Award Winning Books: Asian American Studies

Asian American Connective Action in the Age of Social Media

Civic Engagement, Contested Issues, and Emerging Identities

James S. Lai

Choice Outstanding Academic Titles for 2022

Examines how social media has changed the way Asian Americans participate in politics

224 pages | 6 x 9 | 10 tables, 8 figures, 11 halftones

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Asian American Panethnicity

Bridging Institutions and Identities

Yen Le Espiritu

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice, 1994

A case study of how cultural diversity among Asian Americans is subsumed for social and political advantage

238 pages | 6 x 9

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Campaigns of Knowledge

U.S. Pedagogies of Colonialism and Occupation in the Philippines and Japan

Malini Johar Schueller

The Filipino edition won the 2023 Philippines National Book Award in the category of Literary Criticism/Cultural Studies (English)

Making visible the afterlives of U.S. colonial and occupation tutelage in the Philippines and Japan

312 pages | 6 x 9 | 11 line drawings, 1 halftone

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Chinatown

The Socioeconomic Potential of an Urban Enclave

Min Zhou

Honorable Mention, 1993 Robert E. Park Award, American Sociological Association

Ethnic enclaves as an alternative means of incorporation into the larger society

316 pages | 6 x 9

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Claiming America

Constructing Chinese American Identities during the Exclusion Era

Edited by K. Scott Wong, and Sucheng Chan

Book Award from the Association for Asian American Studies, 2001

A collection of essays that recovers the lives and experiences of individuals who staked their claim to Chinese American identity

226 pages | 6 x 9 | 4 tables

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The Coolie Speaks

Chinese Indentured Laborers and African Slaves in Cuba

Lisa Yun

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice, 2008

A remarkable examination of bondage in Cuba that probes questions of slavery, freedom, and race

336 pages | 6 x 9 | 6 tables, 3 figures, 1 halftone

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Culinary Fictions

Food in South Asian Diasporic Culture

Anita Mannur

Anita Mannur, recipient of the 2019 Excellence in Mentorship Award from the Association for Asian American Studies

An exploration of how and why food matters in the culture and literature of the South Asian diaspora

272 pages | 6 x 9 | 9 figures, 1 halftone

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Cultural Compass

Ethnographic Explorations of Asian America

Edited by Martin F. Manalansan IV

Cultural Studies Book Award, given by the Association for Asian American Studies, 2000

Essays by ethnographers researching their own ethnic groups

272 pages | 7 x 10 | 1 table, 5 figures

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Desis in the House

Indian American Youth Culture in New York City

Sunaina Marr Maira

Honorable Mention for the Lora Romero First Book Publication Prize from the American Studies Association, 2003

Making the desi scene in New York

256 pages | 6 x 9 | 16 halftones

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The First Suburban Chinatown

The Remaking of Monterey Park, California

Timothy P. Fong

Donald H. Pflueger Local History Award, Historical Society of Southern California, 1999
Outstanding Book Award in the Social Sciences, Association for Asian American Studies, 1995

Ethnicity issues fuel internal strife as a community faces change

240 pages | 6 x 9 | 14 tables, 2 figures, 8 halftones

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Hapa Girl

A Memoir

May-lee Chai

Named one of the Notable Books in the Kiriyama Prize, 2008
Honorable Mention at the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards, 2007

A vivid depiction of the racism suffered by a mixed-race family in rural South Dakota

232 pages | 5.5 x 8.25 | 12 halftones

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Laotian Daughters

Working toward Community, Belonging, and Environmental Justice

Bindi Shah

Association for Asian American Studies' Outstanding Book Award in the category Social Science, 2014
Honorable Mention, Asia and Asian America Section of the American Sociological Association, 2013

How environmental activism in youth shapes political engagement and citizenship for Laotian American women

216 pages | 6 x 9 | 1 table

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Literary Gestures

The Aesthetic in Asian American Writing

Edited by Rocío G. Davis and Sue-Im Lee

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice, 2006

Form as function in Asian American literature

248 pages | 6 x 9

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Making a Global Immigrant Neighborhood

Brooklyn's Sunset Park

Tarry Hum

Honorable Mention from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning's Paul Davidoff Award, 2015

How immigrants are reinventing Sunset Park, forming new multi-racial alliances, and reshaping its community

300 pages | 6 x 9 | 15 tables, 7 halftones, 1 maps

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The Making of Asian America through Political Participation

Pei-te Lien

Best Book published in the areas of Political Participation, Voting, Elections, and Political Behavior in Racial/Ethnic Politics by the Organized Section on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics of the American Political Science Association, 2002

A fascinating look at how race ethnicity and transnationalism help construct a complex American electorate

312 pages | 6 x 9 | 21 tables

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Mobilizing an Asian American Community

Linda Trinh Võ

Social Science Book Honorable Mention, Association for Asian American Studies, 2006

304 pages | 6 x 9 | 4 tables, 4 figures, 4 maps

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Musicians from a Different Shore

Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music

Mari Yoshihara

"Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award" from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2007

Why do so many Asians devote their lives to playing Western classical music?

