Presented by Yale University Asian Americans and STEM. Co-sponsored by the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, NYU Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, NYU Computer Science Department, and NYU Tandon School of Engineering; The City University of New York; Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration, Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS), Asian Faculty Association at Yale, and Yale Global Data Justice at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. 

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Asian American scientists simultaneously occupy the precarious and contradictory position of the successful “model minority” to be celebrated and the grave “security threat” to be contained and expelled from the nation. Our project led by a cross-disciplinary team of scholars in the fields of Asian American Studies, Physics, and Computer Science aim to bring a humanities-driven inquiry into understanding the historical and current experience of Asian American scientists as shaped by the histories of U.S. and European imperialism, Asian exclusion and racial formation as well as global geopolitics of war and economic disruption. We see our work creating a new model of cross-disciplinary scholarship which addresses the scientific research undertaken by Asian American scholars in their respective fields and institutions as well as examines the ways in which their work has been remembered, obfuscated, or erased in standard histories of discovery and invention.

The stakes of our research could not be higher as we continue to see news headlines of Asian American science educators, researchers, and technical workers detained and deported and a lack of recognition of Asian American scientists as crucial to the successes of their respective fields. Our project also contributes to the fields of Asian American studies, history, history of science, and science and technology studies which have generated little scholarship to understand the ways in which U.S. and global scientific cultures and knowledge production have been shaped by Asian American scientists as knowledge workers. Instead, Asian American subjects largely appear in these fields as the objects of scientific research rather than agents of inquiry.

In spring 2024, we held our inaugural Asian Americans and STEM conference on Yale’s campus. The one-day event consisted of three cross-disciplinary panels with the themes of: “Physics and Science without Borders,” “Race and Life Sciences,” and “Asian Americans and Computer Science.” In the panels, scholars generated new insights and conversations on the academic training, scientific research, professionalization, and racialization of Asian and Asian American scientists in the U.S. across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The event was attended by over 100 participants from across the northeast.

Building on the success of our 2024 conference, we are now collaborating with colleagues at New York University (NYU) and the City University of New York (CUNY) to hold our second one-day symposium.  All are welcome to attend (you do not have to be Asian!).

NYU campus access guidelines:This is an in-person event, open to the public. Registration is required. Non-NYU guests may be asked to present a government-issued photo ID. NYU guests must present their NYU ID.

Accessibility note: For accommodation requests, please email AsianAmSTEM@yale.edu at least seven days before the event.