Strangers of the Academy: Asian Women Scholars in Higher Education

No less than other minorities, Asian women scholars are confronted with racial discrimination and stereotyping as well as disrespect for their research, teaching, and leadership; and are underrepresented in academia. In the face of such barriers, many Asian female scholars have developed strategies to survive and thrive. This book is among the first to examine their lived experience in Western academic discourses. It addresses the socio-cultural, political, academic, and personal issues that Asian female scholars encounter in higher education. The contributors to this book include first and second generation immigrants who are teachers and researchers in higher education and who come from a wide range of Asian nations and backgrounds. They here combine new research and personal narratives to explore the intersecting layers of relationships that impact their lives - language, culture, academic discourses, gender, class, generation, and race. The book is replete with the richness and complexity of these scholars’ struggles and triumphs in their professional and personal realms. This powerful and engaging volume: examines and celebrates the struggles and triumphs that Asian female scholars experience as they try to
make it
in academic environments that may differ sharply from the culture of their countries of origin; highlights the unique contributions the authors have made to research, theory, and the profession; establishes the authors’ claim to visibility and a voice for themselves and more generally for Asian women in the academy; opens a dialogue on these critical issues by sharing the academic and personal experiences of senior and junior scholars alike; and contributes to the on-going discussion on issues pertinent to the status of minority female scholars in higher education.