About Donna Anderson

Donna Doan Anderson (she/her) is a research assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research examines how the U.S. heartland operates as an Asian American space, unified in experiences of invisibility and exclusion. As a result, her interests lay primarily in Asian American histories and Midwestern studies, though can be extended to the interventions founds in scholarship on settler colonialism, agrarian studies, and critical refugee studies. Her research on Asian American agricultural and rural communities brings her to several Midwestern and Intermountain states and she is grateful to be affiliated with the Huntington Library, Charles Redd Center for Western Studies (BYU), Digital Ethnic Studies Research Institute (University of Nebraska), and the Immigration History Research Center Archives (University of Minnesota). Her published works can be found in the Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of Asian American Studies, Ethnic Studies Review, American Studies Journal, and Middle West Review (forthcoming), while a co-authored chapter examining remittances and urban development in Vietnam can be found in Governing Cities in the 21 st Century: Asian Perspectives (Routledge, 2020). Her article, “Acceptance for Admission: Administrations of Japanese American Relocation and the Midwestern University” (American Studies, Fall 2023), is the 2023 winner of the Midwest Historical Association's Dorothy Schwieder Prize for Best Article in a peer-reviewed journal on Midwestern History.

In addition to research, she previously served as the Assistant Editor for the Journal of Asian American Studies and as the graduate student representative for the Association of Asian American Studies’ History section. At UCSB, she was actively involved in the Asian/American Studies Collective.

Donna Doan Anderson (she/her) is a PhD candidate in History and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Donna's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Donna:

William Gow, "Performing Chinatown: Hollywood, Tourism, and the Making of a Chinese American Community" (Stanford UP, 2024)

July 10, 2024

Performing Chinatown

William Gow
Hosted by Donna Anderson

This episode features a conversation with Dr. William Gow on his recently published book, Performing Chinatown: Hollywood, Tourism, and the Making of …

Catherine Ceniza Choy, "Asian American Histories of the United States" (Beacon Press, 2022)

May 1, 2024

Asian American Histories of the United States

Catherine Ceniza Choy
Hosted by Donna Anderson

To begin the celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, this episode features a conversation with Dr. Catherine Ceniza Choy about her book …

Wendy Cheng, "Island X: Taiwanese Student Migrants, Campus Spies, and Cold War Activism" (U Washington Press, 2023)

February 8, 2024

Island X

Wendy Cheng
Hosted by Donna Anderson

This episode, which is co-hosted with Tandee Wang, features a conversation with Dr. Wendy Cheng, author of Island X: Taiwanese Student Migrants, Campu…

Diane Carol Fujino, "Nisei Radicals: The Feminist Poetics and Transformative Ministry of Mitsuye Yamada and Michael Yasutake" (U Washington Press, 2020)

November 25, 2023

Nisei Radicals

Diane Carol Fujino
Hosted by Donna Anderson

This episode, which is co-hosted with Michael Nishimura, features a conversation with Dr. Diane C. Fujino, the author of Nisei Radicals: The Feminist …

Huping Ling, "Chinese Americans in the Heartland: Migration, Work, and Community" (Rutgers UP, 2022)

November 16, 2023

Chinese Americans in the Heartland

Huping Ling
Hosted by Donna Anderson
Listen:

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Huping Ling on her two latest books, Chinese Americans in the Heartland: Migration, Work, and Community …

Chrissy Yee Lau, "New Women of Empire: Gendered Politics and Racial Uplift in Interwar Japanese America" (U Washington Press, 2022)

October 8, 2023

New Women of Empire

Chrissy Yee Lau
Hosted by Donna Anderson

This episode, which is co-hosted with Mika Thornburg, features a conversation with Dr. Chrissy Yee Lau, the author of the newly published New Women of…

Michael R. Jin, "Citizens, Immigrants, and the Stateless: A Japanese American Diaspora in the Pacific" (Stanford UP, 2021)

August 19, 2023

Citizens, Immigrants, and the Stateless

Michael R. Jin
Hosted by Donna Anderson

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Michael R. Jin regarding his recently published book Citizens, Immigrants, and the Stateless: The Japane…

James Zarsadiaz, "Resisting Change in Suburbia: Asian Immigrants and Frontier Nostalgia in L.A." (U California Press, 2022)

June 27, 2023

Resisting Change in Suburbia

James Zarsadiaz
Hosted by Donna Anderson
Listen:

In this episode, we discuss how myths of suburbia, the American West, and the American Dream informed regional planning, suburban design, and ideas ab…

Ma Vang, "History on the Run: Secrecy, Fugitivity, and Hmong Refugee Epistemologies" (Duke UP, 2021)

March 14, 2023

History on the Run

Ma Vang
Hosted by Donna Anderson

In this episode we discuss how secrecy structures both official knowledge and refugee epistemologies about militarism and forced migration as found in…