UMass Boston

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Peter Kiang

Department:
School for Global Inclusion & Social Development Dean's Office
Title:
Professor U Of M
Location:
Bayside Floor 04

Biography

Dr. Peter Nien-chu Kiang (江念祖) is Professor and Director of the Asian American Studies Program at UMass Boston where he has taught since 1987.  He is the only person ever to receive the university’s highest honors—the Chancellor’s Awards for Distinguished Teaching (2007), Service (2010), and Scholarship (2024)—in all three categories of faculty achievement.

Area of Expertise

Education and Asian Americans, ethnic studies curriculum, pedagogy, and program development in K-12 and higher education, minority and immigrant/refugee youth and community development, Asian American veterans, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)

Degrees

EdD, Harvard University, Teaching, Curriculum & Learning Environments

EdM, Harvard University, Administration, Planning & Social Policy

BA, Harvard University, Visual & Environmental Studies and Geological Sciences

Professional Publications & Contributions

  • Kiang, P. N. (2020). Exploring Boston’s Nisei sources and contributions to the Japanese American redress movement. Asian American Law Journal, 27(1), 1-14.
  • Kiang, P. N., Tang, S. S. L., & Seto, M. (2019). AANAPISI perspectives of Asian American veterans in college. New Directions for Higher Education: Contemporary Issues for Asian Americans in Higher Education, 186, 49-65.
  • Catallozzi, L. A., Tang, S. S. L., Gabbard, G., & Kiang, P. N. (2019). Modeling AANAPISI community college-university collaboration: A case study of Asian American Studies-centered faculty and curriculum development. New Directions for Higher Education: Contemporary Issues for Asian Americans in Higher Education, 186, 79-92.
  • Kiang, P. N., Tang, S. S., & Seto, M. M. (2019). Mission-centered engagement with Asian American student veterans. Journal of Veterans Studies, 4(2), 34–51.
  • Đào, L. T., Kiang, P. N., Lâm, S. C., Nguyễn, S., & Tang, S. S. L. (2017). Steps along the curved road. CUNY Forum of Asian and Asian American Studies, 5(1), 81-89.
  • Kiang, P. N. (2016). Asian American Studies praxis and the educational power of Boston’s public Chinese burial grounds. Chinese America: History and Perspectives, 30, 59-70.
  • Museus, S. D., antonio, a. l., 
& Kiang, P. N. (2016). The state of scholarship on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in education: Anti-essentialism, inequality, context, and relevance. In S. D. Museus, A. Agbayani, & D. M. Ching (Eds.), Focusing on the underserved: Immigrant, refugee, and indigenous Asian American and Pacific Islanders in higher education (pp. 1–51). Information Age Publishing.
  • Kiang, P. N., Tang, S. S., & Dao, L. T. (2015). Refugee/veteran pedagogies in Asian American Studies. Asian American Literary Review, 6(2), 168-176.
  • Tang, S. S. L., & Kiang, P. N. (2011). Refugees, veterans, and continuing pedagogies of PTSD in Asian American Studies. An Integrative Analysis Approach to Diversity in the Classroom, 125, 77–87. Special issue: New Directions for Teaching and Learning.
  • Museus, S. D., & Kiang, P. N. (2009). Deconstructing the model minority myth and how it contributes to the invisible minority reality in higher education research. New Directions for Institutional Research, 142, 5-15.
  • Kiang, P. N., & Tang, S. S.-L. (2009). Transnational dimensions of community empowerment: The victories of Chanrithy Uong and Sam Yoon. In C. Collet & P.-T. Lien (Eds.), The transnational politics of Asian Americans: Controversies, questions, convergence (pp. 77–91). Temple University Press.
  • Kiang, P. N. (2009). A thematic analysis of persistence and long-term educational engagement with Southeast Asian American college students. In L. Zhan (Ed.), Asian American voices: Engaging, empowering, and enabling (pp. 21–58). National League for Nursing.
  • Kiang, P. N., Suyemoto, K. L., & Tang, S. S-L. (2008). Developing and sustaining community research methods and meanings in Asian American Studies coursework at an urban public university. In T. P. Fong (Ed.), Handbook of ethnic studies research: Approaches and perspectives (pp. 367–398). Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Kiang, P. N. (2008). Crouching activists, hidden scholars: Reflections on research and development with students and communities in Asian American Studies. In C. R. Hale. (Ed.), Engaging contradictions: Theory, politics, and methods of activist scholarship (pp. 299–318). University of California Press.
  • Kiang, P. N., & Loo, C. M. (2006). Food in the racial experiences of Asian American Pacific Islander Vietnam veterans. Amerasia Journal, 32(2), 7-20.
  • Kiang, P. N., & Tang, S. S.-L. (2006). Electoral politics and the contexts of empowerment, displacement, and diaspora for Boston’s Vietnamese and Cambodian American communities. Asian American Policy Review, 15, 13-29.
  • Kiang, P.N. (2006). Policy challenges for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in education. Race, Ethnicity & Education, 9(1), 103-115.
