2023 – Daryl Joji Maeda

Daryl Joji Maeda, Dean and Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education, University of Colorado Boulder, was selected for the 2023 Chang-Lin Tien Leadership in Education Award. In addition to this honor, the Asian Pacific Fund is awarding a grant to establish a Chang-Lin Tien Scholarship Fund for underprivileged AAPI students at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“I am deeply honored to be recognized with the Chang-Lin Tien Leadership in Education Award from the Asian Pacific Fund. Chancellor Tien’s pathbreaking example shows the power of enhancing institutions by moving toward greater diversity and inclusion, and I strive to continue his legacy by enriching equity for all students, staff, and faculty.”

In his three years as the Dean and Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education at the University of Colorado Boulder, Daryl has overseen the campus-wide academic experience for about 30,000 undergraduate students, in partnership with seven colleges, schools, and programs, Enrollment Management, Student Affairs, Registrar’s Office. Daryl also collaborates with data analytics and educational technology teams to create predictive analytics models and develop proactive student support programs.

He also supervises the Program in Exploratory Studies, Student Academic Success Center, Undergraduate Enrichment Programs, Undergraduate Research Opportunities, Top Scholarships, Presidents Leadership Class, Education Abroad, International Student and Scholar Services, Air Force, Army, and Navy ROTC programs. Maeda also co-led the First Year Experience (budget of $3M), which created First Year learning outcomes and sponsored the creation of 7 Learning and Living Communities. He also serves as the lead administrator on the development and implementation of campus-wide frameworks for advising and CU LEAD Alliance programs, which support underserved students. Maeda is also a Professor of Ethnic Studies. In that role, he teaches classes on social movements, Asian American history and culture, comparative ethnic studies, and sports.

As a writer and teacher, Daryl is interested in movements in two senses. His newest book, Like Water: A Cultural History of Bruce Lee (NYU Press, 2022), explains how the iconic martial artist and actor Lee became a global superstar. His constant motion back and forth across the Pacific mirrored transpacific flows of culture, aesthetics, and martial arts in the 1960s and 1970s. Too elusive to be pinned down to any one location or culture, Bruce crossed borders and combined influences drawn from all those he encountered.

His first two books examine movement in a different sense, as both study social movements for justice by Asian Americans in the 1960s and 1970s. Maeda has also published two books on the Asian American movement, Chains of Babylon: The Rise of Asian America (University Minnesota Press, 2009) and Rethinking the Asian American Movement (Routledge, 2012).

Daryl currently sits on the editorial board of the Justice, Power, and Politics Series published by the University of North Carolina Press. He formerly served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Asian American Studies and as a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Civil and Human Rights Studies.

Photo by Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado