Peter Nien-Chu Kiang

professor, education, UMass Boston

Dr. Peter Nien-chu Kiang is Professor of Education and Director of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he has taught since 1987. Under his leadership, UMass Boston has developed the most Asian American Studies courses, faculty, and community linkages of any university in New England and has been highlighted by the Association of American Colleges & Universities as a national model in integrating culturally-responsive instruction in the classroom with holistic practices of mentoring, service-learning, and advocacy to address the social and academic needs of students as well as the capacity-building needs of local Asian American communities. The program's alumni include teachers, social workers, health care providers, business entrepreneurs, and leaders of local Asian American community organizations as well as the first Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees to complete Ed.M. and Ed.D degrees at Harvard. Peter's own research, teaching, and advocacy in both P/K-12 and higher education with Asian American immigrant/refugee students and communities have been supported by the National Academy of Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Massachusetts Association for Bilingual Education, and others. His recent research commitments have included documenting race-related trauma and post-traumatic stress experienced by Asian American Vietnam veterans and constructing pathways for education and community development with Cambodian and Vietnamese American populations in Massachusetts. Peter currently serves as co-president of the Chinese Historical Society of New England and chair of the Massachusetts Advisory Committee for the US Commission on Civil Rights. He holds a B.A., Ed.M., and Ed.D. from Harvard University and is a former Community Fellow in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. In 2007, he received the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award at UMass Boston. [Source: http://www.umb.edu/academics/departments/cehd/programs/curriculum\_instruction/faculty/kiang.html]