Now What?
Using the Duke Library archives, we compiled a timeline of the fight for AADS. Acknowledging the limitations of timelines, we hope this initial foray into Duke's history encourages people to dig deeper. Additionally, we want to underscore the ways histories and memories are intimately tied as exemplified by how student activists and organizers of the early 2000s drew their strength and language of resistance from the Allen Building Takeover.
February 13, 1969
To call attention to the needs of Black students at Duke University, 50-75 students occupied Duke’s main administration building, the Allen Building, on February 13, 1969. Among their eleven demands included an African-American Studies department, a black students union, and increased enrollment to at least 29% and financial support for Black students. This demonstration set a precedent for student activism at Duke, preceding many institutional demands for Asian American Studies and protection. In 1970, the Black Studies program was created, which would later become the African & African American Studies (AAAS) Department following multiple iterations of student demands.
1988
Spectrum was founded, acting as a multicultural coalition composed of 13 student organizations. Spectrum campaigned for a “real education,” emphasizing the dearth of non-Western study requirements and major opportunities. They demanded educational diversity, specifically revolving around Africa, Asia, and Central and South America.
2002
On April 8, 2002, students convened the Asian American Studies Teach In which expressed and magnified the necessity of an Asian American Studies department. This marked the first big push for Asian American Studies at Duke. A few days later, on April 10, 2002, the Asian American Studies undergraduate working group submitted the “Proposal to Establish an Asian American Studies Department at Duke University” which outlined the first official request petitioning for the creation of an Asian American Studies Department. Of note, the proposal states: “Along this same line of reasoning, it would not be wise to make an earnest attempt to establish an Asian American Studies program as the final goal” because “Academic programs are inevitably linked to departments (though they are linked to one specific department) and cannot, by themselves, hire professors, tenure professors or promote professors.” During this time, the first iteration of the Asian American Studies undergraduate working group (AASWG) was established.
2003
In response to the Sigma Chi fraternity’s racist “Viva Mexico”-themed party, Duke community members called for a major push by the University to amplify its support of Latino, Asian-American, and Native-American students. Student activists understood the intimate connections between oppressed people on campus, specifically citing the lack of Asian American Studies and Native American Studies programs on campus as indicative of Duke’s “systematic problems of intolerance and ignorance on campus.” It is this relational coalition building that became the bedrock upon which further activism grew. Students understood struggles and demands of Latinx, Black, Native American, and Asian/American students to be interconnected and without each other, there would be no moving forward: all of us or none of us.
2013-2014
The Kappa Sigma fraternity hosted a racist “Asia Prime” party, issuing an email containing racist language, opening with the line, “Herro Nice Duke Peopre!!” A call to the “return of Kappa Sigma Asia Prime,” the email joyously invited “Mi, Yu, You, and Yo Friends” for “some Sake.” Infuriated, students protested and demanded for an Asian American Studies cluster hire and continued the then 15-year-old push for Asian American Studies. Immediately, “Race Is Not a Party: Rally for an Inclusive Duke” was organized in 2014 and swelled with the energy of over 700 students.
2016
2016 marked the formation of the Asian American Studies Working Group which worked to not only “revive” the 2002 demands but also successfully pushed for the institutionalization of the Asian American Diaspora Studies (AADS) program. AASWG included members from Diya, ASA, and AAA. It was in this climate of fervent hope and struggle against an unforgiving institution that Professor Sylvia Chong’s 2016 external review provided recommendations for the program illuminating a “pathway” with which to both measure and compare the success of the program, especially against the backdrop of the visions of the 2002 student activists. This iteration of AASWG is its current iteration.
2017-2018
Led by AASWG, the “Duke Doesn’t Teach Me…” photo campaign goes viral and demands Asian American Studies at Duke. The campaign focused on student (re)imaginations of historical and cultural education at Duke.
2018
The Asian American Studies program (now known as the AADS program) was instituted in 2018 with Professor Nayoung Aimee Kwon serving as the director. While a huge milestone, the program was unable to offer classes not housed by another department or program, and was attached only to a website, some student workers, and a postdoc. The AADS program did not have a course code until 2021.
2021
In March 2021, a coalition of Asian students and organizations at Duke reiterated demands for Asian American Studies, following Duke’s response to the 2021 Asian massage parlor shootings and recent anti-Asian violence. Over 1200 students and organizations signed onto the demands.
2022
A result of decades of Asian/American student activism, multicultural coalitions, and pressure on the administration at Duke, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences approves the Asian American Diaspora Studies (AADS) minor. Shortly after its approval, new courses and the hiring of a postdoc were announced. The first two students will graduate with the AADS minor in 2023. Since the first AADS-designated courses were offered, each class has boasted maximum capacity. This intense hunger for AADS classes is great sustenance for the program, but its satiation in the way Asian/American activists of the past intended necessitates a department. Thus, as we look to 2022 and beyond for AADS, how will the program built out from the stones carried by so many before us look, feel, and sound?