The Asian American / Asian Research Institute welcomes Dr. Yung-Yi Diana Pan as the newly appointed interim executive director of the Institute. Diana is foremost a collaborator whether it is in the classroom with students or in meetings with colleagues. Most recently an Associate Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College/CUNY and the CUNY Graduate Center, she served as the director of American Studies and the faculty associate dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Brooklyn College. She is an active member of the CUNY community, serving on numerous Faculty Council committees, and a board member of CUNY’s Asian American / Asian Research Institute (AAARI) since 2013. Diana brings to AAARI her research expertise, intellectual training, and sociological imagination in thinking about and working with diverse communities.
A proud product of public schools, Diana earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from University of California, Irvine, an M.A. in Ethnic Studies from San Francisco State University, and B.A.s in Political Science and Ethnic Studies from Oregon State University. As a 1.5-generation immigrant and first-generation college student, Diana was inspired by her own educator role models to pursue higher education. Anchored in her childhood growing up in the Pacific Northwest, her research broadly examines the experiences of nonwhite individuals in predominantly white spaces. Her primary areas of inquiry are elite professions. Diana’s prior work focused on processes of racialization in law school; she is the author of Incidental Racialization: Performative Assimilation in Law School (Temple University Press, 2017). Building on that project, her current work interrogates the role and significance of diversity in three elite professions: law, medicine, and higher education. Her work has appeared in sociology and interdisciplinary journals including Sociological Forum, Sociological Inquiry, and Journal of Asian American Studies, among others.
Diana is committed to public scholarship by writing for and speaking to media outlets, and by presenting her expertise on Asian America. Her contributions have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Brooklyn News 12, and Wyoming Public Radio, to name a few. She most recently presented at the Asia Society’s “2023 Global Talent, Diversity and Inclusion Symposium.” Diana also extends her interdisciplinary lens through her involvement in professional organizations and community service. She is an active member of the American Sociological Association and senior editorial board member for the Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography; in addition, she sits on the Westchester Asian American Advisory Board, and coaches little league softball.
