Thursday, February 5, 2026
Our Spark Series continues with a second session, “The Asian Americans &
STEM Initiative”, featuring Professors Theodore Kim, Mary Lui, and Reina Maruyama, with a hybrid session. Registration required for both modes of attendance. Link will be sent day of event.
Wednesday, March 4, 2026, 4:15 – 6:00 pm. Registration here.
Since spring 2020, we have witnessed the rise of widespread and virulent anti-Asian
hate and bias resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and a faltering U.S. economy. In
academia, these incidents follow the systemic targeting of Asian American scientists
through the Department of Justice’s China Initiative and must be understood within the
long and fraught history of Asian exclusion and the geopolitical relations between the
U.S. and Asian nations in the last century.
In fall of 2020, Professors Mary Lui (history/American Studies), Reina
Maruyama (physics/astronomy), and Theodore Kim (computer science)
began to investigate questions of race and racial formation in American scientific
research and the history of Asian/Asian American scientists in the U.S. For the 2020-
2021 academic year the three scholars along with interested Yale colleagues
participated in a reading group on the theme of “Asian Americans and STEM” that led to
the creation of a first-year undergraduate seminar in spring 2022 with the same title
taught by Profs. Lui and Maruyama with guest lectures from Prof. Kim and other faculty
across the campus.
Supported through a Yale teaching innovation grant, the pilot
course introduced Asian American history to STEM students and STEM to humanities
students, with the aim to bridge the gulf between humanities and STEM scholarship.
The initiative has grown since. With support from the Center for Race, Indigeneity, and
Transnational Migration (RITM) and FAS Dean’s Office, two postdoctoral fellows Dr.
Eun-Joo Ahn and Dr. Yoehan Oh joined the team. Dr. Ahn took up teaching “Asian
Americans and STEM” and Dr. Oh offered a new course, “Decentering Computer Science:
Transpacific Computing History across U.S., East Asia, and Beyond.” The team
launched their first conference “Asian Americans and STEM” at Yale in May 2024, with
the second planned for March 2026 at NYU.
In our second session of the series, Drs. Kim, Lui, and Maruyama will discuss “The Spark” that
contributed to their work. Wednesday, March 4, 2026, 4:15 – 6:00 pm. Registration here.
For more information on the initiative, go to https://asianamstem.yale.edu/