the oldest and most respected series in Asian American Studies.
University of Washington Press
Publishing a wide variety of books in the humanities fields, the University of Washington Press web site has a subsection dedicated to their Asian American Studies books. This press has been especially key in keeping early primary literary sources in print.
Asian American Studies Programs
Interested in pursuing this field? Here are a few programs that you might want to check out. These sites generally supply additional useful links. Discuss these departments with people already in the field (like your professors) to get a better sense of what paths are available. You should also contact the departments to get the most up to date information about current faculty, requirements, how to apply, etc.
San Jose State University
Describes the Major and Minor offered in Asian American Studies by the Department of Social Science.
University of California at Berkeley Ethnic Studies Department
The website provides information on the various areas of specialization available as well as their PhD program. In combination with their strong English department, UC Berkeley has produced many important scholars of Asian American literature.
University of California at Santa Barbara Asian American Studies Department
See the UCSB homepage for a view of the best location any university student could ask for. The department webpage offers information on their major, minor, and graduate course offerings.
New York University's Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program & Institute
A glamorous website that is sometimes hard to read but nevertheless provides a lot of information about their program and related events.
University of Wisconsin, Madison Asian American Studies Program
Has links to book and video lists.
Other Academic Sites
The value of the information on these sites must be evaluated carefully by the user.
Asian & Pacific Island American History & Literature for K-12 Teachers
The "Internet School Library Media Center Asian Americans page which includes history, literature and biography of American of Asian ancestry. The ISLMC is a meta-site for librarians, teachers, parents and students." A searchable site with lots of great links. This same source also offers a site called "Asian-American Literature: History, Classroom Use, Bibliography & WWW Resources." Be wary of its over-simplified advice about evaluating ethnic literature.
EN320 - Georgian Court College's Asian American Literature Course
Contains student reviews of Asian American Literature, as well as links to other Asian American resources, reading lists, etc.
MANOA: A Pacific Journal of International Writing
One of the many journals published by the University of Hawaii Press. Features literary works, interviews, and reviews.
Search Engines, Directories, and Meta-Sites
These sites feature listings of hyperlinks related to Asian American Studies. As with all non-refereed sites, take all information with a grain of salt.
Google Search Results - Asian American Literature
VOICE OF THE SHUTTLE HOME PAGE
One of the forerunners in online humanities resources. See the Asian American Literature listing (small), as well as the Asian American Studies listing (large).
Race and Pedaogy Project
UCSB site directed by Carl Gutierrez-Jones which focuses on teaching race, especially in California. Multiethnic in focus (with quite a bit on African American literature) but tangentially relevent for teachers of Asian American Literature. Has a segment on Angel Island poetry.
Asian American Studies Resources:
Eclectic site run by Daniel Tsang. Good collection of links on Asian American media and cultural sites.
About the Author:
This site was conceived and composed by Dr. Noelle Brada-Williams of San José State University. With Dr. Karen Chow of De Anza College, Brada-Williams co-edited Crossing Oceans: Reconfiguring American Literary Studies in the Pacific Rim (Hong Kong UP). Brada-Williams has also published articles on authors such as Jhumpa Lahiri, Chang-rae Lee, Mine Okubo, Jessica Hagedorn, and Maxine Hong Kingston. She has taught at San José State University since 1998.
A release-time grant from the English Department of San Jose State University in 1999 enabled the original creation of this site. Stephanie Bryant aided in the original compiling and composition of this site and Victoria Machado assisted in the 2008 updating of the site. Victoria Machado's work was funded by a Spring 2008 CSU Research Grant and Professor Brada-Williams' work was further aided by a Spring 2008 release-time grant from the SJSU College of Humanities and the Arts.
We welcome your suggestions; email them to Professor Noelle Brada-Williams.
Last updated 9/29/2014.