"Strangers" of the Academy: Asian Women Scholars in Higher Education - Tapa blanda

"In the multiversity, these chapters testify, Asian American and Asian immigrant women scholars' unique contributions in teacher education, in language teaching, in the pedagogies of difference and in other fields, are being recognized, albeit sometimes reluctantly and slowly. These chapters speak to the value - strategic, capitalistic, and humanist - North American universities have placed on the stranger and the strange knowledge the stranger carries with her identity. Their presence and scholarship are changing not just the face but the definition of higher education itself." - from the Foreword by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim"

No less than other minorities, Asian women scholars are confronted with racial discrimination and stereotyping as well as disrespect for their research, teaching, and leadership; and are underrepresented in academia. In the face of such barriers, many Asian female scholars have developed strategies to survive and thrive. This book is among the first to examine their lived experience in Western academic discourses. It addresses the socio-cultural, political, academic, and personal issues that Asian female scholars encounter in higher education. The contributors to this book include first and second generation immigrants who are teachers and researchers in higher education and who come from a wide range of Asian nations and backgrounds. They here combine new research and personal narratives to explore the intersecting layers of relationships that impact their lives - language, culture, academic discourses, gender, class, generation, and race. The book is replete with the richness and complexity of these scholars' struggles and triumphs in their professional and personal realms. This powerful and engaging volume: examines and celebrates the struggles and triumphs that Asian female scholars experience as they try to ""make it"" in academic environments that may differ sharply from the culture of their countries of origin; highlights the unique contributions the authors have made to research, theory, and the profession; establishes the authors' claim to visibility and a voice for themselves and more generally for Asian women in the academy; opens a dialogue on these critical issues by sharing the academic and personal experiences of senior and junior scholars alike; and contributes to the on-going discussion on issues pertinent to the status of minority female scholars in higher education.