The Department of History endorses the Asia/America@Dartmouth Action Plan

The Dartmouth History Department endorses the Asia/America@Dartmouth Action plan and the recent statement issued by the Dartmouth chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). This statement is as follows:

Statement by the Dartmouth AAUP supporting the Asia/America@Dartmouth Action Plan

The Dartmouth chapter of the AAUP condemns anti-Asian violence and stands in solidarity and grief with the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander community at Dartmouth and beyond. In the past year, racist and white supremacist language used by U.S. leaders to describe COVID-19 has sparked a surge of anti-Asian violence. Yet as the March 16, 2021 murder of 8 people in Atlanta, including six Asian migrant women—Daoyou Feng, Hyun J. Grant, Suncha Kim, Soon C. Park, Xiaojie Tan, and Yong A. Yue—viscerally reminds us, these terrible acts are grounded in long and intersecting histories of racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and legal discrimination. They are also a consequence of over 100 years of U.S. colonial violence and militarization across the Asia-Pacific that has led the United States to brutally perpetuate and disregard Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander death and suffering. As a consequence, violence against Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders, particularly women, is consistently overlooked, ignored, or rendered invisible.

Asian American activists, leaders, and scholars stand at the forefront of anti-racist efforts to dismantle both structural and interpersonal racism and white supremacy. In support of these efforts, the Dartmouth Chapter of the AAUP wholeheartedly supports the Asia/America@Dartmouth Action Plan and the establishment of an institutional home for Asian American studies in a stand-alone program and/or through collaboration with other units. For over thirty years, students, alumni, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty at Dartmouth have demanded a firm institutional commitment to Asian American studies on our campus. The college has almost no faculty lines in Asian American studies and older lines in this field have disappeared or gone unfilled. A 2006 report requested by COP and the Dean of the Faculty recommended the establishment of an Asian American Studies minor through dedicated faculty lines and expanded institutional resources; this did not come to fruition. Dartmouth's failures in this area—particularly when compared to peer institutions—highlight the urgent necessity of expanding the college's support of Asian American studies through faculty hires on the junior and senior level, postdoctoral fellowships, curricular expansions, and funding for events such as speaker series, working groups, and mentoring programs. The Asia/America@Dartmouth Action Plan presents a forward thinking and intersectional vision for increasing the visibility and representation of Asian Americans and Asian American studies at Dartmouth in the coming year and beyond.