In 2014, the "Mapping Asian American New York" (MAANY) seminar was launched at Hunter College, thanks to the support of the President, Provost, Dean of Arts & Sciences, and the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter. The seminar is an effort to foster an intellectual community of scholars studying New York's Asian American populations and communities and to serve as a resource for Hunter students about research and about the communities in which they live and engage.

The seminar, with a Hunter College home base, assembles a core group of major scholars from the academy, from CUNY and other institutions, community experts from city nonprofit social and health service agencies, leaders from ethnic and religious associations, as well as writers and journalists, to share their knowledge and perspectives. The seminar seeks to identify, analyze, and discuss knowledge of New York's diverse Asian American communities, the gaps in what we know and how to fill them.