The University administration established a Faculty-Student Committee on Asian American Pacific Islander Studies, according to a Dec. 22 email Interim University President Lisa Lynch sent to the community. The decision was made in response to a student protest and several meetings with the student leaders of the Brandeis Asian American Task force.

On Dec. 1, BAATF sent an email to administrators requesting that the University establish an Asian American studies program by Fall 2016. Students from BAATF then rallied outside the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Center on Dec. 8 to share personal narratives and address administrators. BAATF President Hin Hon (Jamie) Wong ’17 was quoted in a Dec. 8 Justice article as saying, “We [BAATF] believe all departments can viably have cross-curricular courses with Asian American Studies. We must first achieve an agreement with the administration to create the program and department before beginning the hard work of creating and molding it.” Wong declined to comment for this article.

On Dec. 22, BAATF reposted Lynch’s email on its medium.com page, also writing, “Thank you to all of of [sic] the students, faculty, staff, and alumni who have stood with us and supported us. Our voices were heard. This is change — ‪#‎AsianAmericanStudiesNow.”‬

In her email, Lynch noted that the committee, which was formed shortly after the end of the fall semester, was established “to examine and make recommendations on the development of courses, programming and a minor in Asian American Pacific Islander studies. It will also consider how such a curriculum would be structured, named, located and resourced within Arts and Sciences.” Though the committee and the development of a minor address the students’ demands in part, BAATF had also asked the University to establish a major.

Members of the committee come from a diverse range of scholarly backgrounds. According to Prof. Sarah Lamb (ANTH), who will serve on the committee, the members have not yet had a chance to meet in person, though they corresponded over the break and plan to meet in early January.

Lamb said in an email to the Justice that she was approached by Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Birren to serve on the committee in part because she has “participated as a core faculty member working to establish several other important interdisciplinary programs at Brandeis,” including South Asian Studies, Health: Science, Society and Policy and International and Global Studies.

“I recognize the dearth of Asian American faculty and Asian American studies at Brandeis and am eager to do what I can to incorporate Asian American studies more fully into our course offerings, and to recruit and retain Asian American faculty. Some of my own research also focuses on Asian Americans, specifically on immigrants from South Asia in the United States,” she wrote.

She said that the committee’s first aim will be to work toward hiring a professor to teach a core Asian American Studies course, which will begin in Fall 2016, in accordance with the BAATF’s demands.

The committee will also work to develop an interdepartmental program to support and provide interdisciplinary reinforcement for Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies at the University, she noted. “Such a program may perhaps be conceptualized to include some attention to Asians in the diaspora beyond the Americas only. The program will also seek productive connections with other related programs, such as East Asian Studies, South Asian Studies, and US race and ethnic studies as pursued in AAAS and Latin American and Latino Studies.”

Lamb speculated about how the committee might go about its objectives, drawing upon the precedence set by peer institutions. “At most universities, Asian American Studies is not housed in a stand-alone department but works as an interdepartmental, interdisciplinary program,” she wrote, citing similar University programs like HSSP; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and American Studies.

“A vibrant Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies program could begin by offering a minor. To make a minor possible, we would both need to hire one or two faculty members who specialize in Asian American studies … while also recruiting existing faculty with relevant teaching and research interests to contribute to the program,” she stated.

Lamb concluded her email by writing, “Supporting Asian American Studies, faculty and students will enhance the Brandeis curriculum and university community in valuable ways, and is in keeping with Brandeis's mission focus on diversity, inclusion, and social justice. … I personally admire the BAATF students who have dedicated themselves to this important cause and to making Brandeis a better place.”

Lynch also noted in her email that the committee is integral to the preservation of the University’s social justice legacy, alluding to the Ford Hall 2015 protest, which ended on Dec. 1. “The past month has served to raise the awareness of many on our campus that while our Mission and Diversity Statement speaks to a commitment to fostering a just and inclusive campus culture, we are not always as successful as we aspire to be,” she wrote. “As we all reflect back on the events of the past year, both at Brandeis and off-campus, I urge us all to remember that the kind of community we are will be determined by how we treat and interact with each other.”