Ian Shin

I am a social and cultural historian of the United States. My research and teaching focus on Asian American history and on the history of the U.S. in the Pacific World between 1850 and 1950. I come to this work as a first-generation American who was born in Hong Kong, grew up in California, and spent the past decade and a half on the East Coast. My work is guided not only by my training in historical methods but also by my dedication to critical race and ethnic studies.

I am currently working on several projects. My book manuscript—entitled Imperfect Knowledge: Chinese Art and American Power in the Transpacific Progressive Era—examines Chinese art collecting in the U.S. in the early 20th century as a contested process of knowledge production that bolstered ideas of American exceptionalism, even while it relied on transpacific circuits of labor and expertise. Additionally, I am working on articles about the Boy Scout movement in New York’s Chinatown and about the forgotten history of interracial adoption of white children by Chinese parents during the Exclusion Era. I recently completed a book chapter on the role of colleges and universities in U.S.-China relations and Asian immigration in the long 19th century, using Amherst College as a case study. 

My courses in History and American Culture, in which I hold a joint appointment, explore these themes. In Fall 2020, I am teaching:

• "Introduction to Asian/Pacific American Studies" (AMCULT/ASIANPAM 214), which fulfills the LSA Race and Ethnicity requirement
• "U.S. in the World" (HISTORY/AMCULT 289), an overview of the history of U.S. foreign relations from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror

In Winter 2021, I will teach:

• "Empire and American Culture" (AMCULT 405)
• "Doing History" (HISTORY 202), the methods course for new History majors

Outside of the office and classroom, I co-host a podcast that interviews authors of new books in Asian American studies.