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Chrissy Lau

Announcements

Race and Parental Love
A roundtable on Amy Chua's "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior", MCC Lounge, Tuesday, February 22, 2011 4-6pm

Asian American/U.S. History


Ph.D Candidate
B.A., M.A., Ph.D, University of California Santa Barbara

Office: HSSB 5048
Hours:

My book manuscript, "Loving Luxury: The Rise of the Japanese American Middle Class, 1900s-1940s," examines the cultural formation of the model minority family in the exclusion era. Departing from the conventional timeline of Asian American History that marks Japanese Americans as the model minority after the World War II internment period, my manuscript charts out a longer history of a politics of inclusion that extends as early as the exclusion era and unfolds through the platform of American consumer and material culture. As a result of the changing market economy and anti-immigrant sentiment, Japanese Americans cultivated a love for luxury through the reconfiguration of gender roles, the refined taste for cleanliness, and the childhood training of the classic art of the piano - the very stuff of homes that would define them as American.

Dissertation Title

  • Loving Luxury: The Cultural Economy of the Japanese American Home, 1920s

Teaching Fields

  • Asian American History
  • 20th Century US History
    Emphasis on Race Relations, Labor, and Social Movements
  • Comparative Gender
    Focus on Third World Feminisms in Asia, Africa, South America
  • Women of Color Feminism in the U.S.

Teaching Assistantships

  • Feminist Studies 30: Women, Globalization, and Resistance
    Winter 2012, Winter 2011, Winter 2010
  • History 17A: Early North America
    Fall 2009
  • History 2C: World History 1700 to Present
    Spring 2010, Summer 2009
  • Feminist Studies 50: Global Feminisms and Social Justice
    Spring 2009
  • Feminist Studies 20: Women, Culture, Society
    Fall 2008
  • Lead Teaching Assistant for Women's Studies and Asian American Studies
    2007-2008
  • Asian American Studies 4: Pop Culture
    Spring 2008
  • Women's Studies 60: Women of Color Feminism
    Summer 2008, Winter 2008, Spring 2007
  • Asian American Studies 8: Gender Relations
    Fall 2007, Fall 2006
  • Asian American Studies 5: Literature
    Winter 2007, Winter 2006
  • Women's Studies 185HG: Women of Color Literature
    Spring 2006
  • Law and Society 173: Law in American Society
    Fall 2005

Publications

  • Asian American Feminisms
    Greenwood Encyclopedia, Co-author with Diane Fujino

Awards

  • UC Pacific Rim Advanced Graduate Research Fellowship
    2011-2012
  • The Joseph E. And Gina Laun Jannotta Foundation Research Prize
    2011
  • History Dissertation Fellowship
    Spring 2011, Fall 2010
  • Foreign Language Area Study Fellowship
    Summer 2007
  • History Associates Fellowship
    2011, 2010, 2006

Community and Campus Life

  • Women of Color Brunch Symposium
    Organizer, 2006-2009
  • Women of Color Revolutionary Dialogues (WORD)
    Organizer of Theater Workshops, Writer and Performance Artist, Sister in Solidarity, 2007-2010
  • Asian Pacific American Graduate Students (APAGS)
    Founder and Organizer, 2006-
  • Student Fee Advisory Committee (SFAC)
    Graduate Student Representative, 2007-2010

Public History

  • National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian
    Goldman Sachs Junior Fellow & Intern, Spring 2013
  • Los Angeles Chinese American Museum
    Curatorial/Research Intern, Fall 2010-Winter 2011