Rethinking Asian American Jurisprudence

In 1995, the anthropologist Sylvia Yanagisako published an analysis of undergraduate introductory Asian American history classes taught at several universities in the late 1980s.1 She was interested to observe how these classes had served to shape what she noted was a paradoxical goal: the desire for a unified Asian American identity, despite the enormous diversity in and among Asian American communities, and despite the antipathy for the historical lumping of all Asians as one in a world split into East and West.2 What she found was both fascinating and instructive for a consideration of the integration of Asian American studies and law. Her research suggests that we contemplate how Asian American Jurisprudence classes both reflect and construct a particular Asian American identity.