Date Updated
4-4-2024
Department
Interdisciplinary Social Science/ Humanities
Academic Rank
Lecturer Emeritus
Year Retired from SJSU
2019
Educational Background
University of California, Irvine, Program in Comparative Culture, Ph.D. 1983
San Jose State University, History, MA 1972
San Jose State University, History, BA 1971
Dissertation Title
Boot and Shoemakers in Nineteenth Century San Francisco, 1860-1892: A Study in Class, Culture, Ethnicity, and Popular Protest in an Industrializing Community
Teaching Experience
1988-2019 San Jose State University
Selected Publications
Books
Joel S. Franks. From Honolulu to Brooklyn: Running the American Empire’s Base Paths with Buck Lai and the Travelers from Hawai’i. (2022) https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_books/364/
Joel S. Franks. Asians and Pacific Islanders in American Football: Historical and Contemporary Experiences. Lexington Books (2018) https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_books/230/
Joel S Franks. Asian American Basketball: A Century of Sport, Community, and Culture. (2016)
Joel S Franks. Keywords and Concepts in Asian American History. (2015)
Joel S Franks. Asian Pacific Americans: “Keywords,” Theories, and History, McGraw-Hill, revised edition, (e-book) 2014.
Joel Franks. The Barnstorming Hawaiian Travelers: A Multiethnic Baseball Team Tours the Mainland, 1912-1916.. (2012) https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_books/21/
Joel S Franks. “Pacific Islanders and American Football: Hula Honeys, Throwin’ Samoans, and the Rock,” The Barnstorming Hawaiian Travelers: A Multiethnic Baseball Team Tours the Mainland, 1912-1916, McFarland Publishing, Inc., 2012. (Nominated by the Society of American Baseball Research for its Larry Ritter Award)
Joel S Franks. Crossing Sidelines, Crossing Cultures: Sport and Asian Pacific American Cultural Citizenship University Press of America, Second Edition, 2009.
Joel S Franks. Democracy in America: A History,” Kendall-Hunt Publishing Company, 2008.
Joel S Franks Asian Pacific Americans and Baseball: A History. McFarland Publishers, Inc, 2008.
Joel S Franks Asian Pacific Americans: “Keywords,” Theories, and History, McGraw-Hill, 2006.
Joel S Franks. Sports in North America: A Documentary History, Editor, v. 10: Sports, Prosperity, Cultural Stirrings, 1950-1960, Academic International Press (2005)
Joel S Franks. Hawaiian Sporting Experiences in the Twentieth Century, Edwin Mellen Press, 2002.
Joel S Franks. Whose Baseball?: The National Pastime and Cultural Diversity in California, 1859-1941, Scarecrow Press, 2001.
Joel S Franks. Asian Pacific Americans and the United States: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary Interpretation, 2 volumes, (McGraw-Hill, 1996). (2nd edition of vol. 1 published 2001) (2nd edition of vol. 2 published 2003).
Joel S Franks. Crossing Sidelines, Crossing Cultures: Sport and Asian Pacific American Cultural Citizenship, University Press of America, 2000.
Joel S Franks. Co-author and editor, Asian Americans in the United States, 2 volumes, Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 1993.
Book Chapters
Franks, Joel. “Sports and Community Building in California.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Latino Studies. Ed. Ilan Stavans. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Joel S Franks. ""Racialized Colonization and The Exoticization of Duke Kahanamoku, in Much More Than Football and Cricket: International Sport on a Broader Stage, edited by Joel David Rosen and Maureen Smith, University of Mississippi Press, 2017." Duke Kahanamoku, Much More Than Football and Cricket: International Sport on a Broader Stage (2017)
Joel S Franks. “Asian Americans and Sport,” The Routledge History of American Sport, edited by Linda J. Borish, David K. Wiggins, and Gerald R. Gems, Routledge, (2017).
Joel S Franks. "Football's Pacific Connections," Football: An American Obsession, Vol. 1, edited by Gerald Gems and Gertrud Pfister, Berkshire Publishing, (2017).
Joel S Franks. “Off the Bench: Asian Americans and Sport in the Santa Clara Valley, During the Mid-Twentieth Century,” San Francisco Bay Area Sports: Golden Gate Athletics, Recreation, and Community, edited by Maureen Smith and Rita Liberti, University of Arkansas Press, 2017.
