Pei-te Lein University of Utah

CAREER AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS / STATEMENT OF VIEWS

Pei-te Lien is associate professor of political science and ethnic studies at the University of Utah. A native of Taiwan, she received a B.A. degree in English from the National Taiwan University, and holds an M.A. in mass communications and journalism and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Florida. She has been teaching at Utah since her graduation. Lien's research addresses empirical questions regarding the intersectionality of race, gender, ethnicity, and class by comparing the political experiences of Asian Americans to other major American racial and ethnic groups.

Lien is the author of The Making of Asian America through Political Participation (Temple University Press, 2001), which received the 2002 best book award on political participation, voting, elections, and political behavior from APSA's Division on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. Her latest book, The Politics of Asian Americas: Diversity and Community (Routledge, 2004), is based on her NSF-sponsored Pilot National Asian American Political Survey (SES-9973435). Coauthored with M. Margaret Conway and Janelle Wong, this book is "perhaps the most significant contribution to date on the topic of Asian American politics in the United States". The dataset is archived by the ICPSR.

Lien has also published 40 scholarly articles and essays and is the recipient of several major research grants and prestigious awards. One of her current projects is a cross-campus and multiracial collaborative research project, funded by the Ford Foundation, that studies the trajectories and leadership roles of the nation's male and female nonwhite elected officials. She is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Asian American Studies, Asian American Policy Review, and the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. She also serves on the national advisory boards of several major survey research projects.

Lien is the founding co-chair and is on the Executive Committee of the APSA Asian Pacific American Caucus. She is a founding member of the APSA Committee on the Status of Asian Americans. In addition, she has participated actively, often as an organizer, in other professional and community-based organizations that address the problems of social injustice. She co-chaired the 2002 APSA conference program for the Division of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics and has been on several award and other committees at both national and regional levels.

Her transnational background and multi-disciplinary training and approach to studying central issues affecting American politics promise to bring a much-needed diversity to the governance of the century-old organization.