The Asian Caucus of the SRCD was first discussed at the 2005 Atlanta SRCD Conference among the committee members. A steering committee was formed by Summer 2006.
Ruth Chao
Mae Ho
Jin Li
Ramaswami Mahalingam
Vivian Tseng
Tiffany Yip
A mission statement was written and election procedures were formed, both of which were amended and then approved by the founding committee (see below).
Chuansheng Chen
Xin Yin Chen
Xiaojia Ge
Richard Lee
Suniya Luthar
Jayanthi Mistry
Huong Nguyen
Felicisima C. Serafica
Ruby Takanishi
Hiro Yoshikawa
Initial Launch of the Asian Caucus at SRCD
Asian Caucus was launched at the Biennial meeting of SRCD in Boston during the last week of March, 2007. Three events were planned for the Asian Caucus inauguration at the conference.
The first event was a pre-conference workshop which focused on two themes: (a) the challenges of doing community based research on Asian American communities (b) professional development issues for Asian American scholars.
The second event was a panel discussion where four eminent Asian American scholars presented their work on various issues pertaining to Asian American communities. Prof. Ruth Chao provided an overview of developmental research on Asian American communities identifying specific areas for future research. Prof. Jayanthi Mistry discussed the challenges of doing community based research, emphasizing the need to reach out various types of Asian American communities. Dr. Ruby Takanishi emphasized the need for doing research with specific policy implications for Asian American communities. Prof. Suniya Luthar discussed the need to envision a research agenda for Asian Americans that looks at how intersections of ethnicity, class, gender and sexualities affect the psychological well-being, the developmental pathways and academic achievement of Asian American children, youth and adults.
The third event was a reception hosted by Asian Caucus. Several graduate students and junior scholars attended the event. It was a social occasion for networking and for making plans for future collaborations. Over 100 participants attended the reception. It was a big success. All the three events were well attended and there was lot of enthusiasm to participate in the future activities of the caucus.
First Election
Following the creation of the Asian Caucus and mission statement, an election for leadership was held in 2008.