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"Strangers" of the Academy: Asian Women Scholars in Higher Education Guofang Li and Gulbahar H. Beckett (Eds.) Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing, 2006, 304 pages, $24.95 (softcover)
"Strangers" of the Academy: Asian Women Scholars in Higher Education is an influential, multilayered book that provides a range of perspectives to recognize the lived experiences of Asian immigrant and Asian American women faculty in the United States and Canada. As the title suggests, the book depicts the struggles of these women in the university setting because of their gender, ethnicity, and/ or immigrant status. The book also showcases their triumphs and the strategies that these women have used to overcome the hardships they have encountered.
The book includes fifteen essays that are divided into four parts. In part 1, "Asian Female Scholars in Context," three essays present a general overview using both national data and personal narratives to contextualize and theorize the experiences of Asian women scholars. For example, chapter 1 demonstrates that while Asian women have made great strides in obtaining undergraduate and graduate degrees, they continue to be underrepresented as full-time faculty and as upperlevel administrators. As demonstrated in chapter 2, even though the rate of graduate level participation is similar among Asian men and women in the science, math, and engineering (SME) fields, Asian males considerably outnumber that of Asian females in SME faculty positions. Chapter 3 and many of the following chapters offer explanations for such trends, such as conditions in the academy and larger American society that perpetuate the marginalization of and discrimination against women of color. Part 2, "Teaching,...