Dr. Jennifer Ho has been elected as President of the Association for Asian American Studies for a three-year term. Founded in 1979, the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) is the primary research and teaching hub for Asian American Studies, an interdisciplinary field born out of the 1960s movements for racial justice and student activism. The AAAS is committed to “sponsoring conferences, symposia, special projects, and events, which engage the association’s priorities with regard to scholarship, mentorship, and pedagogy. Equally important is the degree to which the association’s various objectives – specifically as they intersect with advocating and representing the interests and welfare of Asian American Studies and Asian Americans – reflect multiple communities and varied identities.”
As President, Dr. Ho seeks to improve organizational communication and make the scholarship of the AAAS more visible. Dr. Ho wants to “continue to highlight issues that need our attention in the academy at large, namely contingent faculty needs, graduate student support, and groups that are marginalized within Asian American studies.” She is committed to empowering AAAS members along with “anyone who is interested in learning about Asian American people and the richness of Asian American scholarship as a tool for decolonization.”
Dr. Ho attended her first AAAS conference two years following completion of her undergraduate degree at UC Santa Barbara and quickly learned “this was a place where people treated you like family.” Since her undergraduate and graduate school years, the AAAS has grown in membership and visibility, while maintaining its “commitment to social justice and community partners and activism.” “It’s a very rich space for me to be with other scholars,” Dr. Ho says, “I can learn from all of the amazing scholarship on display from my brilliant colleagues—which includes our very own Dr. Heidi Kim.”
Dr. Kim, who has also been a regular AAAS attendee since her graduate school years, is excited by Dr. Ho’s recent election. “Jennifer is one of the most active and engaged scholars of her generation,” Dr. Kim says, “she is such a warm and generous mentor. Her devotion to this field is second to none, and she has a number of great ideas for growing and strengthening the association.”
For more information about the Association for Asian American Studies and Dr. Jennifer Ho, click here.
