While dialogue between Asian American Studies and Asian Studies is being advocated by some scholars in both fields, no informed scholar or administrator has ever advocated the enforced subordination of Asian American Studies to Asian Studies. If ecumenical scholars called for a dialogue between Judaic studies and Islamic Studies, no one would call for the subordination of Judaic studies under the rubric of Middle Eastern studies. The subject of Judaic studies is not geographically demarcated. Moreover, the Jewish American experience is not centered in the Middle East. The enforced colonization and subordination of one discipline to the other would be harmful to both.
Interdisciplinary cooperation requires the autonomy of disciplines.
Such cooperation happens by choice, not force. When the panel of experts recognized that Stony Brook, with the exception of Chinese Studies, has no strength in Asian Studies, they, somewhat unexpectedly, recommended that any credible development of Asian Studies would not go in the direction of Asian religions but in the more contemporary direction of globalized Asian American Studies. The demonstrated student support and the well-conceived academic focus of Asian American Studies should not be used to support an amalgamation of Asian studies faculty with faculty in religious studies. A minor in Asian American Studies is already in the process of evolving through interactions with Africana Studies, Latin and Caribbean Studies, Women's Studies, History, and Philosophy. Members of the Philosophy Department have voted in favor of the development of an Asian American Studies minor and the Chair of Philosophy is supportive of housing such a minor within Philosophy.