2015-2016 CUNY Thomas Tam Visiting Professor

Angie Y. Chung
CUNY Graduate Center
Department of Sociology

Spring 2016
Course: Immigrant Communities

The course will cover the evolution, structure, and dynamics of immigrant communities in the United States with particular attention to the ethnic economy and community politics of contemporary Asian and Latino enclaves. We will cover a wide range of ethnic communities from socially isolated, self-sufficient ethnic enclaves to transnationally-embedded global economies to multiracial suburbs on the metropolitan outskirts. Among other things, we will discuss different scholarly perspectives on what constitutes an ethnic enclave, why some thrive while others decline, how they may empower and exploit, how they are culturally consumed, and how they are integrated into the urban political economy. Students will have the opportunity to develop an instructor-approved community project relevant to the course.

AAARI Friday Evening Lecture Series (April 1, 2016)
Saving Face: The Emotional Costs of the Asian Immigrant Myth


The CUNY Thomas Tam Visiting Professor will perform teaching, research, and guidance duties in area(s) of expertise as noted below; and share responsibility for committee and department assignments, performing administrative, supervisory, and other functions as assigned.

The Tam Visiting Professor will be based at one of the four CUNY campuses participating in the search, Brooklyn College, Hunter College, Queens College or the Graduate Center. He or she will teach one class a semester at that campus and will engage with students and faculty members during the appointment. The Tam Visiting Professor will participate in public events designed to raise the visibility of scholarship in Asian American studies. This will include working closely with the Asian American / Asian Research Institute (AAARI).

This distinctive position presents an opportunity for a leading scholar to work in New York City’s diverse and dynamic environment while also working with AAARI and CUNY faculty to develop and enrich the CUNY research agenda in Asian American studies. Visiting faculty are individuals with a primary commitment to another accredited college or university who possess advanced scholarship or professional achievement.

Author Bio

Angie Y. Chung is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University at Albany, SUNY, and the 2015-2016 Dr. Thomas Tam Visiting Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center and Asian American / Asian Research Institute (AAARI). She is author of Saving Face: The Emotional Costs of the Asian Immigrant Family Myth (Rutgers University Press, 2016) and Legacies of Struggle: Conflict and Cooperation in Korean American Politics (Stanford University Press, 2007). She is currently conducting research with co-PIs Sookhee Oh and Jan Lin for a National Science Foundation-funded project on immigrant redevelopment politics in Koreatown and Monterey Park. Chung has published on the topics of ethnic politics, interethnic coalitions, immigrant families, ethnic enclaves and second generation in various journals such as Ethnicities, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and Qualitative Sociology.