Thomas Fujita Rony, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Asian American Studies Department
Teaching interests:
Introduction to Ethnic Studies, History of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Introduction to Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies, World War II Japanese American Exlcusion and Incarceration , Asian American and Pacific Islander Identity, Asian American and Pacific Islander Families
Research interests:
Japanese American exclusion, incarceration, and redress; social movements and individual/group agency; gender and sexualities; labor history.
Interview:
Brief biography:
I am a 3rd generation Japanese American, born and raised in Hawai'i as the second son of two union stewards, one a social worker and the other a clinical psychologist. I earned a BA in American Studies with a concentration in Women's Studies from Yale, then an MA in Asian American Studies from UCLA, and in 1995, an American Culture Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. I was hired in 1998, becoming the first full-time Asian American Studies professor. In 2006, I became the Coordinator of the Asian American Studies department, taking over from the founding Coordinator, Dr. Craig Ihara. I am married to Dorothy Fujita-Rony, who teaches Asian American Studies at UCI, and our son, Theodore, is a 2.5 generation Japanese Indonesian American.
