Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty
Professor
Email:tracy.buenavista@csun.edu
Phone: 818-677-5688
Office location: JR 340D
Biography
Dr. Tracy Lachica Buenavista
"Asian American Studies is important as a site to interrogate power, empower individuals and communities, and critically work together to transform oppressive structures.”
Tracy Lachica Buenavista is Professor of Asian American Studies and a core faculty member in the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. She also serves as the co-principal investigator for the CSUN DREAM Center, Asian American Studies Pathways Project, and Ethnic Studies Education Pathways Project; and is a member of the Project Rebound Community Advisory Committee. Professor Buenavista teaches courses on race and racism, immigration, and research methods, and in her research uses critical race theory to examine how education, immigration and carcerality shape the contemporary experiences of Filipino/a/x and other People of Color in the U.S. She is originally from the Bay Area, and loves to read, run, and jump rope.
Education
- Ph.D. Education (Emphasis in Higher Education and Organizational Change), University of California, Los Angeles, 2007.
- M.A. Education, University of California, Los Angeles, 2003.
- M.A. Asian American Studies, San Francisco State University, 2002.
- B.A. Integrative Biology with a minor in Ethnic Studies. University of California, Berkeley, 2000.
Selected Publications
- Buenavista, T. L., Jain, D., & Ledesma, M. (Eds.) (Forthcoming). First-generation faculty of color: Reflections on research, teaching, and service. Rutgers University Press.
- Buenavista, T. L., Cariaga, S., Curammeng, E. R., McGovern, E. R., Pour-Khorshid, F., Stovall, D. O., & Valdez, C. (Forthcoming). A praxis of critical race love: Toward the abolition of cisheteropatriarchy and toxic masculinity in educational justice formations. Educational Studies. DOI:10.1080/00131946.2021.1892683
- Buenavista, T. L. (Forthcoming). Critical race theory. The Encyclopedia of Filipina/x/o American Studies. SAGE.
- Buenavista, T. L., Stovall, D. O., Curammeng, E. R., & Valdez, C. (2019). Ethnic studies educators as enemies of the state and the fugitive space of classrooms. In C. Sleeter, R. T. Cuauhtin, W. Au, & M. Zavala (Eds.), Rethinking ethnic studies (pp. 220–225). Rethinking Schools.
- Ali, A. I. & Buenavista, T. L. (Eds.). (2018). Education at war!: The fight for students of color in America’s public schools. Fordham University Press.
- Buenavista, T. L. (2018). Model (undocumented) minorities and “illegal” immigrants: Centering Asian Americans and U.S. carcerality in undocumented student discourse. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(1), 78–91. DOI:10.1080/13613324.2016.1248823.
- Curammeng, E. R., Buenavista, T. L., & Cariaga, S. (2017). Asian American critical race theory: Origins, directions, and praxis. Center for Critical Race Studies at UCLA Research Briefs.https://issuu.com:443/almaiflores/docs/ec_tlb_sc_asianam_crt?e=25160478/49582421
- Buenavista, T. L. (2016). The making of a movement: Ethnic studies in a k–12 context. In D. M. Sandoval, A. J. Ratcliff, T. L. Buenavista, & J. R. Marin (Eds.), “White” washing in American education: The new culture wars in Ethnic Studies (pp. vii–xxvii). Praeger Press.
- McGovern, E. R. & Buenavista, T. L. (2016). Ethnic studies with k–12 students, families, and communities: The role of teacher education in preparing educators to serve the people. XChange: Publications and resources for public school professionals. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center X/UC Regents. Available at https://centerx.gseis.ucla.edu/xchange/ethnic-studies-k-12/innovations/
- Buenavista, T. L. (2012). Citizenship at a cost: Undocumented Asian youth perceptions and the militarization of immigration. Asian American and Pacific Islander Nexus, 10(1), 101–124.
