HELEN ZIA

Ronald Takaki is one of the foremost internationally recognized scholars of multicultural studies. The grandson of Japanese immigrant plantation laborers, he holds a Ph.D. in American history from the University of California, Berkeley, where he has been a professor of Ethnic Studies for three decades. He was instrumental in the establishment of Berkeley's multicultural requirement for graduation.

Professor Takaki has lectured in many countries, including Japan, the former Soviet Union, and South Africa. Takaki debated Nathan Glazer four times since 1980, and debated Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., at a conference sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations in May 1997.

Takaki is the author of the critically acclaimed Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19th Century America. His book, Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans, was selected as one of the Notable Books of the year by the New York Times and one of the best 100 non-fiction books of the 20th century by the San Franciso Chronicle.

Takaki's A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America has been hailed by Publisher's Weekly as "a brilliant revisionist history of America that is likely to become a classic of multicultural studies."

from California State University 2001 Fall Academic Conference