Slide

Asian American Studies Center

The UCLA Asian American Studies Center was established during the 1969-1970 academic year as a result of faculty, student, alumni, and community advocacy. As expressed by the founding committee in its original proposal, "The Center will hopefully enrich the experience of the entire university by contributing to an understanding of the long neglected history, rich cultural heritage, and present position of Asian Americans in our society." Through its programs in research, teaching, publications and other endeavors, the Center has pursued its original mission, and has sought to enrich and inform not only the UCLA community, but also an array of broader audiences and sectors in the state, the nation, and internationally. Today, UCLA is recognized as the premier research and teaching institution in the field of Asian American Studies.

Slide

American Indian Studies Center

The American Indian Studies Center was the culmination of efforts by students and community members to create a curriculum and research center concentrated on Native American history and culture. Established in 1969, the center facilitates research and research collaborations; disseminates research results; strengthens and supports graduate and undergraduate education in American Indian Studies; and carries out university and public service programs related to the Center's research expertise. The AISC also maintains a reference library and publishes books and the American Indian Culture and Research Journal. The AISC also administers visiting scholar/researcher awards and predoctoral fellowships as well as research grants to faculty and students through the IAC.

Slide

Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies

Founded in 1969 as the Center for Afro-American Studies, it was renamed in 2003 to honor Nobel Prize winner, scholar, activist, and UCLA alumnus Ralph J. Bunche, on the centennial of his birth. The Bunche Center is the result of the struggle by UCLA African American students and their supporters to have their history and culture recognized and studied. Established as an Organized Research Unit, its continuing mission is to develop and strengthen African American Studies through research, academic programs, a library and media center, special projects, and publications. The Center conducts and supports multidisciplinary research that expands the knowledge of the history, lifestyles, and sociocultural systems of people of African descent and investigates issues bearing on the social, psychological, economic and physical well-being of persons and communities of African descent.

Slide

The Chicano Studies Research Center

The Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) was founded in 1969 with a commitment to foster multidisciplinary research efforts as part of the land grant mission of the University of California (UC), which states that UC research needs to be in the service of the state and that it must maintain a presence in the local community. The CSRC supports faculty and students in the social sciences, life sciences, humanities, and the professional schools. Its research addresses the growing Chicano and Latino population, which now constitutes nearly 1/3 of California's and 1/2 of Los Angeles's population, yet continues to have disproportionately low access to higher education. The CSRC houses a library and special collections archive, an academic press, research projects, community based partnerships, two competitive grant/fellowship programs and the Los Tigres del Norte Fund.

Features

Creating New Scholarly Understandings for the Emerging America!

UCLA IACThe mission of the UCLA Institute of American Cultures (IAC) is to advance our understanding of the new social and cultural realities in America.  The unparalleled population shifts that have occurred in recent decades have transformed our sociocultural landscape, expanding both intra-group diversity as well as opportunities for intersectional exchanges.  Drawing on ethnic and American studies that serve as its intellectual core, the IAC is devoted to the study of this emerging America, with an emphasis on academic excellence, civic engagement, and diversity.  The IAC serves as the administrative hub for UCLA’s four ethnic studies centers:  the Asian American Studies Center, the American Indian Studies Center, the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, and the Chicano Studies Research Center.  It also initiates campus-wide programs and collaborations that support a wide range of disciplinary approaches to the study of ethnic and American cultures at UCLA. Located in Los Angeles – one of the most diverse and dynamic urban areas, and arguably a bellwether for the new demographic and sociocultural changes – the new IAC is well positioned to make innovative contributions to research on these developing trends.   Among other activities, the IAC both supports and initiates original research focused on emerging America, fosters a productive multidisciplinary intellectual environment on- and off-campus (through lectures, symposia, conferences, and workshops), links the research mission to professional development activities for faculty and students, and engages strategic partnerships with the broader community.  

News and Announcements

Inaugural Conference Pictures
The Inaugural Conference of the New Institute of American Cultures at UCLA.

Inaugural Conference

New Approaches to Race, Civil Rights, Governance and Cultural Production.

Inaugural Conference Program

New Understandings of Race, Civil Rights, Governance and Cultural Production.


The First IAC-Dream Fund Faculty Work Group Initiative Award

The IAC is pleased to announce the first IAC-Dream Fund Facu

lty Work Group and Visiting Scholar Initiative award winners.

Books by IAC Scholars

Amerasia Journal 38:1Amerasia Journal 38:1 — “Los Angeles Since 1992: Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Uprisings”
Twenty years after the events that unfolded on the streets of Los Angeles on April 29, 1992. [Read More]

The Indian Civil Rights Act at Forty

The Indian Civil Rights Act at Forty
Congress passed the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 (ICRA) to address civil rights in Indian country. [Read More]

Black Los Angeles

American Dreams and Racial Realities
Los Angeles is well-known as a temperate paradise with expansive beaches and mountain vistas, [Read More]

L.A. XicanoL.A. Xicano
The exhibition catalog for L.A. Xicano explores the diverse artistic contributions of Mexican American and Chicano artists to American art and toLos Angeles’s artistic development since 1945. [Read More]