Selected Honors and Awards
- CSUN University Student Union, Aida C. Salazar Award, 2020
- UC Davis Equity Summit, Community Engagement and Scholar Activism Award, 2020
- CSUN Faculty Senate Outstanding Faculty Award, 2018
- CSUN Exceptional Service to Students Award, 2017
- San Francisco State University, Outstanding Asian American Studies Alumni Award, 2015
- CSUN University Ambassadors, Polished Apple Teaching Award, 2012, 2006
Professor
Email: edith.chen@csun.edu
Phone: 818-677-5690
Office location: JR 340A
Biography
Edith Wen-Chu Chen is professor of Asian American Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from UCLA. Originally from Texas, Dr. Chen is a second generation Chinese American who received her undergraduate degree from University of Texas at Austin. Much of her research has been policy-oriented and/or community-based dealing with race, gender and equity. This includes supervising a 5-year National Institutes of Health funded grant on Asian Americans and diabetes; examining experiences of faculty of color in higher education; creating curriculum and educational materials for high school and college teachers; and an oral history and digital archival project of Japanese Americans in the San Fernando Valley. Currently she is wrapping up a National Institutes of Health funded project, "Is Assimilation Costing Asian Americans their Health: Type 2 diabetes in California's Asian American populations." This is the first multi-year large scale grant at CSUN dedicated to working with undergraduate and graduate students on Asian Americans and health research. You can find her teaching AAS 100 (Introduction to Asian American Studies) and AAS 340 (Asian American Women). During her sabbatical (2023-2024), she "enjoyed" studying Mandarin at Mandarin Training Center at National Taiwan Normal University.
Professor
Email: tomo.hattori@csun.edu
Phone: 818-677-7284
Office location: JR 340P
Biography
Dr. Tomo Hattori
Tomo Hattori is an Associate Professor of Asian American Literary and Cultural Studies at California State University, Northridge. His work has appeared in the leading journals Novel and differences and in the groundbreaking anthologies Representations: Doing Asian American Rhetoric (honorable mention, Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize, Modern Language Association, 2008) and Growing Up Asian American in Children’s Literature (winner, Children’s Literature Association Edited Book Award, 2020). He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on Asian American literature, comics, and critical theory.
Education
- Ph.D. English Literature, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 1994
- M.A. English Literature, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 1989
- B.A. English Literature, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1988
Recent Scholarship
- “Matters of Life and Death: Transnational Manifestations of Power in Two Multicultural Picture Books.” Collaboration with Stuart Ching and Jann Pataray-Ching. International Research in Children’s Literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021.
- “How to Be a Monkey: Stereotyping and the Transformative Instant in Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese and Level Up.” Ymitri Mathison, ed. Growing Up Asian American in Children’s Literature. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2017.
Professor
Email: clement.lai@csun.edu
Phone: 818-677-7243
Office location: JR 340N
Biography
Dr. Clement Lai
"Asian American Studies links the study of power with the politics of social justice and building a new world. It is grounded in concerns centered on solidarity, on empowerment, and on possibility."
Dr. Clement Lai earned his Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies in 2006 and an MA in Geography in 1997 from the University of California, Berkeley. He also has a BA in Asian Studies from Pomona College, where he helped found an Asian American students’ center in the early 1990s and an Asian American Studies program.
Prior to joining the faculty at CSUN, Professor Lai worked at Cornell University and as a community organizer and volunteer with Asian American organizations in Northern California and Southern California.
Professor Lai’s research focuses on race and space, on social movements, on politics and public policy issues, and on multiracial racial formation. He is currently writing a manuscript on redevelopment in San Francisco’s Fillmore District and its effects on the neighborhood’s African American and Japanese American communities.
He has published on racial theory and space in a multiracial context and on the importance of place and space to the mobilization of Asian American Movement activists. His current research projects include oral history-based research on historic multiracial neighborhoods on the US West Coast and studying the implications of colorblind racism in urban planning policy, practice, and pedagogy. He teaches on Asian American history, urban studies, and political issues. Professor Lai approaches Asian American Studies as a political project grounded in social justice. He is a Southern California native who, in his spare time, enjoys spending time with his wife, playing guitar, and walking his dog Mochi.
Education
- Ph.D. Ethnic Studies , University of California, Berkeley, 2006
- M.A. Geography, University of California, Berkeley, 1997
- B.A. Asian Studies, Pomona College, 1991
Scholarship Highlights
- "The Racial Triangulation of Space: The Case of Urban Renewal in San Francisco's Fillmore District," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 101, 6, forthcoming.
- "Saving Japantown, Serving the People: The Scalar Politics of the Asian American Movement," Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, forthcoming.
