JOINED THE DEPARTMENT

2024

BIO

Donna Doan Anderson (she/her) is an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She received her Ph.D. in U.S. History with an emphasis on Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, she is affiliated with the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, the Institute for Ethnic Studies, and the Center for Great Plains Studies, and she is a core faculty member of the U.S. Law and Race Initiative. Before obtaining her graduate degree, she worked as a high school history teacher. As such, she also offers curriculum consulting for K-12 Social Studies and serves as a coordinator for UCSB’s ÉXITO program.

Her research examines the intersections of land policy and immigration within rural Asian American communities in the United States during the late 19th through the mid-20th centuries. Her published works can be found in several academic journals, edited volumes, and public-facing venues. In 2024, she won the Midwestern History Association’s Dorothy Schwieder Prize for Best Article on Midwestern History for her article, “Acceptance for Admission: Administrations of Japanese American Relocation and the Midwestern University” (American Studies, 2023). 

She is also the principal investigator for “Archiving the Asian American Midwest,” a digital humanities project focused on digitizing and transcribing historical documents from rural Asian American communities across the Great Plains and Midwest, and co-editor of a forthcoming edited volume on Asian American Midwestern Studies. Additionally, she is transitioning her dissertation, “America is in the Heartland: Land Policy, Immigration, and Rural Asian America, 1860-1950,” into a book manuscript.

ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS

• Anderson, Donna Doan, “Acceptance for Admission: Administrations of Japanese American Relocation and the Midwestern University,” American Studies Special Issue “Unsettling Global Midwests” Vol. 62, Issue 3 (Fall 2023). Winner of the Midwestern History Association’s Dorothy Schweider Prize for Best Article on Midwestern History in 2023
• Anderson, Donna Doan. “‘More Than We Imagined’: The Journal of Asian American Studies Through the Years, 1997-Present,” Journal of Asian American Studies, Vol. 26, No.1 (2023).
• Vo, Hung and Donna Doan Anderson. “Building the City from Abroad: Viet Kieu and the Rights to Saigon,” Governing Cities in the 21st Century: Asian Perspectives. Routledge, 2020.

SELECTED GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS

• Pilot/Prototype Grant, Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2025
• OKSHF Research Grant at the Korean Heritage Library, University of Southern California, 2025
• Immigration History Research Center Archives Grant-in-Aid Award, University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, 2022
• The Cheng Fellowship in History of Asian American Experience in the United States, The Huntington Library, 2022
• Charles Redd Fellowship in Western American Studies, Charles Redd Center in Western American Studies, Brigham Young University, 2021, 2022

SELECTED HONORS AND AWARDS

• Dorothy Schweider Prize for Best Article on Midwestern History, Midwestern History Association (MHA), 2023
• Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, UCSB Faculty Academic Senate, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2021
• Dixon-Levy Service Award, Graduate Student Association (GSA), University of California, Santa Barbara, 2019

SELECTED CONFERENCES AND INVITED TALKS

• Digitizing for Justice: Leveraging Digital History for Equity and Advocacy, Roundtable organizer and participant, American Historical Association, January 2026. 
• Regional Perspectives of American Empire, Chair, American Studies Association, November 2025. 
• “What Comes Next?: Emerging Scholars and the Future of Midwestern History,” Roundtable participant, Organization of American Historians, April 2025.
• “Understanding the Midwest through the Asian American Critique,” Paper presentation for the Beyond East of the West and North of the South: Roundtable on New Directions in Midwestern History panel, Western Historical Association, October 2024.
• “Reframing the Middle: New Perspectives in Asian American Midwest Studies,” Roundtable organizer and presenter, Association for Asian American Studies, April 2024.
• “Making Sense and Finding Self: New Questions, Approaches, and Asian American Communities of the Midwest,” Paper presentation and panel organizer, Organization of American Historians, April 2024. Endorsed by OAH-JAAS Collaborative Committee, OAH Committee on the Status of ALANA Historians and ALANA Histories, IEHS, and the Midwestern History Association. Selected by OAH Program Committee for the virtual program.

ADVISEES

• Emily Binder – Ph.D. student; 2024 cohort
• Kelsey D. Green – Ph.D. student; 2026 cohort

EXPERTISE

• Asian American History
• Asian American Studies
• Midwestern Studies
• Immigration History
• World History