Janelle Wong

Janelle Wong is Professor in the Departments American Studies and Government and Politics and a core faculty member in the Asian American Studies Program. Dr. Wong's research focuses on race, ethnicity and politics (Wong's CV). She uses mixed-methods, and specializes in muliti-ethnic, multilingual surveys of Asian Americans and other groups. From 2001-2012, Wong was in the Departments of Political Science and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. She received her PhD from the Department of Political Science at Yale University. Wong is the author of Immigrants, Evangelicals and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change (2018, Russell Sage Foundation), Democracy’s Promise: Immigrants and American Civic Institutions (2006, University of Michigan Press) and co-author of two books on Asian American politics, including Asian American Political Participation: Emerging Constituents and their Political Identities (2011, Russell Sage Foundation), based on the first national, multilingual, multiethnic survey of Asian Americans. She was a co-principal investigator on the 2016 National Asian American Survey, a nation-wide survey of Asian American political and social attitudes, and is co-principal investigator on the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-election Survey (funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation).

From 2014 to 2017 Wong served on the national board of the Association for Asian American Studies. Her advocacy work has focused on support for affirmative action and other Asian American issues. Her opinion writing has been featured in national and local news media. She has co-authored amicus briefs in support of affirmative action (SFFA v. Harvard) and voting rights (Shelby County vs. Holder).

Wong grew up in Yuba City, CA and attended UCLA as an undergraduate.