Professor of International and Public Affairs
Columbia University

Gary Y. Okihiro is a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, where he was the founding director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.

His research interests are Asian American studies and southern Africa .  He is the author of nine books in U.S. and African history, six of which have won prizes, most recently of The Columbia Guide to Asian American History (Columbia University Press, 2001) and Common Ground: Reimagining American History (Princeton University Press, 2001).  Others include A Social History of the Bakwena and Peoples of the Kalahari of Southern Africa, 19th Century (Edwin Mellen Press, 2000), Storied Lives: Japanese American Students and World War II (University of Washington Press, 1999), Whispered Silences: Japanese Americans and World War II (University of Washington Press, 1996), and Margins and Mainstreams: Asians in American History and Culture (University of Washington Press, 1994).

Professor Okihiro received a PhD in African history from the University of California , Los Angeles , in 1976.

He is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Studies Association, and is a past President of the Association for Asian American Studies.