As the Fall 2023 semester unfolds, undergraduate students at Yale are gearing up for an exciting academic experience: a seminar course on Asian Americans and STEM. This innovative program, returning after its successful debut in the Spring 2022 semester, is set to revolutionize the way we think about Asian Americans and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by placing at its core the ways U.S. histories of imperialism and colonization, migration and racial exclusion have shaped scientific practices hence our perception of Asian Americans in STEM.
Students will study scientific literature made by Asian Americans and historical research papers investigating the intertwinedness of STEM fields and Asian American history. Their inquiries will culminate in a term paper based on the primary and archival sources about Asian American STEM practitioners. Through lectures, interactive discussions, guest speakers, laboratory visits, and term paper research, students will gain a holistic understanding of the contributions made by Asian Americans to STEM, and the benefits and challenges Asian Americans have gone through in relation to STEM. Case studies will include the Manzanar Guayule Project by incarcerated Japanese American scientists and the work of experimental particle physicist Chien-Shiung Wu.
The Asian Americans and STEM was introduced as a cross-division course in Spring 2022 by two co-instructors, Professor Mary Lui in History and American Studies and Professor Reina Maruyama in Physics.
Dr. Eun-Joo Ahn, a newly appointed Postdoctoral Associate in the namesake initiative, Asian Americans and STEM, takes on the second offering of the course for this semester as the main instructor.