Kennesaw State Professor Awarded $3.5 million Spencer Foundation Grant
This story originally appeared on Kennesaw State University’s website and is reprinted with permission.
In conjunction with an ongoing effort to address the dearth of Asian American studies in K-12 school curriculums, Kennesaw State University professor Sohyun An, Ph.D., is among a group of researchers recently awarded a prestigious $3.5 million Transformative Research Grant from the Spencer Foundation. The first of its kind awarded by the foundation, the grant supports a robust collaborative research effort focused on supporting the integration of Asian American studies in the classroom.
Through the grant, An will serve as a co-principal investigator on a multidisciplinary team that includes principal investigator Noreen Naseem Rodríguez of Michigan State University; and co-principal investigators Esther Kim of College of William and Mary; Soo-yong Byun of the Pennsylvania State University; Michael Brown of the University of Michigan; and Jennifer Higgs of the University of California, Davis. Together, they will conduct an extensive study across five states to explore how communities advocate for and implement policies mandating the teaching of Asian American studies in K-12 classrooms, and how these initiatives impact student learning.