Asian American Inclusion in Legal Academia

The authors began writing this essay in the summer of 2021, following the killing of six women of Asian descent in Atlanta on March 16, 2021 and a rise in anti-Asian violence fueled by racist fearmongering related to COVID-19. In 2021, the authors also witnessed the most sustained and prominent recognitions of the need to prevent and stop anti-Asian violence that they had seen in their lifetimes, including prevalent use of the hashtags #StopAAPIHate and #StopAsianHate. Asian American communities coalesced and became increasingly vocal in response. Before 2021, supportive spaces in legal academia to share about the challenges and experiences from the Asian American perspective, especially the Asian American woman’s, were extremely rare. This essay represents an effort to create more space. The authors reflect on the heavy lift left for the legal academy to raise the voices, work, and presence of Asian American faculty—particularly women. It provides a brief overview of the history, stereotypes, and myths about Asian Americans and the Asian American existence in legal academia. Ultimately, it proposes an approach for supporting and advancing law professors of Asian heritage and offers a 12-question self-assessment for law schools.