Serve the People! Asian American Studies at Fifty: Empowerment and Critical Community Service Learning at San Francisco State University

Abstract

This essay reflects on five decades of growth of the nation’s first Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University (SFSU AAS), focusing on its primary commitment to community empowerment and critical “community service learning” (CSL) and also highlighting past and present struggles, challenges, and innovations. This collectively written analysis summarizes SFSU AAS departmental approaches to CSL and community-based participatory research and highlights two case studies: (1) refugees from Burma community health needs research and advocacy in Oakland and (2) the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network. We conclude by describing how we are applying our model and building support for critical CSL and argue that AAS and ethnic studies must reclaim CSL from the dominant “charity-based” model or risk losing our social justice orientation and commitment to empowerment and self-determination for our communities.