Frank H. Wu

Bio

Frank H. Wu is president of Queens College, City University of New York Queens College, City University of New York. He served as the William L. Prosser Distinguished Professor UC Law SF became a Distinguished Professor following service as Chancellor & Dean. He was a member of the faculty at Howard University, the nation’s leading historically black college/university (HBCU), for a decade; Dean of Wayne State University Law School in his hometown of Detroit; a visiting professor at Michigan; an adjunct professor at Columbia; and a Thomas C. Grey Teaching Fellow at Stanford. He taught at the Peking University School of Transnational Law in its inaugural year and again a decade later. In his leadership roles at UC Law SF and Wayne, as well as on faculty at Howard, he was the first Asian American to serve in such a capacity.

He is dedicated to civic engagement and volunteer service. He has served as both Chair and President of the Committee of 100. C100 is a non-profit membership organization which invites Chinese Americans who have achieved the highest levels of success to join, working on twin missions of promoting good relations between the US and China and the participation of Chinese Americans in all aspects of public life. Professor Wu was appointed by the federal Department of Education to its National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), and by the Defense Department to the Military Leadership Diversity Commission. From 2010 to 2019, he was a Trustee of Deep Springs College, a highly-selective full-scholarship school enrolling twenty-six on a student-run cattle ranch near Death Valley, where he previously taught for several short periods. From 2000 to 2010, he was a Trustee of Gallaudet University, the only university in the world dedicated to deaf and hard of hearing persons.

Professor Wu is the author of Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, and co-author of Race, Rights and Reparation: Law and the Japanese American Internment. He currently has a column in the Daily Journal, the California legal newspaper; he blogged regularly for six years at HuffPo; and his work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Detroit Free Press.

Prior to his academic career, he held a clerkship with the late U.S. District Judge Frank J. Battisti in Cleveland and practiced law with the firm of Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco – while there, he devoted a quarter of his time to pro bono work on behalf of indigent clients. He received a B.A. from Johns Hopkins and a J.D. with honors from Michigan. He completed the Management Development Program of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Selected Scholarship

Books

• Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White (Basic Books 2002).
• Race, Rights, and Reparation: Law and the Japanese American Internment (Aspen 2001) (with Eric K. Yamamoto, Margaret Chon, Carol L. Izumi & Jerry Kang).

