Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies

Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies is the critical and interdisciplinary study of the history, experiences, culture, and politics of communities of Asian descent in local, national, and global contexts. The UC Berkeley Library collects at a research level in the subject of Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, an interdisciplinary field which includes history, sociology, anthropology, literature, political science, cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, and more.  

Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies collections are located in multiple campus libraries.  Arts, humanities, and social sciences materials are located in the Main (Gardner) Stacks, with additional materials in subject specialty libraries such as the Social Research, Anthropology, Environmental Design, and the Media Resources Center.  

The Ethnic Studies Library, with its departmental focus, features an Asian American Studies Collection in connection with the Asian American and Asian Diaspora Program within the Ethnic Studies Department.  The Asian American Studies Collection features books, serials, newspapers, archival materials, and media on the history, culture, and politics of Asian America and the Asian Diaspora.

The Bancroft Library, in addition to being the UC Berkeley’s manuscript and archival collections, holds materials relevant to American ethnic groups in California, the Western United States and Mexico; see the Western Americana collection description for details.

The South/Southeast Asian Library, located in Doe Library, collects materials related to the South and Southeast Asian communities. See related LibGuides to explore these collections. 

The Ethnic Studies Library is the departmental library of the Department of Ethnic Studies. It was established in 1997 by merging the Asian American Studies Library, the Chicano Studies Library, and the Native American Studies Library. Since the founding of the Department following the Third World Liberation Front student strike in 1969, the collections of these libraries grew from student interest in collecting and preserving a perspective by and for racialized communities that they saw as lacking or marginalized in other campus libraries. The specialized ethnic studies books and serials, archival collections, posters, and audio collections from those three libraries live on in a centralized space on the ground floor of Stephens Hall, a short walk from Barrows Hall. The library consists of these four collections: Asian American Studies Collection; Chicano Studies Collection; Native American Studies Collection; Comparative Ethnic Studies Collection. In addition to our collections, the ESL regularly hosts events, ESL librarians provide reference and instruction for the department and larger campus community, and takes recommendations on purchasing books in the field of Ethnic Studies. Visit the Ethnic Studies Library website for more information.

UC Berkeley Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Library Research Guides:

• Chinese Studies (contemporary)
• Chinese Studies (pre-1949)
• Japanese American Interment -- The Bancroft Library
• Korean Studies
• Middle East
• South Asia Studies
• Southeast Asia Studies
• Web Resources for South Asian History

Other Related UC Berkeley Library Research Guides:

• African American Studies
• Black Panther Party and Black Power Movement
• Critical Pacific Islander Studies Library Research Guide
• Social Protest and the Free Speech Movement
• United Farm Workers - Research Guide

Exhibits

• Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California, 1899-1965