Ronald Takaki. the grandson of Japanese plantation laborers in Hawaii, is Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Takaki received his Ph.D. in American history from Berkeley in 1967. After graduation, he was hired by UCLA to teach that school's first Black History course. While there, he helped to found the UCLA Centers for African-American, Asian-American, Chicano, and NAtive-American Studies. Five years later, Takaki returned to Berkeley where he served as Chairperson of the Ethnic Studies department. He is also and advisor to the Ethnic Studies Ph.D. Program, the first of its kind in the country and was instrumental in the establishment of Berkeley's "American Cultures" for graduation requirement. In addition to being an in-demand teacher at Berkeley, Takaki is in demand as a guest lecturer throughout the world. In 1987, Professor Takaki was invited to Armenia by the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union where he rpesented a paper comparing race and ethnicity in the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. And in 1990, he was invited to Moscow by the Soviet Academy of Sciences to give a paper on the impact of the Cold War on racial and ethnic conflicts. Takaki is a prolific writer with several award winning books to his credit including: A Pro-Slavery Crusade, a study of the Southern ideological defense of slavery; Violence in the Black Imagination, a study of 19th century Black novelists; Pau Hana: Plantation Life and Labor in Hawaii; the critically acclaimed Iron Cages, a study of race and culture in 19th century America; the Pulitzer Prize nominated Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans and A diferrent Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, which was published in June 1993.