Christen Sasaki

Biography

Dr. Sasaki received her doctorate in History from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2011. Prior to her appointment at UCSD, she was an assistant professor at the University of Hawai‘i, West O‘ahu and San Francisco State University. Dr. Sasaki specializes in Asian American Studies and transnational U.S. history.

Dr. Sasaki’s research and published works focus on the politics of race and empire in the 19th century. Her recent publications include, “Threads of Empire: Militourism and the Aloha Wear Industry in Hawai‘i,” which appeared in the Fall 2016 issue of American Quarterly and the upcoming “Emerging Nations, Emerging Empires: Citizenship and Sovereignty in 1893 Hawai‘i,” in press with Pacific Historical Review. Her current book project, tentatively titled, Pacific Confluence: Negotiating the Nation in 19th Century Hawai‘i, contends that questions of race, national belonging, and state jurisdiction which haunted the development of American empire, were encountered and negotiated within the late-nineteenth century inter-imperial condition of the islands. Dr. Sasaki teaches courses in Asian American Studies, transnational U.S. history, race and empire in the U.S. and Pacific World, and Japanese American history.

Research interests: Asian American History, Transnational U.S. History, Race and Empire, Pacific Worlds, Japanese American History, History and Memory

Publications

Journal Articles:

“Emerging Nations, Emerging Empires: Citizenship and Sovereignty in 1893 Hawai‘i,” Pacific Historical Review, [In Press - Accepted for Publication].

“Threads of Empire: Militourism and the Aloha Wear Industry in Hawai‘i,” American Quarterly 68.3 (2016): 643-667.

“The Possibilities for Pacific Islander Studies in the Continental United States,” de Guzman, John-Paul R., Alfred Peredo Flores, Kristopher Kaupalolo, Christen Sasaki, Kēhaulani Vaughn, and Joyce Pualani Warren, in “Transoceanic Flows: Pacific Islander Interventions Across the American Empire,” ed. Keith L. Camacho, Amerasia Journal, no. 3 (2012):141-161.

Edited Volumes:

Asian American History: Primary Documents of the Asian American Experience, ed. Jonathan H. X. Lee and Christen T. Sasaki. (Cognella Academic Publishing, 2015).

Book Chapters:

“How the Portuguese Became White: The Racial Politics of Pre-Annexation Hawai‘i,” in Pacific America: Histories of Transoceanic Crossings, ed. Lon Kurashige (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2017).