Profile
Vivian Louie is Professor of Urban Policy and Planning and the former Director of the Asian American Studies Center and Program at Hunter College. She was CUNY Thomas Tam Visiting Professor at Hunter College from 2013-2014. Louie has been associate and assistant professor, and postdoctoral fellow in education, as well as lecturer in sociology at Harvard, and a program officer at the William T. Grant Foundation. She has also previously worked as a newspaper journalist, journalism teacher, and youth magazine editor.
Vivian Louie studies what it means to be an American, in public policies and discussions, civic participation and civic education and the role of race, ethnicity, immigration, social class and gender. She also writes about the factors that shape success along the educational pipeline among immigrants and the children of immigrants and in the workplace. Vivian Louie is the author or editor of three books, Compelled to Excel: Immigration, Education and Opportunity Among Chinese Americans (Stanford University Press), Keeping the Immigrant Bargain: The Costs and Rewards of Success in America (Russell Sage Foundation), and Writing Immigration: Scholars and Journalists in Dialogue (University of California Press) along with more than 30 academic reports, articles, book chapters, and scholarly commentaries. Her research has been featured in the New York Times, NPR, All Things Considered, the Leonard Lopate Show and additional news outlets. Vivian Louie frequently comments on why we need Asian American Studies & Ethnic Studies not only in schools but across diverse settings. Louie was a Lead Scholar on the NYC Department of Education's June 2023 social studies curriculum on AAPI history and contemporary experiences. Her most recent co-authored publication on this subject and Asian Americans and educational research is featured in Race, Ethnicity, and Education. She serves on the Board of Youth Communication, and the Russell Sage Foundation, Advisory Committee for Race, Ethnicity and Immigration, and previously served on the NYS Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.
Louie earned her Ph.D. and M.A. from the Yale University Department of Sociology, M.A. from the Stanford University Department of Communication, and A.B. from Harvard University in History and Literature.