Faculty

Genevieve Leung is the academic director of the Asian Pacific Studies MA program and director of the Asian Pacific American Studies minor. She has a BA in linguistics from UC Berkeley and dual MA degrees in linguistics (TESOL) and education (Language and Literacy) from UC Davis. She received her PhD in Educational Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught high school English in Japan, as well as English writing, effective communication, and reading and vocabulary courses at...

Byron Au Yong (歐陽良仁) composes songs of dislocation, music for a changing world. Variety calls his work “claustrophobic and expansive, intimate and existential, personal and political all at once.” Highlights include Activist Songbook (Asian Arts Initiative, Hopkins Center for the Arts, International Festival of Arts & Ideas), Stuck Elevator (American Conservatory Theater, Long Wharf Theater, Nashville Opera), Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas (Bumbershoot Festival of the Arts) and Piano Concerto...

Dr. Violet Cheung (ORCiD 0000-0003-2706-025X) is a co-chair and a professor in the department of psychology at the University of San Francisco. Her research on mass emotions started after 9/11 while she was completing her doctorate degree at UC Berkeley. She examined angry responses to the terrorist attack and how the public sentiment precipitated the U.S. to go to war. She now focuses on anxious and fearful responses in the new contexts of cyber insecurity, the migrant crisis, and the COVID...

Kevin M. Chun, PhD, is professor of psychology and co-founding faculty member of USF’s Asian American Studies and Critical Diversity Studies programs. Professor Chun uses community-based research methods to study acculturation effects on Asian American immigrant health and psychosocial adjustment. His research program aims to improve acculturation theory and measures, and develop health interventions that reduce immigrant families’ acculturation stress.

Prof. Chun was co-principal...

Brian Komei Dempster is a professor of rhetoric and language and a faculty member in Asian Pacific American Studies at the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also serves as Director of Administration for the Master of Arts in Asia Pacific Studies. He has been at USF since 2001 and received the Distinguished Teaching Award (along with Ronald Sundstrom) in 2010 and the Dean's Scholar Award for 2022-2023.

At the university, he has taught various courses in the Rhetoric and Language...

Evelyn Y. Ho is a professor of communication studies, Asian Pacific American studies, and critical diversity studies. Beginning with an understanding that communication is a cultural activity and that health care systems and beliefs are profoundly cultural, Professor Ho's teaching and research focus broadly on the intersections of health, culture, and communication, with a specific focus on the use and cultural meanings of acupuncture and Chinese medicine in underserved communities. She has led...

David Kim is a professor of philosophy and an affiliate of the programs in Asian Studies, Asian American Studies, and Critical Diversity Studies. He has served in a variety of professional organizations, including chairing the American Philosophical Association Committee on Asian and Asian American Philosophers and Philosophies and co-founding the North American Korean Philosophy Association. 

David's work explores how our understanding of U.S. democracy is deepened through consideration of...

Evelyn I. Rodriguez is a second-generation Pinay, who was born in Honolulu, raised in San Diego, and is now an Associate Professor for the University of San Francisco's Department of Sociology. She also is a faculty member in Critical Diversity Studies, Asian American Studies, and the Maria Elena Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from UC San Diego as a Sociology major/Ethnic Studies minor; and received her MA and PhD from UC Berkeley's...

Fr. Dennis Recio, SJ is a member of the Jesuit community at USF. He teaches in the St. Ignatius Institute (Great Books) program and the English Department. He has taught courses in Composition and Rhetoric, Great Books, Horror Films, Manners and Etiquette, the Philosophy of Friendship, and Jane Austen. He has previously worked as a hospital chaplain, a high school teacher at St. Ignatius College Preparatory, a retreat director, and a case manager for a homeless shelter. He enjoys a good slasher...