A Tireless Advocate

For more than a decade, May Fu, PhD, has watched the University of San Diego Ethnic Studies Department grow, taking pride in the department’s strength and its role on campus as “a socially engaged, socially transformative discipline.”

The associate professor of Ethnic Studies came to USD in 2009 and has been active in both the campus and San Diego community ever since. This past semester, Fu was awarded the 2021 faculty Woman of Impact award, with nominators recognizing her “social justice work both in her scholarship and teaching” as well as her “belief that academic study must also be accompanied by community involvement.”

“It is a joy to cook up an intellectually rigorous, community-engaged curriculum that strengthens students’ critical thinking skills while building community power on and off campus,” she says.

For Fu, this is seen in her work with students to address “the eviction of Filipinx elders from an affordable housing complex in Rancho Peñasquitos” and a collaboration with the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum “to assemble a San Diego Asian American and Pacific Islander activism timeline.” This also includes taking her service-learning course to Hawai’i, to understand the Protect Mauna Kea movement and “to reside onsite with Native Hawaiian kia’i (protectors) ... to learn from and contribute to their struggle.” 

Social justice, equity and community-building are key components of Fu’s mission, with her involvement in the University Senate Committee on Diversity, Equity and Campus Climate, her role in establishing the university’s Office of the Tribal Liaison, and her long-time participation as a faculty advisor in the Living Learning Community program for first-year students. Fu has also been active in developing curricular and co-curricular opportunities for the campus, including her work co-coordinating an interdisciplinary Black Lives Matter course and co-convening with Asian and Asian American faculty and students to “organize campus events during the surge of anti-Asian racism last spring.”

In Fu’s nomination, she was honored as a “tireless advocate for people of color” and as someone who demonstrates “a genuine caring for the health and well-being of campus community members.”

Fu sees the award as a “lovely honor” from her colleagues and students, but an honor that reminds us that more still needs to be done in equitably recognizing “the everyday labor of BIPOC folks, women of color, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups” in our society.

Her impact on the USD campus is widespread and truly appreciated. From faculty to staff and students, Fu’s work has advanced the social justice and Changemaker mission of the university. Perhaps her nominator summed it up best. “She approaches her teaching with an ethic of care and, as such, is a wildly popular teacher ... No professor has had more impact in teaching women of color feminism and in supporting and inspiring students in the study of race, class, and gender. Dr. Fu's impact has been enormous at USD. Her social justice work is not discursive, but rather focused on action, follow-through, and accountability.”

— Allyson Meyer ’16 (BA), ’21 (MBA)