Department of English
2013-2014 Library Enhancement Grant
Professor Malini Johar Schueller, Professor of English and Director of the Asian American Studies Certificate Program, has received a Library Enhancement Grant to increase UF library holdings in Asian American Studies. Since the certificate program opened its doors at UF in 2004, students and faculty have expressed great enthusiasm for more resources in this area. Books and media purchased through this grant for the UF library will better serve students’ needs and facilitate ongoing graduate and faculty research.
Asian American Studies at UF concentrate on the questions of Asian American racial politics, gender issues, community building, and culture. The issues at stake in Asian American Studies are especially important at UF, where Asian Americans constitute over seven percent of enrolled undergraduates and twelve percent of students currently seeking professional degrees. Almost half of the international students that UF attracts come from Asian countries, contributing to the growing Asian diaspora. In 2004, UF became the first university in the southeastern United States to offer an accredited program to study these issues.
This grant thus supports acquisition of recently-published novels, short story collections, and anthologies that are critical texts for the study of the Asian diaspora. It also significantly expands holdings of DVD and VHS media produced by Asian Americans and documenting Asian American culture. These materials are otherwise inaccessible through library loan and are therefore difficult for individual scholars to acquire and study. The UF collection will thus be a unique resource for scholars researching the contemporary Asian American experience.