Guest Column by 58 Penn Faculty Members | In support of Dr. Eng and the Asian American Studies Program

We write in response to the School of Arts and Science dean’s announcement that the school will initiate cluster hires in Asian American Studies Program to compensate for the impending loss of professor David Eng (and indeed professor Grace Kao, who moved to Yale several years ago). ASAM has been woefully understaffed for many years, as generations of students and faculty have asserted. As a belated response, these cluster hires are welcome, but we wish to remind the deans that it is crucially important to retain professor Eng, who has proved vital not only to ASAM, but to the English Department and the programs in Comparative Literature and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. He has demonstrated a unique capacity to connect diverse intellectual constituencies across Penn, and is, quite simply, irreplaceable. To lose professor Eng while making plans for the future is simply bad policy; his presence here will reassure potential Asian American faculty that SAS is committed to the development of ASAM. To not retain professor Eng is to send a terrible message to future candidates, and we are likely to lose the very best of them.

We stand in solidarity as Asian, Asian American, and queer, of color faculty and allies; and alongside our brilliant and impassioned ASAM Undergraduate Advisory Board students and 800 students and alumni who have petitioned the University for adequate support for ASAM and the retention of professor Eng.

1. David Kazanjian, English, Comparative Literature
2. Chi-ming Yang, English, Comparative Literature, Asian American Studies
3. Eiichiro Azuma, History, Asian American Studies
4. Guobin Yang, Sociology, Annenberg School
5. Ayako Kano, EALC, Comparative Literature, GSWS
6. David Young Kim, History of Art, Italian Studies
7. Ania Loomba, English, Comparative Literature, GSWS
8. Suvir Kaul, English, Comparative Literature
9. Ken Lum, Fine Arts, Weitzman Design
10. Paul Saint-Amour, English, Comparative Literature
11. Max Cavitch, English, Comparative Literature, GSWS, Psychoanalytic Studies
12. Melissa E. Sanchez, English, Comparative Literature, GSWS
13. Jean-Christophe Cloutier, English
14. S. Pearl Brilmyer, English
15. Julia Alekseyeva, English, Cinema & Media Studies, Comparative Literature, REES
16. D. Brian Kim, REES, Comparative Literature
17. Jean-Michel Rabaté, English, Comparative Literature
18. Emily Wilson, Classical Studies, Comparative Literature
19. James English, English, Digital Humanities
20. Margo Natalie Crawford, English, Comparative Literature
21. Rahul Mukherjee, English, Cinema & Media Studies, Comparative Literature
22. Jennifer S. Ponce de León, English, LALS, Comparative Literature, GSWS
23. Abdulhamit Arvas, English, GSWS, Middle East Center 
24. Deborah A. Thomas, Anthropology, Center for Experimental Ethnography
25. Joan DeJean, Romance Languages, Comparative Literature, GSWS
26. Hsiao-wen Cheng, EALC, GSWS
27. Joan DeJean, Romance Languages, Comparative Literature, GSWS
28. Rita Copeland, Comparative Literature, Classical Studies, English
29. Kristen R. Ghodsee, Russian and East European Studies
30. Karen Redrobe, Wolf Humanities Center, ARTH
31. Gerald Prince, Romance Languages, Comparative Literature
32. Scott Francis, Romance Languages, Comparative Literature
33. Kevin M. F. Platt, Russian and East European Studies, Comparative Literature
34. Anne Norton, Political Science, Comparative Literature
35. Liliane Weissberg, German and Comparative Literature
36. Ericka Beckman, Romance Languages, Comparative Literature
37. David Wallace, English, Italian Studies, Comparative Literature, GSWS
38. Siyen Fei, History
39. MIchael G. Hanchard, Africana Studies
40. Sophia Rosenfeld, History
41. Jonathan D. Katz,  GSWS, Art History
42. Kathleen Brown, History, GSWS
43. Ezekiel Dixon-Román, SP2
44. Sharon Hayes, Fine Arts, Weitzman Design
45. Emily Steinlight, English
46. Toorjo Ghose, SP2 
47. Sophie Hochhäusl, Architecture, GSWS
48. André Dombrowski, ARTH
49. Nancy J. Hirschmann, Political Science and GSWS
50. Robert Vitalis, Political Science
51. Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, History of Art, ASAM, LALS
52. Gerald Campano, GSE
53. Fernando Chang-Muy, Law and SP2
54. Greg Urban, Anthropology
55. Peter Holquist, History
56. Kaja Silvermant, History of Art
57. Ivan Drpić, History of Art
58. Rita Barnard, English and Comparative Literature