New journal focuses on community

UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center is publishing a new
journal that will focus on a wide array of policy issues concerning
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The journal, called Asian American and Pacific Islander Nexus,
publishes research and articles by scholars and practitioners
around the United States. Topics the journal addresses include
public health, law, urban planning, education, social welfare and
information studies as they pertain to the Asian American and
Pacific Islander community.

“There is a continuing need in the community itself for
research that addresses issues of policy, practice, and
community,” said Don Nakanishi, professor of education at
UCLA and associate editor of AAPI Nexus.

The journal, whose first volume was distributed in September,
will be published twice a year, and each issue will focus on a
central theme. The inaugural theme is community development, and
subsequent themes will focus on civil rights, voting, labor issues
and healthcare. The journal includes articles by social scientists
nationwide.

One article in the first issue examines development issues in
Little Tokyo, a cultural landmark in Los Angeles that was home to
Japanese immigrants during the first half of the 20th century.
Another article encourages communication between academic and
community organizations, and increased student involvement in
policy issues.

AAPI Nexus will focus on practical aspects of policy studies
that academic research sometimes neglects. For instance, each
journal will include an essay by a non-academic practitioner as
well as “almanac” section that includes statistics and
factual information about Asian Americans.

The journal is “not about knowledge in a narrow
sense,” said Paul Ong, a professor of urban planning and
social welfare at UCLA and the journal’s senior editor.

He says public policy should effectively and efficiently
accomplish tasks, but should also reflect society’s values.
According to Ong, the essays written by practitioners for the
journal articulate this need, which makes them useful to the
broader community.

The UCLA Asian American Studies Center is the largest such
center in the country. The center has published over 200 books and
reports, including the renowned Amerasia Journal, since 1971.

“We are looked to by academics and others … to produce
and provide research that is of national importance,” said
Nakanishi, who is also the director of the center.

AAPI Nexus provides an opportunity to extend practical policy
opinions nationally. So far, the journal has been well received and
distributed to organizations and universities nationwide.

“We’re getting a lot of coverage,” said Julia
Heintz-Mackoff, the journal’s managing editor.

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