- Institute of American Cultures Postdoctoral Fellowship, UCLA, 2008-2009
- UC President's Dissertation Fellowship, 2005
Assistant Professor
Email: simmy.makhijani@csun.edu
Phone: 818-677-7218
Office Location: JR 340L
Biography
Dr. Simmy Makhijani
Simmy Makhijani is Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies at California State University (Northridge). As an educator, activist, and scholar her work focuses on the intersections of art, living histories, youth organizing, cross-racial solidarity and movement building with emphases in Asian American and South Asian American (activism) studies.
At CSUN, Professor Makhijani teaches courses on critical thinking and im/migration conceptualized through intersectional frameworks of world-ecology and solidarity. She also designed CSUN’s first ever South Asian American “experiences” course with special attention given to community activism and solidarity as critical praxis. The core of her pedagogy is best described as seeding an imagination (and a building of) a just social universe, because the future is up to us, all of us!
While living in the Bay Area, she was a full-time lecturer at San Francisco State University in the College of Ethnic Studies for six years and prior to that co-founded + co-ran United Roots (a green youth arts and media community center in Oakland) for five years. Over the last two decades she has been involved with numerous community organizing efforts including South Asians for Education Justice Collective, Asians 4 Black Lives, Third World Resistance Coalition, Bay Area Solidarity Summer, Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, Narika, Asian Women’s Shelter, South Asian Women’s Creative Collective-SF, and Art in Action.
Professor Makhijani holds a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology plus a Masters in Asian and Comparative Studies and continues to share her research/writing with several community, activist, and education projects committed to the work of transformative/healing justice in action.
Education
- PhD, California Institute of Integral Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology
- MA, California Institute of Integral Studies, Asian and Comparative Studies
- BA, Pennsylvania State University, Journalism
Selected Publications
Nguyen, T., Buyco, R., Lin, M., Makhijani, S., and Yamashita, W. (2024). “Towards a Critical Pedagogy of Introduction: Contradictions of Ethnic Studies as General Education after AB-1460.” In AAPI Nexus Journal: Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders Policy, Practice and Community. UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Vol. 21, No. 1. Los Angeles, CA: Spring 2024.
Makhijani, S. (2020). “Desis Rising Up and Moving, 2000-Present.” In E. Hobson and D. Berger (Volume Eds.), Remaking Radicalism: A Grassroots Documentary Reader of the United States, 1973-2001.University of Georgia Press.
Makhijani, S. (2020). “South Asians on the Pacific West Coast (the Early Years): A Brief History of the Present.” In E. Shrake, T. Leon, and C. Chen (Eds.), Asian Pacific American Experiences: Past, Present, and Future (2ndEdition), Kendall Hunt Publishing.
Makhijani, S. (2020). “Bloodlines of Ghadar: Two Generations of Radical South Asian American Women.” In E. Shrake, T. Leon, and C. Chen (Eds.), Asian Pacific American Experiences: Past, Present, and Future (2ndEdition), Kendall Hunt Publishing.
Makhijani, S. (2020). “#Asians4BlackLives” In E. Shrake, T. Leon, and C. Chen (Eds.), Asian Pacific American Experiences: Past, Present, and Future (2ndEdition), Kendall Hunt Publishing.
Fu, M., Makhijani, S., Pham, A., Richart, M., Tien, J., and Wong, D. (2019). “Asians4BlackLives: Notes from the Ground.” In D. Fujino and R. Rodriguez (Guest Eds.), Amerasia Journal,45:2, 253-70. Routledge/Taylor and Francis.
Makhijani, S. (2015). “Which Side Are You On?: Black and South Asian American Youth, Solidarity Activism, and New Generation Politics,” PhD diss., California Institute of Integral Studies.
Makhijani, S. (2013). “United States of Dissent: Converging Political Imaginaries of the Ghadarites and Black Panthers.” In SAMAR: South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection, Issue 41, published online.
Makhijani, S. (2008). “War Harvest: Can There Be Such A Thing As A Post-Conflict Society?” In Catamaran: South Asian American Writing, Volume 9, Thames Printing Company, Inc., Norwich, CT: Winter 2008.
