Fields of Interest: Asian American Politics, U.S. Racial and Ethnic Politics, Political Behavior

Professor Lien’s primary research interest is the political participation of Asian and other nonwhite Americans. Most of her recent work examines the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender, and nativity in political behavior. She is the author of The Making of Asian America Through Political Participation (Temple University Press, 2001), which received the 2002 best book award on political participation, voting, elections, and political behavior from the American Political Science Association's Division on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. She has also coauthored with M. Margaret Conway and Janelle Wong, The Politics of Asian Americans: Diversity and Community (Routledge, 2004), which is based on her National Science Foundation-sponsored Pilot National Asian American Political Survey (SES-9973435). The dataset is available online as ICPSR Study No. 3832 at http://webapp.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR-STUDY/03832.xml.

Lien is the founding co-chair of the Asian Pacific American Caucus, a related group of the American Political Science Association. She is also a founding member of the APSA Committee on the Status of Asian Americans, and the co-president of the APSA organized section on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics for 2007-09. She serves on the editorial advisory boards of the Asian American Policy Review, Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, Journal of Asian American Studies, and Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. Prior to joining the UCSB, she taught at the University of Utah for 12 years.

Courses Taught:

PS 106	Special Topics: Asian American Politics
PS 594	Racial and Ethnic Poltics

Selected Recent Publications:
"The Voting Rights Act and the Election of Nonwhite Officials," with Dianne Pinderhughes, Christine Sierra, and Carol Hardy-Fanta. PS: Political Science & Politics 40(3): 489-494 (Lead author, 2007).

"Ethnic Homeland and Chinese Americans: Conceiving a Transnational Political Network," in Tan Chee Beng, ed., Chinese Transnational Networks (Routledge, 2007), pp. 107-121

"The Voting Rights Act and Its Implications for Three Nonblack Minorities," in The Voting Rights Act: Securing the Ballot. Landmark Events in U.S. History Series (CQ Press, 2006), pp. 129-144.

"Transnational Homeland Concerns and Participation in U.S. Politics: A Comparison among Immigrants from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong." Journal of Chinese Overseas 2(1): 269-298 (May 2006).

"Group-based Resources and Political Participation Among Asian Americans" (with Janelle Wong and M. Margaret Conway. American Politics Research 33: 545-576 (July 2005, second author).

"Asian American Voters: A Challenging Diversity," in The Unfinished Agenda of the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March, edited by the Journal of Black Issues in Higher Education (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), pp. 143-151.