288 pages | 6 x 9 | 18 halftones

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Nisei/Sansei

Shifting Japanese American Identities and Politics

Jere Takahashi

Honorable Mention for Outstanding Books Awards, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America, 1997

A fresh look at the many and diverse political strategies that forged a Japanese American identity

280 pages | 6 x 9 | 1 tables

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Ocean Passages

Navigating Pacific Islander and Asian American Literatures

Erin Suzuki

Outstanding Achievement in Literary Studies from the Association for Asian American Studies, 2023

Comparing and contrasting the diverse experiences of Asian and Pacific Islander subjectivities across a shared sea

268 pages | 6 x 9 | 1 halftone

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Organizing Asian American Labor

The Pacific Coast Canned-Salmon Industry, 1870-1942

Chris Friday

Outstanding Book in History Award, Association for Asian American Studies, 1995

Asian and Asian American workers resist oppression and shape their own lives

296 pages | 6 x 9 | 6 tables, 6 halftones

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Orientals

Asian Americans in Popular Culture

Robert G. Lee

Best Book Award Winner Culture Studies/Popular Culture, Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association, 2000
Best Book Award for the Social Construction of Race, The American Political Science Association, 1999
Honorable Mention for the John Hope Franklin Publication Prize for the best-published book in American Studies from the American Studies Association, 1999

A compelling study of how the label "oriental" came into being

288 pages | 6 x 9

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Paper Son

One Man's Story

Tung Pok Chin, with Winifred C. Chin

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice, 2001

A rare, first person account of an experience shared by thousands of Chinese

184 pages | 5.5 x 8.25 | 16 halftones

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Pedagogies of Woundedness

Illness, Memoir, and the Ends of the Model Minority

James Kyung-Jin Lee

Choice Outstanding Academic Titles for 2022

What happens when illness betrays Asian American fantasies of indefinite progress?

224 pages | 6 x 9

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Performing Asian America

Race and Ethnicity on the Contemporary Stage

Josephine Lee

Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Asian American Studies Conference, 2016

A fascinating inquiry into the territory of race and ethnicity in American theater

256 pages | 6 x 9 | 21 halftones

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The Philippine Temptation

Dialectics of Philippines-U.S. Literary Relations

E. San Juan Jr.

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice, 1996

A passionate discussion of the history of oppositional writing in the Philippines

320 pages | 6 x 9

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The Politics of Diversity

Immigration, Resistance, and Change in Monterey Park, California

John Horton

Robert E. Park Award, Community and Urban Section of the American Sociological Association, 1996

In an era of thriving anti-immigrant sentiments, this story of Monterey Park, California demonstrates how long-time residents and new immigrants deal with commonality as well as diversity

296 pages | 6 x 9 | 13 tables, 19 halftones, 3 maps

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Q & A

Queer in Asian America

Edited by David L. Eng, and Alice Y. Hom

Book Award from The Association for Asian American Studies, 2001
Honorable Mention for Outstanding Books Awards, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America, 1999
Lambda Literary Award for Best Book in Lesbian and Gay Anthologies/Non-Fiction, 1998

A spirited collection of essays, personal testimonies, fiction, and art on what it means to be queer in Asian-America now

445 pages | 7 x 10

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Refugee Lifeworlds

The Afterlife of the Cold War in Cambodia

Y-Dang Troeung

Finalist for the 2023 PROSE Awards in the Humanities category North American and U.S. History
Finalist for the Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes, one of the BC and Yukon Book Prizes

Exploring key works that have emerged out of the Cambodian refugee archive

262 pages | 6 x 9 | 28 color photos, 6 halftones

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The Rise and Fall of America's Concentration Camp Law

Civil Liberties Debates from the Internment to McCarthyism and the Radical 1960s

Masumi Izumi

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice 2020

Now in Paperback—Dissecting the complex relationship among race, national security, and civil liberties in “the age of American concentration camps”

268 pages | 6 x 9 | 3 halftones

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Searching for Mr. Chin

Constructions of Nation and the Chinese in West Indian Literature

Anne-Marie Lee-Loy

Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Book Award, 2011

West Indian literary representations of local Chinese populations illuminate concepts of national belonging

198 pages | 5.5 x 8.5

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Songs of the Caged, Songs of the Free

Music and the Vietnamese Refugee Experience

Adelaida Reyes

Book Award from the U.S. Branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, 2000

Viewing the Vietnamese refugee experience through its music

248 pages | 5.5 x 8.25 | 3 tables, 6 figures, 12 halftones

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Sweating Saris

Indian Dance as Transnational Labor

Priya Srinivasan

Emory Elliott Book Award, 2012

Seeing Indian dancers as gendered labor highlights the politics of Asian American racialization, migration, and citizenship

238 pages | 6 x 9 | 6 halftones

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To Save China, To Save Ourselves

The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance of New York

Renqiu Yu

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice, 1994
Philadelphia Book Clinic Certificate of Award, 1993
Outstanding Book in History Award, Association for Asian American Studies, 1993

Chinese laundry workers unite to fight racism and economic discrimination

253 pages | 6 x 9 | 8 figs.

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Unsettled Solidarities

Asian and Indigenous Cross-Representations in the Américas

Quynh Nhu Le

Association for Asian American Studies' Humanities and Cultural Studies: Literary Studies Book Award, 2021

Illuminates the intersecting logics of settler colonialism and racialization through analysis of contemporary Asian and Indigenous crossings in the Américas

250 pages | 6 x 9

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The World Next Door

South Asian American Literature and the Idea of America

Rajini Srikanth

Cultural Studies Book Award, Association for Asian American Studies, 2006
Outstanding Academic Title, Choice, 2005

Literature that takes us beyond identity to empathy

304 pages | 6 x 9

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