Synopses & Reviews
Asian Americans are the fastest growing minority population in the country. Moreover, they provide a wonderful lens on the experiences of immigrants and minorities in the United States more generally, both historically and today. In this timely new text, Pawan Dhingra and Robyn Magalit Rodriguez critically examine key sociological topics through the experiences of Asian Americans, including social hierarchies (of race, gender, and sexuality), work, education, family, culture, identity, media, pan-ethnicity, social movements, and politics.
With vivid examples and lucid discussion of a broad range of theories, the authors demonstrate the contributions of the discipline of sociology to understanding Asian Americans, and vice versa. In addition, this text takes students beyond the boundaries of the United States to cultivate a comparative and global understanding of the Asian experience, as it has become increasingly transnational and diasporic.
Bridging sociology and the growing interdisciplinary field of Asian American studies, and uniquely placing them in dialogue with one another, this engaging text will be welcome in undergraduate and graduate sociology courses such as race and ethnic relations, immigration, and social stratification, as well as on ethnic studies courses more broadly.
Review
Dhingra and Rodriguez provide a new overview on the diversity of Asian American communities in the 21st century. Drawing on racial formation theory and critical race theory throughout the book, Asian America: Sociological and Interdisciplinary Perspectives reinterprets such key issues as immigrants' rights, labor, education, family, and popular culture in new, exciting, and accessible terms. Their approaches to race/class/gender intersectionality in the Asian American context, and their deconstruction of "model minority" stereotyping, are particularly valuable. Highly recommended for course adoption!
Howard Winant, University of California Santa BarbaraDhingra and Rodriguez are well-established scholars whose partnership has provided one of the best overviews on Asian Americans and race that I have read in recent years. With insightful analysis, clear writing, and incorporating an impressive range of material, this is an outstanding book.
Leland Saito, University of Southern California
A splendid, much-needed text, Asian America: Sociological and Interdisciplinary Perspectives reveals how the social sciences inform some of the key concepts and debates in Asian American and ethnic studies. Required reading for scholars and students alike.
Gary Y. Okihiro, Columbia University
About the Author
Pawan Dhingra is Associate Professor of Sociology and Comparative American Studies at Oberlin College, OH, and a Museum Curator at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.
Robyn Magalit Rodriguez is Associate Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Race, Gender, and Sexuality
Chapter 3 Arrival and History
Chapter 4 Class and Work Lives
Chapter 5 Education
Chapter 6 Family
Chapter 7 Citizenship
Chapter 8 Media
Chapter 9 Identity
Chapter 10 Interethnic/Inter-Minority Relations
Chapter 11 Social Movements and Politicsa