Lily Anne Welty Tamai

Candidate statement

Lily Anne Welty Tamai is a lecturer at UCLA in the Asian American Studies Department, and was previously the History Curator at the Japanese American National Museum. She earned a doctorate in History from UC Santa Barbara, conducted research in Japan as a Fulbright Fellow and was a Ford Foundation Fellow. Her forthcoming book is titled, Military Industrial Intimacy: Mixed-race American Japanese, Eugenics and Transnational Identities. She published chapters in Hapa Japan, Global Mixed Race, and articles in Amerasia Journal, and other journals. She serves on the U.S. Census Bureau National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations.
I want to serve as the inaugural AAAS Archivist to institutionalize Asian American Studies. I have theoretical knowledge and professional training in museum work. At JANM, I worked with the Collections department to enhance the permanent collection and decided on archival materials for exhibitions and online digitization. I curated and conducted R&D for exhibitions and worked on a NPS grant to digitize collections from the archival repository. Through my work at JANM, I received awards from the National Council on Public History, the California Association of Museums, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I will use my experience to maintain AAAS records and historical materials for the future.