Journal Articles

• Who Becomes White in America? Are Chinese Next?, 2020 Chinese Am.: Hist. & Persp. 83 (2020).
• The New Chinese Diaspora: Embracing the Model Minority and Perpetual Foreigner?, 2018 Chinese Am.: Hist. & Persp. 99 (2018). FULLTEXT
• The Crisis of American Higher Education, Am. Historian (February 2017). FULLTEXT
• Are Asian Americans Now White?, 23 Asian Am. 201 (2016). FULLTEXT
• The End(s) of Legal Education, 66 J. Legal Educ. 18 (2016). FULLTEXT
• Reforming Law Schools: A Manifesto, 46 U. Tol. L. Rev. 417 (2015). FULLTEXT
• The Hidden Life of Andrew Taslitz, 58 How. L.J. 569 (2015). FULLTEXT
• A Congratulatory Note, 25 Hastings Women’s L.J. 171 (2014). FULLTEXT
• Living Up to Our Ideals: What Race Means in Higher Education Now, 48 U.S.F. L. Rev. 327 (2013). FULLTEXT
• Becoming Asian American: An Interview with Keith Aoki, 45 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1609 (2012). FULLTEXT
• Forward, 1 AABANY L. Rev. (Special Issue) at iv (2012).
• Justice through Pragmatism and Process: A Tribute to Judge Denny Chin, 79 Fordham L. Rev. 1497 (2011). FULLTEXT
• Preface, 38 Hastings Const. L.Q. 499 (2011). FULLTEXT
• Beyond the Symbolic Black and White: The New Challenges of a Diverse Democracy, 53 How. L.J. 807 (2010). FULLTEXT
• Burning Shoes and the Spirit World: The Charade of Neutrality, 44 Harv. C.R.–C.L. L. Rev. 313 (2009). FULLTEXT
• Difficult Decisions During Wartime: A Letter from a Non–Alien in an Internment Camp to a Friend Back Home, 54 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 1301 (2004). FULLTEXT
• Who Gets In? The Quest for Diversity After Grutter, 52 Buff. L. Rev. 531 (2004) (with Athena D. Mutua, Sheldon Zedeck, Charles E. Daye, Margaret E. Montoya & David L. Chambers). FULLTEXT
• The Arrival of Asian Americans: An Agenda for Legal Scholarship, 10 Asian L.J. 1 (May 2003). FULLTEXT
• The Best “Chink” Food: Dog Eating and the Dilemma of Diversity, 2 Gastronomica 38 (2002). URL
• Where are You Really From? Asian Americans and the Perpetual Foreigner Syndrome, 6 C.R. J. 14 (2002). HEIN URL
• Profiling Principle: The Prosecution of Wen Ho Lee and the Defense of Asian Americans, 7 Asian Pac. Am. L.J. 52 (2001) (reprinted in Asian American Politics: Law, Participation, and Policy 297 (Don T. Nakanishi & James S. Lai eds., Rowman & Littlefield 2003)). FULLTEXT
• The Profiling of Threat Versus the Threat of Profiling, 7 Mich. J. Race & L. 135 (2001). FULLTEXT
• Robert Lee Carter: Continuing the Struggle for Civil Rights, 27 Hum. Rts. 16 (Fall 2000). FULLTEXT
• A New Thinking about Affirmative Action, 26 Hum. Rts. 19 (Summer 1999). FULLTEXT
• Beyond the Model Minority Myth: Why Asian Americans Support Affirmative Action, 53 Guild Prac. 35 (Winter 1996) (with Theodore Hsien Wang) (reprinted in The Affirmative Action Debate 191 (George Curry ed. 1996)). FULLTEXT
• Changing America: Three Arguments About Asian Americans and the Law, 45 Am. U. L. Rev. 811 (1996) (reprinted in 4 Asian L.J. 202 (1997)). FULLTEXT
• Race Law and Justice: The Rehnquist Court and the American Dilemma, 45 Am. U. L. Rev. 567 (1996) (panel discussion). FULLTEXT
• The Evolution of Race in the Law: The Supreme Court Moves from Approving Internment of Japanese Americans to Disapproving Affirmative Action for African Americans, 1 Mich. J. Race & L. 165 (1996) (with Reggie Oh) (reprinted in 4 Asian L.J. 198 (1997)). FULLTEXT
• The Limits of Borders: A Moderate Proposal for Immigration Reform, 7 Stan. L. & Pol’y Rev. 35 (1996). FULLTEXT
• Neither Black Nor White: Asian Americans and Affirmative Action, 15 B.C. Third World L.J. 225 (1995). FULLTEXT

Chapters In Books

• From the “Perpetual Foreigner” to the “Model Minority” to the New Transnational Elite: The Residential Segregation of Asian Americans The Fight for Fair Housing: Causes, Consequences, and Future Implications of the 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act 133 (Gregory D. Squires ed., Routledge 2017). AMAZON
• The Wheel of Justice: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Death of the Motor City, in Asian America: A Primary Source Reader 286 (Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, K. Scott Wong, and Jason Oliver Chang eds., Yale Univ. Press 2017). AMAZON
• Foreword to Asian Americans in Michigan: Voices from the Midwest ix (Sook Wilkinson and Victor Jew eds., Wayne State University Press 2015). CATALOG
• Foreword to Wing Young Huie, Looking for Asian America: An Ethnocentric Tour, at ix (Univ. of Minnesota Press 2007). AMAZON
• The Multiracial Classification Can Be Detrimental, in Multiracial America: Opposing Viewpoints 37 (Eleanor Stanford ed., Greenhaven Press 2006). AMAZON
• Foreword to Blacks and Asians: Crossings, Conflict and Commonality, at xi (Hazel M. McFerson ed., Carolina Academic Press 2005). AMAZON
• Profiling in the Wake of September 11: The Precedent of the Japanese American Internment Civil Liberties vs. National Security: in a Post-9/11 World 147 (M. Katherine B. Darmer, Robert M. Baird, & Stuart E. Rosenbaum eds., Prometheus Books 2004). CATALOG
• People from China Crossing the River: Asian American Political Empowerment and Foreign Influence, in Asian Americans and Politics: Perspectives, Experiences, Prospects 311 (Gordon Chang ed., Stanford Univ. Press 2002) (with Francey Lim Youngberg). AMAZON
• Repealing Birthright Citizenship Would Be Unfair, in Illegal Immigration: Opposing Viewpoints 51 (Charles P. Cozic ed., Greenhaven Press 1997). CATALOG

Book Reviews

• Book Review, 41 Trial 70 (Jan. 2005) (reviewing John S.W. Park, Elusive Citizenship: Immigration, Asian Americans, and the Paradox of Civil Rights (2004)). WL
• Book Review, 39 Trial 70 (Sept. 2003) (reviewing Kevin R. Johnson ed., Mixed Race: America and the Law (2003)). WL
• The Arrangements of Race, 101 Mich. L. Rev. 2209 (2003) (reviewing Stephen L. Carter, The Emperor of Ocean Park (2002)). HEIN WL
• New Paradigms of Civil Rights: A Review Essay, 66 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 698 (1998) (reviewing Peter D. Salins, Assimilation, American Style (1997), Dale Maharidge, The Coming White Minority (1996), & Martha Minow, Not Only for Myself (1997)). HEIN WL
• From Black to White and Back Again, 3 Asian L.J. 185 (1996) (reviewing Ian Fidencio Haney Lopez, White By Law (1996)). HEIN WL

Newspaper & Magazine Articles

• Climate Change and Rule of Law, Daily Journal, Jan. 3, 2019.
• The Perils of Ranking, The Recorder, Apr. 4, 2012. CATALOG
• Why Vincent Chin Matters, N.Y. Times, June 22, 2012. URL
• Value of Legal Education, The Recorder, Sept. 7, 2011. CATALOG
• Brown at 50: Keeping Promises, Black Issues in Higher Education, May 20, 2004, at 49.
• Profiling in the Wake of September 11: The Precedent of the Japanese American Internment, Crim. Just., Summer, 2002, at 52 (reprinted in Civil Liberties Vs. National Security in a Post–9/11 World 147 (2004)). LX HEIN WL
• Settlements: Winning Over Your Own Client, Prac. Litig., Jan., 2001, at 5. HEIN
• Getting Down to Cases, Prac. Litig., July, 2000, at 5. HEIN
• Goodbye to the Bluebook?, Prac. Litig., Sep., 2000, at 5. HEIN
• How to Become a Law Professor, Prac. Law., Sept., 2000, at 15. HEIN WL
• Promises, Promises, Wash. Post, Jan. 23, 2000.
• Revival Time, Wash. Post, Aug. 6, 2000.
• Singled Out, Based on Race, Wash. Post, Aug. 30, 2000 (with Theodore Hsien Wang).
• The Market Is the Measure, Wash. Post, Oct. 10, 1999.
• Winks and Nods Open Plenty of Doors, ABA J., Feb., 1998, at 96. HEIN
• The Fallout from Japan-Bashing, Wash. Post, Feb.3, 1992.
• …and Others, Wash. Post, Jan. 21, 1991.
• On with the Show: It’s Wrong to Reduce Each of Us to our Respective Race, Wash. Post, Aug. 18, 1990.

Other Publications

• Beyond Self–Interest: Asian Pacific Americans Toward a Community of Justice (UCLA Asian American Studies Center 1996) (with Gabriel Chin, Sumi Cho, & Jerry Kang) (reprinted in 4 UCLA Asian Pac. AM. L.J. 129 (1996)). URL

Education

• Harvard University Graduate School of Education
  Certificate, Management Development 2006

• University of Michigan Law School
  J.D., Law 1991

• The Johns Hopkins University
  B.A., Undergraduate Studies 1988

Accomplishments

• Keith Aoki Award
  Awarded by the Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty. 2013

• Honoree
  Awarded by the California Asian Pacific Islander American Legislative Caucus for Heritage Month. 2013

• Most Influential Dean in Legal Education
  Awarded by National Jurist. 2012

• Top 100 Lawyers in California
  Awarded by the Daily Journal. 2012

• Honoree, Leading Educator
  Awarded by the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), East Bay Chapter. 2012

• Honorary Marshall
  San Francisco Chinatown Parade. 2011

• Chang-lin Tien Award
  Awarded by the Asia Pacific Foundation. 2008

• Trailblazer
  Awarded by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. 2008