Carolyn Chen
Carolyn Chen is Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley and Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion. Her publications include Getting Saved in America: Taiwanese Immigration and Religious Experience (Princeton 2008), Sustaining Faith Traditions: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion among the Latino and Asian American Second Generation, co-edited with Russell Jeung (NYU 2012) and Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley (Princeton 2022). She’s written for the New York Times, Atlantic, CNN, and other publications.
Jane Iwamura
Jane Naomi Iwamura is Professor of Religious Studies at University of the West. Her research focuses on Asian American religions, race, and popular culture in the United States (with an emphasis on visual culture). Dr. Iwamura’s publications include Virtual Orientalism: Religion and Popular Culture in the U.S. (Oxford 2011) and the co-edited volume, Revealing the Sacred in Asian and Pacific America (Routledge 2003). In addition to her expertise in U.S. religions, she also has a background in theological discourse and 19th/20th century philosophy of religion and critical theory. Dr. Iwamura co-founded the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI) and organized its first conference in 1999.
Jane Hong
Jane Hong is Associate Professor of History at Occidental College. She is the author of Opening the Gates to Asia: A Transpacific History of How America Repealed Asian Exclusion (University of North Carolina Press, 2019) and has published research in the Pacific Historical Review, Journal of Asian American Studies, and the Journal of American Ethnic History. Hong appears in the Peabody Award-winning PBS docuseries, Asian Americans (2020), and has written for the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
Khyati Joshi
Khyati Y. Joshi is a Professor of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her recent publications include White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America (NYU Press, 2020), (co-editor) Envisioning Religion, Race, and Asian Americans (University of Hawaii Press, 2020), and (co-editor) Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, 3rd edition (Routledge, 2016). She is the co-founder of the Institute for Teaching Diversity and Social Justice and provides professional development to educators, lawyers, judges, and other professionals.
Grace Yia-Hei Kao
Grace Yia-Hei Kao is the first Asian American woman to have been tenured and promoted to full professor at her institution. She is the author of My Body, Their Baby: A Progressive Christian Vision for Surrogacy (2023), Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist World (2011), and co-editor of two anthologies: Asian American Christian Ethics (2015, with Ilsup Ahn) and Encountering the Sacred: Feminist Reflections on Women’s Lives (2018, with Rebecca Todd Peters).
Helen Jin Kim
Helen Jin Kim is the author of Race for Revival: How Cold War South Korea Shaped the American Evangelical Empire (Oxford University Press, 2022), which won the 2024 Outstanding Achievement in History award from the Association of Asian American Studies. In 2020, Kim was awarded the Provost’s Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education, and the On Eagle’s Wings Excellence in Teaching Award.