AMERICAN ETHNIC STUDIES FACT SHEET

Mosaic Pattern

The Department of American Ethnic Studies is an innovative unit dedicated to the critical study of race and ethnicity in relation to power. Our academic commitments are grounded in social justice values and practices that seek to eradicate systems of racism and other social, economic, environmental, and political inequalities.

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HIGHLIGHTS

  • We are the top American Ethnic Studies undergraduate program in the Pacific Northwest.
  • The Department was born out of student protests to demand more equitable and diverse inclusion of faculty, staff and students on campus.
  • AES alumni continue to impact community change for the better, celebrating and respecting people, cultures, and our contributions to society.

133

Undergraduate Majors

EDUCATION

American Ethnic Studies is the interdisciplinary and comparative exploration of historical and contemporary relations of power and issues of social justice in American societies. Our main fields of research and pedagogy focus on the United States but also extend into questions about global and transnational dimensions, concepts, and histories concerning race and ethnicity in America.

Students earn a BA degree in American Ethnic Studies by taking core courses on ethnic-specific as well as comparative, multi-ethnic subjects. At the same time, they develop an emphasis in one of the four concentrations that make up the major.

In addition to ethnic studies courses in the social sciences, humanities, and interdisciplinary studies, the curriculum of the department includes language instruction in Swahili and Tagalog.

Internship and practicum courses enable students to work in community agencies and organizations. This exposes them to concrete labor and social experiences, and also affords them the opportunity to perform outreach services and apply their learning in active participation in the community.

The faculty, staff, students, and curriculum of AES are perhaps the most culturally diverse at the UW. This special characteristic greatly promotes the educational benefits of diversity in the classroom, such as the ability to respect difference and to engage in dialogue about diverse subjects from multiple, critical points of view.

Over the last three decades, American Ethnic Studies graduates have gone on to develop professional careers in academia, business, law, medicine, education, public administration, politics, diplomacy, community services, athletics, and more.

Students

Autumn 2022

  • 133 Undergraduate Majors

Degrees Awarded

September 2021 - August 2022

  • 48 Bachelor of Arts degrees

Major Student Awards

2018 - 2022

  • Arts & Sciences Dean's Medalist
  • President's Medalist (2 with Diversity minor)
  • Martin and Anne Jugum Scholarship in Labor Studies
  • OMAD Merit Scholar
  • Unidas Seremos at UW Scholarship (2)
  • William P. and Ruth Gerberding Early Identification Program Scholar
  • Washington State Opportunity Scholarship
  • Association of Women in Science Scholarship
  • Southeast Asian Education (SEAeD) Coalition Scholarship
  • Cambodian American Community Council (CACC) Scholarship
  • Husky 100 (3)
  • Irene Dickson McFarlane Tuition Scholarship
  • Louis and Katherine Marsh Scholarship in Art
  • Woodrow Wilson Merit Scholarships
  • Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes Scholarship in Labor Studies
  • Public Policy Fellowships

FACULTY

Autumn 2022

  • 3 Professors
  • 1 Teaching Professor
  • 3 Associate Professors
  • 1 Associate Teaching Professor
  • 6 Assistant Professors
  • 2 Assistant Teaching Professors
  • 7 Emeritus Faculty

Faculty in Leadership Roles

AES faculty in leadership positions include:

  • The current UW President, who is holder of an endowed professorship and is former dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, former UW provost, and former executive vice provost. 
  • Director, Diversity Minor program
  • Director, Oceania and Pacific Islander Studies Minor program
  • President, OCA Asian Pacific American Advocates, Greater Seattle
  • Former Chair, National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies
  • 2 Former Presidents, Association for Asian American Studies
  • Council Member, Indigenous Seed Keepers Network

Faculty Awards

The work of Department of American Ethnic Studies faculty has been recognized through awards and grants including:

  • Group photo of UW American Ethnic Studies faculty
    American Ethnic Studies faculty, December 2020. Lauro Flores and Devon Pena not present. 

    Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus

  • American Studies Association, Constance M. Rourke Prize
  • Award of Excellence: Retiree Excellence in Community Service Award 
  • Black Opportunity Fund­
  • Center for Global Studies
  • Ceres Trust
  • City of Seattle Neighborhood Grant
  • V.P. Franklin Legacy Journal of African American History Award
  • Career Enhancement Fellowship (Woodrow Wilson)
  • Simpson Center Society of Scholars
  • Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies
  • Joff Hanauer Honors Professorship in Western Civilization
  • Simpson Center First Book Fellowship
  • Simpson Center Faculty Reading Group Award
  • Royalty Research Fund
  • Muckleshoot Grant

Scholarship

American Ethnic Studies students graduating

Scholarship by American Ethnic Studies faculty include many articles, essays, book chapters, and book reviews, as well as books and anthologies on diverse subjects, including: writing in multicultural settings; J. Raymond Jones and Tammany; food and environmental justice; social stratification and inequality; transforming the curriculum by making ethnic and women’s studies central to a liberal arts education; gender, sexuality, and class; labor and immigration; political economy; American Ethnic Studies theory and methodology; women’s history in the Mexican military; Chicano labor history; technology, work, gender, and ecology on the U.S.-Mexico border; Chicano history and culture of Oregon; Chicano art and artists; U.S. Hispanic literature; African American literature and culture; Black intellectual traditions; gender and family in African American communities; Hawaii’s polyethnic literature; Japanese American imprisonment in WWII; Asian American literature; Asian American communities; Filipino Americans and the cultural politics of place; and Asian American and Pacific Islander American women.

Areas of Scholarship

  • African American Studies
  • Agroecology
  • Anthropology
  • Asian American Studies
  • Chicano/a/x Studies
  • Cinema and Media Studies
  • Communication
  • Comparative American Ethnic Studies
  • Critical Race Theory
  • Cultural Studies
  • Decolonial Studies
  • Diaspora Studies
  • Educational Theory
  • Environmental Justice
  • Environmental History-Greater Mexico
  • Ethnoecology and Ethnomedicine
  • Film Studies
  • Food Studies
  • Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies
  • History and Migration Studies
  • Immigration and Citizenship
  • Indigenous Studies of Oceania
  • Labor Studies
  • Latin American Literature and Culture
  • Latinx Studies
  • Multiethnic American History
  • Multiethnic American Literature, Music and Performing Arts
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Public Health
  • Public Policy
  • Science and Technology Studies
  • Settler Colonial Studies
  • Social Movement Studies
  • Sociology

CONTACT

Department of American Ethnic Studies
Box 354380
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
(206) 543-5401
Email: aes@uw.edu
Web: aes.washington.edu

 

last update: December 2022