Selected Honors and Awards
San Francisco State University, Outstanding Teaching, Service, and Dedication to the Principles of Ethnic Studies Award, 2021
Acting Chair, Professor
Email: gina.masequesmay@csun.edu
Phone: 818-677-7219
Office location: JR 346C
Biography
Dr. Gina Masequesmay
"Asian American Studies is important for the self-empowerment of students; contesting mainstream knowledge; and fighting for social justice for all, not just for some."
Dr. Masequesmay filed her doctoral dissertation in Sociology at UCLA in January 26, 2001. Three days later, she began her teaching career at CSUN. Her areas of interests are Vietnamese American experiences, the intersection of race, class, gender and sexuality, and identity work.
Dr. Masequesmay and her colleague, Dr. Teresa Williams-Leon were awarded $45,000 from Ford Foundation to organize a second national conference on Asian American sexuality and sensuality called, "CrossTalk II: Embodiments of Asian Pacific American Sexuality".
She is consulting with Dr. Nhut Ho in engineering on a research project on automation and trust. Her current interest is on practicing peace and collective & individual healing.
Education
- Ph.D. Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2001
- M.A. Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1995
- B.A. Sociology, Pomona College, 1991
Scholarship Highlights
- I contributed to “Ô-Môi” in Many Bridges, One River: Organizing for Justice in Vietnamese American Communities, edited by Thuan Nguyen and Vy Nguyen. Los Angeles: Asian American Studies Center, 2017.
- Introduction chapter on Vietnamese lgbt issues with coverage of the first lgbt contingent to the Tet Parade in Little Saigon. Masequesmay, Gina (2012). "Queering Tet," in Eunai Shrake & Edith Chen (eds.), Asian Pacific American Experiences: Past, Present, and Future. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, pp. 323-334.
- Another co-edited book with Dr. Ana Sanchez Munoz, Dr. Tracy Buenavista, Dr. Eunai Shrake. It is a followed-up collection to Learning English / Learning America called Navigating the Great Recession, providing voices of resilience as immigrant families navigate economic hard times. It was published by Kendal/Hunt Publication in 2011.
- My co-edited book with Sean Metzger: Embodying Asian/American Sexualities. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2009. This work was originally inspired by a conference that I co-organized with Dr. Teresa Williams-Leon called "CrossTalk II: Embodiments of API Sexuality."
- My entry on "Sexism" is out in the Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, edited by Jodi O'Brien. Sage Publications, 2008.
- I have a book out that I have co-edited with Dr. Juana Mora, Dr. Eunai Shrake and Dr. Ana Sanchez Munoz. It is a collection of essays called Learning English / Learning America. It is published by Kendal/Hunt Publication.
- A chapter I had written about critical ethnography and Ethnic Studies is published! "Methodological Intersections of Race, Sexuality and Ethnography" in Handbook of Research Methods in Ethnic Studies, edited by Timothy P. Fong. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press, 2008.
- “Building Allies: Linking Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in Asian American Studies,” in Teaching about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: Effective Activities, Assignments, and Strategies for Classrooms and Workshops, Edith Chen and Glenn Omatsu (ed.). San Francisco: Altamira Press. (2006).
- Recipient of the 2004-05 Don Dorsey Excellence in Mentoring Award.
Eunai Shrake
Professor (FERP)
Email: eunai.shrake@csun.edu
Phone: 818-677-2151
Office location: JR 346A
Biography
Dr. Eunai Shrake - Advising Coordinator
"Asian American Studies is important because it provides intellectual space to reflect on American society's race/class structure and to (re)think ways to build a more democratic and equitable society."
Dr. Shrake is a professor who specializes in Asian American education. Prior to joining CSUN AAS department in 2002, she taught at UCLA, UCI, and CSULB.
She teaches ITEP and teacher education courses such as Asian American Child and The Schools (AAS 450), and Equity and Diversity in School (AAS 417). Her teaching repertoire also includes Introduction to Asian American Studies (AAS 100), and Directed Research in Contemporary Korean American Community (AAS 495KAC).
She has published three co-edited books and various journal articles and book chapters. Her current research projects focus on “Parachute Kids” and “Transnational (Wild Geese) Families” from East Asian countries.
She is an animal lover and spends her spare time playing with her 7 kitties; Gigi, Fifi, Pierre, Kiki, Marcel, Sophie, and Cherie.
Dr. Shrake with her AAS 495 class in 2013 at her house
Education
- Ph.D. Education (emphasis in Social Sciences of Education & Comparative Education), University of California, Los Angeles.