  • Kiang, P. N. (2006). Articulating individual learning and community development: College-community pathways for Asian immigrant adult learners. Research on the Education of Asian Pacific Americans, 3(1), 109–129.
  • Bui, J. D., Tang, S. S.-L., & Kiang, P. N. (2004). The local/global politics of Boston’s Viet-vote. AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice & Community, 2(2), 10-18.
  • Kiang, P. N. (2004). Checking Southeast Asian American realities in pan-Asian American agendas. AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice & Community, 2(1), 48-76.
  • Kiang, P. N. (2004). Linking strategies and interventions in Asian American Studies to K-12 classrooms and teacher preparation. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 17(2), 199-225.
  • Kiang, P. N. (2003). Voicing names and naming voices: Pedagogy and persistence in an Asian American Studies classroom. In V. Zamel & R. Speck (Eds.), Crossing the curriculum: Multilingual learners in college classrooms (pp. 207–220). Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Kiang, P. N. (2003). Pedagogies of PTSD: Circles of healing with refugees and veterans in Asian American Studies. In L. Zhan (Ed.), Asian Americans: Vulnerable populations, model interventions, clarifying agendas (pp. 197–222). Jones & Bartlett.
  • Kiang, P. N. (2002). Transnational linkages in Asian American Studies as sources and strategies for teaching and curricular change. In L. Jacobs, J. Cintrón, & C. Canton (Eds.), The politics of survival in academy: Narratives of inequity, resilience, and success (pp. 141–153 and 161–162). Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Kiang, P. N. (2002). Stories and structures of persistence: Ethnographic learning through research and practice in Asian American Studies. In Y. Zou & H. T. Trueba (Eds.), Ethnography and schools: Qualitative approaches to the study of education (pp. 223–255). Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Kiang, P. N. (2001). Pathways for Asian Pacific American youth political participation. In G. H. Chang (Ed.), Asian Americans and politics: Perspectives, experiences, prospects (pp. 230–257). Stanford University Press and Woodrow Wilson Center Press.
  • Kiang, P. N. (2000). Wanting to go on: Healing and transformation at an urban public university. In E. T. Trueba & L. I. Bartolomé (Eds.), Immigrant voices: In search of educational equity (pp. 137–166). Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Kiang, P. N. (1997). Pedagogies of life and death: Transforming immigrant/refugee students and Asian American Studies. Positions, 5(2), 529-555.
  • Kiang, P. N., Nguyen, N. L., & Sheehan, R. L. (1995). Don't ignore it!: Documenting racial harassment in a fourth-grade Vietnamese bilingual classroom. Equity and Excellence in Education, 28(1), 31-35.
  • Kiang, P. N., & Kaplan, J. (1994). Where do we stand: Views of racial conflict by Vietnamese American high school students in a black-and-white context. Urban Review, 26(2), 95–119.
  • Kiang, P. N. (1994). When know-nothings speak English only: Analyzing Irish and Cambodian struggles for community development and educational equity. In K. Aguilar-San Juan (Ed.), The state of Asian America: Activism and resistance in the 1990s. South End Press, 125-145.
  • Kiang, P. N. (1991). About face: Recognizing Asian & Pacific American Vietnam veterans in Asian American Studies. Amerasia Journal, 17(3), 22-40.
  • Kiang, P. N., & Ng, M. C. (1989). Through strength and struggle: Boston's Asian American student/community/labor solidarity. Amerasia Journal, 15(1), 285-293.
  • Kiang, P. N. (1988). The new wave: Developing Asian American Studies on the East Coast. In G. Y. Okihiro, S. Hune, A. Hansen, & J. M. Liu (Eds.), Reflections through windows of shattered glass (pp. 43-50). Washington State University Press.
  • Kiang, P. N. (1988). Discrimination or dignity: The struggles continue. In D. Chu (Ed.), The Chinese of Massachusetts (pp. 70–75). Chinese Culture Institute.

Additional Information

Since 2010, Peter has been co-principal investigator and lead proposal writer for five five-year grants totaling $9.1M from the US Department of Education for UMass Boston’s Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI) program.

Peter’s research, teaching, and advocacy in both K-12 and higher education with Asian American immigrant/refugee students and communities have been supported by the National Academy of Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Massachusetts Association for Bilingual Education, and others.  Nationally, he received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Educational Research Association's Special Interest Group: Research on the Education of Asian and Pacific Americans in 2013 and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association for Asian American Studies in 2014.

Peter served for six years as chair of the Massachusetts Advisory Committee for the US Commission on Civil Rights and eight years as co-president of the Chinese Historical Society of New England.  He holds a B.A., Ed.M., and Ed.D. from Harvard University and is a former Community Fellow in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT.