Dr. Brian Su-Jen Chung
My research and teaching focuses on Asian American studies, urban studies, and popular culture with specific attention to racial segregation, housing, the cultural politics of development, television and music. I am working on a book manuscript that examines the relationship between the civic cultures of middle and upper-middle class Chinese immigrants, residential racial segregation, and urban planning in Silicon Valley, California from the 1980-2000s. Prior to joining CSUF, I was a faculty member in the ethnic studies department at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa. I co-founded the Exploratory Committee on Asian American Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa. I also developed the “Chinese in Hawaiʻi Oral History Project” and continue to explore issues of urban renewal in 1970s and 80s Honolulu Chinatown and the multi-racial anti-eviction social movements that emerged in response. I am also developing a project that explores the politics of memory with regards to 19th and early 20th century histories of Chinese settlement in Hawaiʻi. My preliminary research on the challenges and possibilities of historical research on Chinese in Hawaiʻi can be found in my article in the most recent volume of “Social Process in Hawaiʻi” (Dec 2020).
In the Fall, I will be teaching “Introduction to Ethnic Studies.” I’m excited to teach current course offerings, such as Chinese American Experience, Asian American Film and Video, and Asian Pacific American Identities. I look forward to developing courses in areas of urban studies and cultural geography by exploring the relationships between Asian American communities, Orange County, and the surrounding metropolitan area of Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, and more. I’m excited about the possibilities of these courses as a site to learn from and explore with students alternative urban/suburban imaginations of Orange County and more broadly Southern California.
As someone who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and conducted research in Silicon Valley, I’m excited to be settling in a new area and learning more about the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities that constitute the communities, neighborhoods, and cities of Orange County. Drawing from my academic training in geography, I find the mundane experiences of everyday life – art, culture, commerce, and more – as valuable spaces of social and cultural encounter and exchange. As I make my transition, I look forward to learning more about the region through planned and spontaneous excursions with students, faculty, and staff within and without the Asian American Studies Department!
I’m also excited to connect with other cat lovers in the Asian American Studies (and more broadly ethnic studies) community on campus. In my spare time, I’m becoming more acquainted with my new “Xbox Series S”, while still being comically bad at video games.
