This exhibit uses archival holdings in the Library’s Special Collections & Archives to explore some of Bowdoin’s earliest Asian students, Asian affinity groups, and the development of the Asian Studies program. Our goal is not to present a definitive history, but to introduce a more holistic history of Bowdoin College and bring to light the Asian students and alumni who are an integral, yet under-acknowledged presence at the College.
Asian Studies Program
Selena Cantor’s “The Asian Studies Program Student Handbook: written from a student's perspective,” 1990-1991.
Written as a recent graduate of the Class of 1990 and an Asian Studies major, Selena Cantor shares the merits and demerits of the program and outlines relevant opportunities across Bowdoin and off campus.
Cantor also appraises the limitations of the curriculum in the late 1980s: “Students interested in [government, economics, or] other regions of Asia, such as Central, West, or Southeast Asia, will [find] Bowdoin’s course offerings inadequate.” However, she notes that students interested in these areas have instead worked alongside faculty to pursue independent studies. Today, the curriculum encompasses language study, anthropology, art history, cinema, government, history, literature and culture, music, religion, and sociology. The 2024-2025 Bowdoin College Catalogue and Academic Handbook lists over 100 course offerings in Asian Studies, Chinese, and Japanese and as of Fall 2024 there are 16 Asian Studies majors and 21 minors declared.
The Tracing the Roots of Asian Community at Bowdoin: An Ongoing Discourse exhibition was conceived by members of RepresentAsian: Bowdoin’s Asian Alumni Association, the first formal entity established to represent the generations of Asian graduates. The group’s principal mission to build the foundations for and diligently maintain the bridges that will give our community the ability to create and sustain meaningful relationships with each other. Benjamin Wu, Class of 2018/2020 and Andrew Park, Class of 2015 reached out and connected with Special Collections & Archives; Amy Cai, Class of 2025 researched and curated the exhibition during the final weeks of her senior year. The exhibit was on view on the first floor of the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library for Commencement and Reunion (May-June) 2025. Special Collections Education and Engagement Librarian, Marieke Van Der Steenhoven and director of Multicultural Alumni Engagement, Joycelyn Blizzard also supported this project and related Reunion events.