Jean Pfaelzer: When I talk about American Studies, I talk about .....

Jean Pfaelzer is Professor of English, Asian Studies, and Women and Gender
Studies at the University of Delaware. She is the author of Driven Out: The
Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans, (Random House and University
of California Press; forthcoming in Mandarin, Flower City Pub PRC), and
four other books including Parlor Radical: Rebecca Harding Davis and the
Origins of American Social Realism and The Utopian Novel in America: The
Politics of Form. She is working on two books: California Bound: Slavery in
the American West (Yale University Press) and Muted Mutinies: Slave Revolts
on Chinese Coolie Ships. Jean is on the curatorial team for “I Want the Wide
American Earth: An Asian Pacifi c American Story” Smithsonian Museum
of American History 2013-present. Driven Out was named one of the “100
Notable Books of the Year” by the NY Times; she was named Asian American
Hero by Asian Week. She will appear in the PBS special on the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Law (Director Ric
Burns) and in a three hour co-production of PBS and CCTV (U.S. Director Doug Shultz) on the Chinese in
the American West. Jean consults for the “1882 Project” that gained Congressional acknowledgement
of anti-Chinese legislation. She writes for Huffi ngton Post, History News Network, and The Globalist
and speaks frequently on NPR and Pacifi ca on issues of labor and immigration. She curated Asian
American Women: A History of Resistance and Resilience for the National Women’s History Museum.
Jean has served on the American Studies Association International Committee, Women’s Committee,
and is founder and Chair of ASA International Women’s Task Force. Jean Pfaelzer received her Ph.D. from University College, London, a Graduate Certifi cate in Politics and Culture from Cambridge University (Dir. Raymond Williams) and her BA and MA from Univ. California, Berkeley (Dir. Henry Nash Smith). She is a member of the Chinese Railroad Workers Project.

Flyer