APAC's History

APAC was co-founded in 1999 by Professors Andrew Aoki and Pei-te Lien as a related group of the American Political Science Association (APSA) that has a close relationship to the Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Section of the APSA. Starting in 2012, with the preparation and founding of the WPSA Committee on the Status of Asian Pacific Americans in the Profession, we have held a mini-conference on APA politics during annual meetings of the WPSA.

Want to learn more? Dr. Andy Aoki wrote a history of APAC in honor of the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Asian Pacific American Caucus (see below). Some of our distinguished leaders have also shared their experiences in the profession more broadly through APSA's Oral History Project. 

APAC's Leaders 

2000-2001: Andrew Aoki (Augsburg College) & Pei-te Lien (University of Utah)

2001-2002: Andrew Aoki (Augsburg College) & Jane Junn (Rutgers University)

2002-2003: Jane Junn (Rutgers University) & James Lai (Santa Clara University)

2003-2004: James Lai (Santa Clara University) & Daphne Kwok (APAICS)

2004-2005: Daphne Kwok (APAICS) & Baodung (Paul) Liu (University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh)

2005-2006: Baodung (Paul) Liu (University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh) & Janelle Wong (University of Southern California)

2006-2007: Pei-te Lien (University of Utah) & Okiyoshi Takeda (Aoyama Gakuin University)

2007-2008: Okiyoshi Takeda (Aoyama Gakuin University) & Natalie Masuoka (Tufts University)

2008-2009: Natalie Masuoka (Tufts University) & Kim Geron (California State University, East Bay)

2009-2010: Kim Geron (California State University, East Bay) & Caroline Wong (Carleton College)

2010-2011: Caroline Wong (Carleton College) & Hahrie Hahn (Wellesley College)

2011-2012: Hahrie Hahn (Wellesley College) & John Ishiyama (University of North Texas)

2012-2013: John Ishiyama (University of North Texas) & Sahar Shafqat (Saint Mary’s College of Maryland)

2013-2014: Sahar Shafqat (Saint Mary’s College of Maryland) & Christine Chen (APIAVote)

2014-2015: Christine Chen (APIAVote) & Sangay Mishra (Drew University)

2015-2016: Sangay Mishra (Drew University) & Jeannette Yih Harvie (University of California, Santa Barbara)

2016-2017: Jeannette Yih Harvie (University of California, Santa Barbara) & Charles Lee (Arizona State University)

2017-2018: Charles Lee (Arizona State University) & Loan Le (Institute for Good Governance and Inclusion)

2018-2019: Loan Le (Institute for Good Governance and Inclusion) & Okiyoshi Takeda (Aoyama Gakuin University)

2019-2020: Okiyoshi Takeda (Aoyama Gakuin University) & Ngoc Phan (Hawai'i Pacific University)

2020-2021: Okiyoshi Takeda (Aoyama Gakuin University) & Ngoc Phan (Hawai'i Pacific University)

2021-2022: Ngoc Phan (Hawai'i Pacific University) & Dukhong Kim (Florida Atlantic University)

2022-2023: Dukhong Kim (Florida Atlantic University) & Nicole Filler (University of Massachussetts, Boston) 

2023-2024: Nicole Filler (University of Massachusetts Boston) & Christian Phillips (University of Southern California)

APAC's First Members (Summer 2000)

Tony Affigne, Andrew Aoki, Alice Ba, Sammy Basu, Bruce Cain, Marn J. Cha, Victor Cha, Hahm Chaibong, Praveen Chaudhry, Joy Chaudhuri, KangA Chen, Lanhee Chen, Lu-huei Chen, Paul Chen, Michelle Chin, Daniel Chiu, Gyoung-Gyu Choi, Mario Choi, Maqsood Choudary, Peter Chun, Erin Chung, Christian Collet, M. Margaret Conway, Jin Cyhn, Rebecca Deen, Zixian Deng, Ron Docksai, Wonmo Dong, Kihong Eom, Xibo Fan, Archon Fung, Kim Geron, Rachel Gisselquist, Prateek Goorha, Jeff Gulati, Kenji Hayao, Keiko Hirata, Haco Hoang, Nien-hê Hsieh, Shaohua Hu, Richard Hung, Imtiaz Hussain, Kathryn Ibata-Arens, Rita Jalali, Keun-soo Jeong, Chang-Ho Ji, Myoung-Ae Jones, Seung-Ho Joo, Claire Kim, Pan Kim, Seung-young Kim, Tom Kim, Young-Choul Kim, Todd Kunioka, Yasumasa Kuroda, James Lai, Anna Law, Taeku Lee, Wei-Chin Lee, Xiu Li, Pei-te Lien, Ann Chih Lin, Chenwei Lin, Tse-min Lin, John Linantud, Kara Lindaman, Baodong (Paul) Liu, Anthony Loh, Cecilia Manrique, Valerie Martinez-Ebers, Gwendolyn Mink, Kailash Mohapatra, Kenneth Montojo, Woojin Moon, Don Nakanishi, Calvin Oba, Hun Joo (David) Park, Kyung-Ae Park, Tong Park, Glenda Quarnstrom, Karthick Ramakrishnan, Domonic Rini, Ron Schmidt, Daljit Singh, Masami Stratton, Winston Szeto, Okiyoshi Takeda, Wendy Tam Cho, Charles Tien, Ragini Tripathi, Joseph Underhill-Cady, Ming Wan, Chin-shou Wang, Vincent Wei-cheng Wang, Cara Wong, Carolyn Wong, Janelle Wong, Chung-li Wu, Joseph Yi, David Yoon