2026 CUNY Thomas Tam Scholarship
The Tam Scholarship is awarded annually to a qualified CUNY undergraduate student (Asian or non-Asian) who demonstrates creativity in raising awareness about issues facing the Asian American community.
thomas tam
Across Continents: Transnational Asian/American Perspectives (Fall 2026 Seminar)
Using a variety of literary and other texts, some referenced in R Benedito Ferrão’s Across Continents: Writing Goans, Making Worlds (2026), this six-session seminar will examine representations of displacement, post/coloniality, and transnationalism.
Across Continents: Writing Goans, Making Worlds
Across Continents employs Goan literary subjectivity as epistemology to critique a specific limitation of postcolonial thought, one that does not account for the situations or afterlife of Portuguese colonialism.
2026-2027 CUNY Thomas Tam Visiting Professor
R. Benedito Ferrão is Associate Professor of English and Asian & Pacific Islander American Studies at William & Mary, with affiliations in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. His honors include being named University Professor for Teaching Excellence (2025-28), the Jinlan Liu Award for Research in APIA Studies (2024-27), a Coco Faculty Fellowship (2026-27), a Fulbright-Nehru Research Award (2019-20), and fellowships with the American Institute of Indian Studies and the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at Bayreuth.
2025 CUNY Thomas Tam Scholarship Recipient
For their project, Jiale Lin, a sophomore at LaGuardia Community College, addresses a critical but often overlooked public health crisis: chronic noise pollution in New York City’s Asian American community hubs.
AAARI 24th Annual Gala (2025)
Join us to celebrate the Asian American / Asian Research Institute’s 24th anniversary as part of The City University of New York! AAARI’s fundraising gala will convene over 200 supporters, community leaders, and advocates committed to uplifting and advancing the Asian American Pacific Islander community. In line with our mission, this year’s event will honor the remarkable achievements of Asian American women in public service who have paved the way for greater representation, policy innovation, and community empowerment for all.