Mission Statement

Housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut is a multidisciplinary research and teaching program. Distinguished by its global, diasporic, national, regional, and transnational orientations, the Institute brings two traditionally distinct fields of inquiry together in dynamic conversation:  Asian Studies and Asian American Studies. Comprised of the humanities, social sciences, and the arts, the Institute’s research output and course offerings engage Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas not as static, monolithic sites rather as sets of shifting historical, geographic, and geopolitical zone of interaction, struggle, and cooperation.

In sum, the Institute fosters intellectual endeavors that concern the broad historical and contemporary experiences of people of Asian descent in Asia and in different parts of the world, inclusive of North and South Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Australia.