‘In‐between’ Asia and the West: Asian women faculty in the transnational context

Asian women faculty (AWF) are an underrepresented and understudied population. I hypothesize that, while AWF should be included in a broader analysis of the intersection of gender, race, class, and ethnicity in the academy, their stories can also contribute to the existing literature on minority faculty by linking the local and global experiences of 'Asians' in the 'West'. In this paper, I explore the higher education space by asking: 'What would it mean to take a transnational feminist approach to the analysis of issues concerning AWF?' First, I will closely look at a transnational feminist approach as a theoretical framework and will locate the academy as a contested space within this framework. Second, I will look at narratives and insights of AWF by drawing on literature either dealing with AWF in North America or written by AWF who explicate their own experiences in the academic settings. By applying the transnational lens to the narratives, I hope to add a new angle to see the academy as a contested site to other literature and studies that attempt to bring social justice to higher education. Lastly, I will point out some of the implications, including strengths and limitations, of using a transnational feminist framework to look at the issues concerning AWF as a marginalized population. Keywords: Asian womenfacultytransnational feminismhigher educationequity Notes 1. Since I use the narratives from secondary sources, there are some limitations to analyzing details of the AWF's reality such as their disciplinary fields and other differences in background. I believe that this literature review is an entry point to future empirical research on this understudied population.