Full-Time Faculty

Edward J.W. Park, Director and Professor of APAM
epark@lmu.edu  
Dr. Edward J.W. Park received his Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies with a disciplinary concentration in Sociology (1993) and a Master's degree in City and Regional Planning (1988), both at the University of California, Berkeley. His research topics include immigration policy, race relations, urban studies, and economic sociology. His most recent publications include "Probationary Americans: Contemporary Immigration Policies and the Shaping of Asian American Communities" ( New York: Routledge, 2005 with John S.W. Park) and “Labor Organizing Beyond Race and Nation: The Los Angeles Hilton Case” (International Journal of Sociology and Social Research, 2004). From September 2005 to July 2006, Professor Park was at the University of Tokyo and the Japan Women's University on a Fulbright Fellowship.

Curtiss T. Rooks, Assistant Professor and Associate Dean
crooks@lmu.edu
Dr. Rooks earned his B.A. in 1979 with a double major in Economics and Asian Studies (honors) from Dartmouth College. He received his M.A. in Public Policy from Trinity College in 1982 and his Ph.D. in Comparative Culture from the University of California, Irvine.  In 1996, he was a University of California Regents Fellow.  Prior to his appointment at LMU, Dr. Rooks was a tenured assistant professor in Asian American Studies at San Jose State University.   His research interests include applied community-based research focusing on cultural competency in community health and ethnic community development.  Current projects include a cultural assessment of Japanese and African American senior care-giving needs and community partnerships in chronic disease needs assessment in the Samoan community. A second research trajectory focuses on Asian American multiracial identity and diversity. 

Extended Faculty

Jennifer Abe, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology 
jabekim@lmu.edu  
Dr. Abe joined the Psychology Department in 1994. She is affiliated with the National Research Center on Asian American Mental Health (NRCAAMH) at UC Davis. Dr. Abe conducts research related to cultural competence in mental health service delivery, and to religiosity, spirituality, culture, and help seeking. She has twin daughters, Jessica and Samantha, and twin sons, Adam and Bennett.

Constance Chen, Associate Professor, Department of History
cchen@lmu.edu
Dr. Constance Chen teaches courses in Asian American History and Asian American Visual Culture. She is currently researching Asian American art dealers in New England.

Stuart Ching, Associate Professor, Department of English
sching@lmu.edu
Stuart Ching teaches courses in composition and rhetoric, children’s literature, and Asian Pacific American literature. His research has appeared in journals such as The New Advocate and Writing on the Edge and his published fiction in the North Dakota Quarterly and Hawaii Review among others. His current research focuses on cross-cultural issues in children's literature. He is completing a collection of short stories.

Nadia Kim, Assistant Professor, Sociology Department
nkim1@lmu.edu
Nadia Young-na Kim received her doctorate at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. She publishes in the areas of race/ethnicity, gender and immigration with attention to Asians and Asian Americans within global and transitional contexts. Her book, Imperial Citizens:Koreans and Race from Seoul to L.A., was published by Stanford University Press in 2008. Her research has also appeared in the academic journals Critical Sociology, Social Problems, Amerasia Journal and the Du Bois Review. Her current projects investigate second-generation ethnics as well as immigrant social movements around environmental justice in the United States. She has won paper awards and been an American Sociological Association Minority Fellow.

Stella Oh, Assistant Professor, Department of Women's Studies
soh@lmu.edu  
Dr. Stella Oh completed her Ph.D. in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UC Irvine with an emphasis in Women's Studies and Critical Theory. Dr. Oh teaches Asian Pacific Women’s Experience, Feminist Theories, Feminist Research Methods, and Women of Color in the U.S. Her research has appeared in numerous journals  and her essay Rhetoric of the Image and the Construction of the National Body Politic: Miné Okubo's “Citizen 13660” is forthcoming in Following Her Own Road: The Life and Legacy of Miné Okubo published by University of Washington Press. Dr. Oh is currently working on her book manuscript which explores racial and gender formations of Asian Americans during the Cold War.

Part-Time Faculty

Maria Valenzuela, Lecturer, Asian Pacific American Studies
mvalen11@lmu.edu
Professor Valenzuela will receive her Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame, January 2010.  Maria received her BA in Comparative Literature from University of California, Los Angeles.
 
Florante Ibanez, Lecturer, Asian Pacific American Studies
florante.ibanez@lls.edu
Mr. Florante Ibanez received his M.A. in Asian American Studies from UCLA.