- Th.M. Theology, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Austin, TX,
- M.A. Christian Education, Presbyterian College, Seoul, Korea
- B.A. Christian Education, Presbyterian College, Seoul, Korea
Scholarship Highlights
- Co-editor (with Mora, Masequesmay & Munoz), Learning English/Learning America: Voices of Latinos and Asian Americans (Kendall/Hunt Publishers, 2008).
- Co-editor (with Munoz, Buenavista & Masequesmay), Navigating the Great Recession (Kendall/Hunt Publishers, 2011).
- Co-editor (with E. Chen) Asian Pacific American Experience: Past, Present, and Future (Kendall/Hunt Publishers, 2012).
Professor
Email: teresa.k.williams@csun.edu
Phone: 818-677-6098
Office location: JR 340G
Biography
Dr. Teresa Williams León
"Asian American Studies is important because it was born out of the passion, dedication, and struggle of Asian Americans and people of all ethnic groups who knew that the critical examination of Asian Americans has a legitimate place in higher education."
Dr. Williams León is currently serving as the acting director of the American Indian Studies Program. Her research and teaching interest focus on transnational, transborder, multiethnic/multiracial identity, communities and institutions, race and ethnic relations, and the multiracial/multiethnic Asian diaspora in Japan, the United States and Central and South America and the Caribbean.
Williams León has published numerous articles and book chapters. She has also been featured in documentary films and media presentations on multiracial and transnational identities. She co-edited, with Professor Velina Hasu Houston of USC., the special issues of Amerasia Journal (1997, Vol. 23, No. 1) titled, "No Passing Zone: The Artistic and Discursive Voices of Asian-Descent Multiracials," which has now become part of Amerasia's classic series. She co-edited an anthology with Cynthia L. Nakashima of UC Berkeley titled, "The Sum of Our Parts: Mixed Heritage Asian Americans" (Temple University Press, 2001).
She has taught some of the first classes on multiracial/biracial identity at UC-Santa Barbara, UCLA, and CSUN. She has been a faculty member at CSUN since Fall of 1996. She is a board member of Hapa Issues Forum, Southern California Chapter and an advisory board member of the national organization of Hapa Issues Forum.
Dr. Williams León, with her colleague, Dr. Masequesmay, was awarded a $45,000 grant from the Ford Foundation in 2001-2002 to organize and develop a national educational conference titled " CrossTalk II: Embodiments of Asian Pacific Islander Sexuality" to promote dialogue and research among community-based organizers, biomedical researchers, scholars, educators, artists, social scientists, health care providers, and humanists, as well as to affect social policy issues around Asian American sexuality and sensuality issues. Dr. Williams León is a CSUN Ally with the Positive Space Program (PSP).
In 2002, Teresa Williams Leon was awarded the Prism Award from the National Hapa Issues Forum for her contributions to multiracial identity scholarship. In 2004 & 2005, she was awarded the Polished Apple Teaching Awards from the University Ambassadors. In 2007, she won CSUN's Outstanding Faculty Award & in 2009, she was recognized for her commitment to international education with the "Outstanding Service Award" by the Omega chapter of Phi Beta Delta (the international scholar's society).
Education
- Ph.D. Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1997
- M.A. Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1991
- M.A. Asian American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, 1989
- B.A. Japanese Language and Literature with a certificate in Ethnic Studies, University of Hawaii, Manoa, 1986
- A.A. Asian Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, 1983
Scholarship Highlights
- Dr. León is currently collaborating on publication projects with Dr. Velina Hasu Houston (USC), Dr. Curtiss Takada Rooks (LMU) and Dr. H. Rika Houston (CSULA) on multiraciality & intersectionality.
- Co-editor (with Eunai Shrake and Edith Wen-Chu Chen) Asian Pacific American Experiences: Past, Present and Future (Kendall-Hunt Publishers, 2020).
- Co-editor (with Cynthia L. Nakashima), The Sum of Our Parts: Mixed Heritage Asian Americans (Temple University Press, 2001).
- Co-editor, (with Velina Hasu Houston), special issues of Amerasia Journal (1997, Vol. 23, No. 1) titled, "No Passing Zone: The Artistic and Discursive Voices of Asian-Descent Multiracials."
