More than We Imagined: A Reflection on the First 25 Years of the Journal of Asian American Studies

Abstract

More than We ImaginedA Reflection on the First 25 Years of the Journal of Asian American Studies Donna Doan Anderson with Naomi Joseph and the Asian/American Studies Collective In the inaugural introduction of the Journal of Asian American Studies (JAAS) in February 1998, co-editors John M. Liu and Gary Okihiro outlined the prospects for the newest journal in the field of Asian American studies. Arriving thirty years after the founding of the first academic programs in the field, Liu and Okihiro called the journal "a testament to the power of the original vision of Asian American studies" and a "fruition of decades of struggle towards a more inclusive and equitable future."1 They proclaimed that JAAS, affectionately pronounced "jazz," was a place where scholars could present their latest intellectual developments and demonstrate a diversity of perspectives while offering space for critical dialogue. At a time when the field of Asian American studies fought for legitimacy, recognition, and consistency in academia, Liu and Okihiro described their projections of JAAS's future goals as "lofty" but hopeful in stating, "our heady past and collective actions have shown that we can indeed accomplish more than we might have ever imagined."2 As we wrap up the journal's twenty-fifth year, it is important, then, to reflect on Liu and Okihiro's remarks and consider the extent to which the imaginings of the journal's inception have been realized. The journal encapsulates the many shifts, changes, and tensions of the field and how, as the June 2022 issue raised, we reckon with the interdiscipline that is Asian American studies. In many ways, questions of institutionalization continue to shape how we view, engage, and participate in academic spaces. What are the costs of institutionalization, [End Page 21] recognition, and legitimacy? In the wake of its activist past, what purpose does Asian American studies (hereafter ASAMST) serve and to whom is it accountable? Whether the answers were clearer twenty-five years ago is debatable.3 The establishment of the journal in 1998 offered the academic legitimacy and institutional recognition that ASAMST scholars sought after a tumultuous beginning. Born out of the racial justice, Third World liberation, and student activism movements of the 1960s, the field of ASAMST established its foundations amid institutional challenges to acknowledge marginalized and minoritized experiences.4 Early studies sought to rectify institutional erasure by emphasizing identity and histories often ignored in the traditional disciplines of history, anthropology, sociology, and literary studies. The establishment of the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) in 1979, and its annual conferences since 1982, helped to legitimate and, for many, professionalize ASAMST as a distinctive field of academic inquiry.5 By the 1990s, at least thirty universities and colleges hosted ASAMST or ethnic studies programs on their campus, with the field's first bachelor's program at a major research university at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1995, initiated by Sucheng Chan.6 Maintaining degree programs, however, required more than the virtue signaling of academic visibility; it required the precedent of publishing. Prior to JAAS's inception, UCLA's Amerasia Journal, initially established by Asian American students at Yale University in 1971, advanced knowledge in the field in important ways as the main academic journal.7 Additionally, Washington State University Press published several edited volumes and AAAS conference proceedings in the late 1980s and mid-1990s that chronicled central conversations that further shaped the field.8 After a number of volumes, however, Washington State University Press discontinued their publication noting that poor sales did not justify their production.9 The growth of the field in the 1990s and departmental demands to publish in peer-reviewed journals necessitated additional avenues for academic publishing, which raised the possibility of creating an official journal for the Association. Led by Gail Nomura and Kenyon Chan, AAAS presidents in the mid-1990s, and Gary Okihiro, discussions on pursuing a Journal of Asian American Studies began. Relying on preestablished connections at John Hopkins University Press (JHUP), Nomura and Okihiro met with editors and a contract was settled between the Association and JHUP in 1997. Coordinating a journal to meet the needs of a growing field raised logistical...