Karen J. Leong
Women’s Studies Program
P.O. Box 873404
Tempe, AZ 85287-3404
(480) 965-6936
CURRENT POSITION
Assistant professor in the Women’s Studies Program at Arizona State University
EDUCATION
Ph.D., History, May 1999, University of California at Berkeley,
Dissertation:“The China Mystique and Other Imaginings: Mayling Soong Chiang, Pearl S. Buck, and
Anna May Wong in the American Imagination”
Chairs: Mary P. Ryan and Waldo E. Martin, Jr.
Qualifying exams passed with distinction, May 1994
M.A., History, December 1992, University of California at Berkeley
A.B. with honors in general scholarship, History, May 1990, University of California at Berkeley
HONORS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Faculty Grant-in-Aid, Arizona State University, 2000
Fellow, Department of History, Mount Holyoke College,
Five Colleges Minority Fellowship Program, 1998
Special Needs Grant, Department of History, 1997
Mellon Dissertation Fellowship, 1996
Eugene Irving McCormac Graduate Scholarship, Department of History, 1995
Archbishop Riordan Scholarship, Department of History, 1995
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute FDR Library Research Grant, 1995
Graduate Mentored Research Award, 1994
Mellon Dissertation Prospectus Summer Research Grant, Department of History, 1993
Graduate Opportunity Fellowship, UC Berkeley Graduate Opportunity Program, 1991-1992
UC Regent Scholar, UC Berkeley, 1986-1990
Golden Key International Honor Society, 1990
Phi Beta Kappa, UC Berkeley, 1989
TEACHING AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Mount Holyoke, History Department. Instructor, Capstone Colloquium, “Imagining Asian America.” Spring 1999
Designed and taught an undergraduate colloquium on the history of Asian Americans from the nineteenth century until the present.
UC Berkeley, Department of Women’s Studies. Graduate Student Instructor, Women’s Studies 10, Dr. Brinda Rao,
Spring 1997
Prepared, taught, and graded two discussion sections for undergraduate introductory course to feminisms and women’s issues in an international context.
UC Berkeley, History Department. Instructor, History 101, “Model Minorities and Marginal Identities: A Collaborative History of Cultural Identity in the United States Before 1995.” Spring 1996
Designed and taught an undergraduate thesis seminar on the formation, perceptions and expressions of marginal identities in American culture during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Instructed students in researching primary sources, developing an argument, and crafting a twenty-five to fifty page thesis.
TEACHING AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE (continued)
UC Berkeley, History Department. Graduate Student Instructor, History 7A, Dr. Jon Gjerde, Fall 1993
Prepared, taught, and graded two discussion sections for undergraduate survey course on the United States from pre-history through the Civil War.
UC Berkeley, History Department. Reader for Dr. Jon Gjerde, History 137, Spring 1993 and Spring 1994
Graded midterm, final exam, and term paper for upper division lecture course about history of United States immigration and immigration policy.
UC Berkeley, History Department. Research Assistant for Dr. Diane Clemens, Spring 1992
Researched primary source material. Organized and prepared section on Asian Americans for publication in Diane Clemens and Richard Allen, eds. The Forging of America: A Multicultural Reader of United States History (McGraw-Hill, 1992).
UC Berkeley, History Department. Reader for Dr. Lawrence Levine, History 124A, Fall 1992
Graded papers and exams for upper division lecture course about social and cultural changes in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.
GUEST LECTURES
Asian American Studies 310, San Francisco State University. “Changing American Perceptions of China and the Impact on Chinese Americans during World War II.”
Guest lecture. November 4, 1996.
History 16, UC Berkeley and UC Berkeley Extension. “The Asian Immigrant Experience in 19th Century America.”
Guest lecture. November 9 and 11, 1993.
History 16, UC Berkeley Extension. “The Chinese Must Go! The History of Chinese Exclusion.”
Guest lecture. November 14,1992.
PUBLICATIONS
“ ‘A Distinct and Antagonistic Race': Constructions of Chinese Manhood in theExclusionist Debates, 1869-1878.’” Matthew L. Basso, Dee Garceau, Laura McCall, eds. Across the Great Divide: Cultures of Manhood in the United States West (NY: Routledge Press, under review).
“Yick Wo v. Hopkins” and “The Page Law 1875.” Waldo E. Martin, Jr. and Patricia Hill, eds. Civil Rights in America (NY: MacMillan Publishing, forthcoming).
“Gender, Race and the Page Law.” The Repeal and Its Legacy: Proceedings of the Conference on the 50th Anniversaryof the Repeal of the Exclusion Acts (SF: Chinese Historical Society of America, 1994).
PAPERS DELIVERED
“Diplomacy, Geography and Gender: The Missimo and Prime Minister Negotiate the Nation’s Capital.” Paper
proposal submitted to the Annual Meeting of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations, Toronto, Canada. June 2000.
“Teaching Asian American History.” Discussant. 2000 Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, St.
Louis, MO. April, 2000.
“Anna May Wong: Negotiating the Borders of Identity.” 92nd Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association
Pacific Coast Branch, Maui, HI. August, 1999.
“’What Americans can learn from their Chinese sister’: China in the American Woman’s Imagination.” 11th Berkshires Conference on the History of Women, University of Rochester, NY. June, 1999.
“The Rape of Nanking: Images of China and Japan in the American Popular Imagination.” 1999 Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Toronto, Canada. March, 1999.
“Foreign Policy, Citizenship and National Identity: The FDR Administration and the Expediency of the Repeal of Chinese Exclusion.” 1997 Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, San Francisco, CA. April 1997.
“The Most Chinese American? Exploring the Transnational Identity of Pearl S. Buck.” 89th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association Pacific Coast Branch, San Francisco, CA. August, 1996.
“Decomposing the Good Earth: A Re-interpretation of David O. Selznick’s “China: A Symphonic Narrative.”” The 13th Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian American Studies, Washington, DC. May - June, 1996.
“Gender, Race and the Page Law.” Conference on the 50th Anniversary of the Repeal of the Exclusion Acts, Chinese
Historical Society of America, San Francisco, CA. November, 1993.
COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
Faculty Affiliate, Asian Pacific American Studies Program, Arizona State University.
Member, Program Committee for 17th National Conference, Association for Asian American Studies, May 2000,
Scottsdale, AZ.
Organizer and participant, Asian American Studies Working Group, Mount Holyoke College, 1998.
Co-organizer and participant, Five College Asian American Studies Task Force, Five Colleges, Inc., Amherst, MA, 1998.
Minority graduate student recruitment. 1992 and 1993. Worked with Minority Affairs Faculty Liaison to contact prospective minority graduate students; helped to coordinate their visits during the university's “Minority Day” program.
“Teaching Multicultural History.” Participant in panel presentation about the development of The Forging of America, and the teaching of U.S. history to a diverse undergraduate population. Chaired by Dr. Diane Clemens. UC Berkeley Open House, April 1993.
The History Graduate Student Handbook. Summer 1992 and Summer 1996. Submitted successful proposal for an Educational Improvement Grant from the Graduate Assembly. Prepared a comprehensive handbook for incoming history graduate students with other history graduate students. Distributed to incoming graduate students in 1992 and 1993.
LANGUAGES
Reading knowledge of Spanish.
ASSOCIATIONS
American Historical Association
Asian American Faculty and Staff Association, Arizona State University
Asian Women’s Association, Arizona State University
Association for Asian American Studies
Faculty Women’s Association, Arizona State University
Organization of American Historians