Janelle Wong

Janelle Wong is professor of American studies and a core faculty member in the Asian American Studies Program. She received her Ph.D. in 2001 from the Department of Political Science at Yale University. Wong is the author of “Immigrants, Evangelicals and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change “(2018, Russell Sage Foundation), “Democracy’s Promise: Immigrants and American Civic Institutions” (2006, University of Michigan Press) and co-author of two books on Asian American politics, including “Asian American Political Participation: Emerging Constituents and their Political Identities” (2011, Russell Sage Foundation), based on the first national, multilingual, multiethnic survey of Asian Americans. She was a co-principal Investigator on the 2016 National Asian American Survey, a nationwide survey of Asian American political and social attitudes.

Her advocacy work has focused on support for affirmative action and other Asian American issues. She has served as a guest commentator on The Melissa Harris-Perry Show and NBC News, and her opinion writing has been featured in national and local news media. She was a co-author of an amicus brief (“Brief of Political Science and Law Professors as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents”) in the Shelby County vs. Holder voting rights case (2013).