Paul Watanabe Awarded APAC Lifetime Achievement Award at APSA 2018 in Boston
Paul Watanabe Citation
Dr. Paul Watanabe is an exemplar of what APAC was formed to do, conducting
high-level scholarship not just about but also of importance to the politics of Asian
and Pacific Islander Americans. In a year where a special issue of the journal
Politics, Groups, and Identities has helped to celebrate the remarkable
achievements of Don Nakanishi, it is only fitting that we also recognize Don’s grad
school friend from their Harvard days, who has done similar work on the other side
of the country.
Paul shared Don’s broad vision of Asian American politics and has long worked to
make it a reality. It’s not surprising that Don recruited Paul to write an article in the
groundbreaking 2001 issue of PS, the first time a political science journal
published a symposium devoted to Asian Pacific American politics. Like Don,
Paul has practiced an engaged scholarship that always sought to be of service to
the communities that they studied.
It’s easy to understand why President Obama named Paul to Obama’s Advisory
Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and why Paul was the first
person to chair the Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee on Racial,
Ethnic, and Other Populations.
Paul has served in far too many positions of importance to be able to list them all
here, just as his writings are far too numerous to be able to recount. Perhaps the
most important thing is to congratulate and thank him for helping to pioneer the
work that we all seek to continue. His has been a lifetime of achievement, which
richly deserves to be recognized.
Congratulations from Andy Aoki
I am very sorry I cannot be there in person to congratulate Paul. I have been
reading his work for a long time, but only a few years ago, when I had the
opportunity to review the entire body of his writing, did I realize the vast breadth
of his scholarship. From foreign policy to health care policy to public opinion to
immigrant entrepreneurship, Paul’s writing covers an astonishing range. His
career-long focus on issues of importance to the populations he studied makes him
a role model not just for those of us studying Asian Pacific American politics, but
for social scientists everywhere. Congratulations on a much-deserved award for all
your achievements.
Dr. Paul Watanabe is an exemplar of what APAC was formed to do, conducting
high-level scholarship not just about but also of importance to the politics of Asian
and Pacific Islander Americans. In a year where a special issue of the journal
Politics, Groups, and Identities has helped to celebrate the remarkable
achievements of Don Nakanishi, it is only fitting that we also recognize Don’s grad
school friend from their Harvard days, who has done similar work on the other side
of the country.
Paul shared Don’s broad vision of Asian American politics and has long worked to
make it a reality. It’s not surprising that Don recruited Paul to write an article in the
groundbreaking 2001 issue of PS, the first time a political science journal
published a symposium devoted to Asian Pacific American politics. Like Don,
Paul has practiced an engaged scholarship that always sought to be of service to
the communities that they studied.
It’s easy to understand why President Obama named Paul to Obama’s Advisory
Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and why Paul was the first
person to chair the Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee on Racial,
Ethnic, and Other Populations.
Paul has served in far too many positions of importance to be able to list them all
here, just as his writings are far too numerous to be able to recount. Perhaps the
most important thing is to congratulate and thank him for helping to pioneer the
work that we all seek to continue. His has been a lifetime of achievement, which
richly deserves to be recognized.
Congratulations from Andy Aoki
I am very sorry I cannot be there in person to congratulate Paul. I have been
reading his work for a long time, but only a few years ago, when I had the
opportunity to review the entire body of his writing, did I realize the vast breadth
of his scholarship. From foreign policy to health care policy to public opinion to
immigrant entrepreneurship, Paul’s writing covers an astonishing range. His
career-long focus on issues of importance to the populations he studied makes him
a role model not just for those of us studying Asian Pacific American politics, but
for social scientists everywhere. Congratulations on a much-deserved award for all
your achievements.