AMCS Faculty
Edward Park- AMCS Director
Edward J.W. Park is the Director of American Cultures Studies Program at the Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He received his Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies and a Master's degree in City and Regional Planning, both at the University of California at Berkeley. His research topics include immigration policy, race relations, urban studies, and economic sociology. His publications include "A New American Dilemma? Asian Americans and Latinos in Race Relations Theorizing" (Journal of Asian American Studies, 1999); "Competing Visions: Political Formation of Korean Americans in Los Angeles, 1992-1997" (Amerasia Journal, 1998); and "Korean Americans and the Crisis of the Liberal Coalition: Immigrants and Politics in Los Angeles" (In Governing American Cities: Inter-Ethnic Coalitions, Competition, and Conflict: Russell Sage Foundation, 2001).
AMCS Fellows
Brian Foster
Brian Foster was born and studied in England. Attended the University of Texas at Austin and California State University Northridge for Undergraduate work and holds a Bachelors degree in Humanities. From California State University Dominguez Hills he holds a Masters degree in Humanities and will have a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from Claremont Graduate University the Fall of 2008. Concentrations are Globalization, American Studies, British working-class culture, and Postcolonial theory.
Joshua Paddison
Joshua Paddison received his Ph.D. in history from UCLA in June 2008. His research and teaching fields include 19th and 20th century U.S. History, Comparative Race and Ethnicity, Religion, the American West, and California. His dissertation, "American Heathens: Religion, Race, and Reconstruction in California," shows how the American West’s multiracial populations, usually considered marginal in the story of Reconstruction, played a crucial role in national debates about American citizenship and character following the Civil War.
Ulli K. Ryder
Ulli K. Ryder holds a BA in English and African American Studies at Simmons College (Boston), an MA in Afro-American Studies from UCLA, an MPW (Master of Professional Writing) from USC and a Ph.D. in American Studies & Ethnicity from USC. Her dissertation compares the experiences, poetry and activism of women in the Black Arts and Chicano movements. She is interested in exploring racial/ethnic identity formation and the ways in which marginalized peoples in the U.S. have organized around issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class and sexual orientation. She is also committed to issues of diversity in higher education and has worked towards improving access for under-represented students. Dr. Ryder is also a poet, has performed all over the world and published in several anthologies.
AMCS Lecturers
Paul Lin
Paul Lin is a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of California, Irvine. His dissertation, "Looking East: Asia, Empire, and the Fictions of Modernity," examines the contradictions between western ideals of modernity and the colonial enterprise in the East at the end of the nineteenth century. In addition to modern literature and culture, Paul also teaches courses in Asian American and African American Studies.
Maria Valenzuela
Maria Valenzuela is a Ph.D. candidate in Literature at the University of Notre Dame and holds a Bachelor's degree in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles. Maria also teaches courses in the Asian Pacific American Studies Program.