Statement on the TAAF Grant 

Based on the prevailing opinions expressed in the business meeting on April 26, 2024 at the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) conference in Seattle, the association is declining the grant of 50 thousand dollars that has been awarded to the organization by The Asian American Foundation (TAAF). This decision was reached due to the existing TAAF leadership structure which goes against the tenets and values of the AAAS Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction resolution that we voted on as an association in 2013.  The resolution distills our commitment to a Free Palestine through a peaceful resolution to the conflicts in this area. 

AAAS was built on a long history of intersectional activism and scholarship around social justice, anti-racism, decoloniality, economic equality, gender, and sexual visibility and rights. As a community of scholars, activists, and cultural producers, we have a long history that stems from the field’s emergence in the 1960s during the peak of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movements. We remain steadfast in our mission of questioning and disrupting systemic racism, imperial occupation, displacement, and violence due to wars not only in the United States, but around the world. 

With an eye toward repair, AAAS aims to work with transparency to rebuild relationships and redress harms that have been caused by the confusion over our position regarding BDS and TAAF leadership.  The association looks forward towards a future buoyed by our enduring mission of obtaining social justice for all peoples.