Joel S Franks. Racialized Colonization and The Exoticization of Duke Kahanamoku,” in Much More Than Football and Cricket: International Sport on a Broader Stage, edited by Joel David Rosen and Maureen Smith, University of Mississippi Press, 2017.
Joel S Franks. "Pacific Islanders and American Football: Hula Hula Honeys, Throwin’ Samoans and the Rock " in Sport in the Pacific : Colonial and Post-Colonial Consequences, edited by Richard King. Routledge, 2014.
Joel S Franks. “Chinese Americans and Baseball”; “Filipino Americans and Baseball,” “Benny Agbayani,” “Chris Aguila”; “Bobby Balcena”; “Jason Bartlett”; “Cha Seuk Baek”; “Hank Conger”; “Geno Espenelli”; “Jeremy Guthrie”; “Danny Graves”; “Tim Lincicum”; “Jim Vo Parque”; “Shane Victorino;” entries contracted for Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change. ABC-Clio, 2013.
Joel S Franks. "Benny Agbayani" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Bobby Balcena" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Cha Seuk Baek" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Chinese Americans and Baseball" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Chris Aguila" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Danny Graves" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Filipino Americans and Baseball" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Geno Espenelli" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Hank Conger" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Jason Bartlett" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Jeremy Guthrie" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Jim Vo Parque" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Shane Victorino" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Tim Lincicum" Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political Change (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Pacific Islanders in Professional Sport: opportunity, excellence, and inequality" Sport in the Pacific: Colonial and Post-Colonial Consequences (2012)
Joel S Franks. “From Honolulu to Brooklyn: Some of the Journeys of the Hawaiian Travelers,” Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game,” April, 2008.
Joel S Franks. “Los Angeles Angels,” Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball Teams, edited by Steven Riess, Greenwood Press, 2006.
Joel S Franks. Sports in North America: A Documentary History (1951-1960). (2005)
Joel S Franks. “Mainland Chinese Americans and California Sports: 1880-1950,” and “Progressives and the California Alien Land Laws,” in California’s Changing Majority: Historic and Contemporary Dynamics. Edited by Stephen M. Milner, et. al Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2003.
Joel S Franks. “Baseball and Racism’s Traveling Eye: Asian Americans and America’s National Pastime,” in America’s Game: Baseball and Ethnicity, edited by Larry Baldassaro and Dick Johnson, Southern Illinois Press, 2002.
Joel S Franks. "Race and Minorities" Beacham’s Encyclopedia of American Social Change (2002)
Joel S Franks. “California Baseball’s Mixed Multitudes,” in Baseball and the American Dream: Race, Class, Gender, and the National Pastime, edited by Robert Elias, M.E. Sharpe 2001.
Joel S Franks. "Chinese Americans and Sport" Encyclopedia of Ethnic Sports in the United States (2000)
Joel S Franks. "Duke Kahanamoku" Encyclopedia of Ethnic Sports in the United States (2000)
Joel S Franks. "Mexican Americans and Sport" Encyclopedia of Ethnic Sports in the United States (2000)
Joel S Franks. "Vincent Nava" Encyclopedia of Ethnic Sports in the United States (2000)
Joel S Franks. "Wally Yonamine" Encyclopedia of Ethnic Sports in the United States (2000)
Joel S Franks. “Chinese Americans and Sport,” “Mexican Americans and Sport,” “Vincent Nava,” “Duke Kahanamoku,” and “Wally Yonamine,” entries for Encyclopedia of Ethnic Sports in the United States, Greenwood Press. 2000
Joel S Franks. “Organizing California Baseball, 1859-1893,” in Baseball History 4, edited by Peter Levine, (Meckler Press: Greenport, CT, 1990).
Articles
Joel S Franks. "The limits of whiteness : Iranian Americans and the everyday politics of race" Choice Vol. 55 Iss. 7 (2018)
Joel S Franks. "Islamophobia and racism in America" Choice Vol. 55 Iss. 3 (2017)
Joel S Franks. "Anti-Asian Exclusion in the United States during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: The History Leading to the Immigration Act of 1924" Journal of American Ethnic History Vol. 34 Iss. 3 (2015) p. 121 - 122 ISSN: 0278-5927
Joel S Franks. "Asian American Baseball and Asian American Communities: The Early Twentieth Century on the Pacific Coast and Hawai'i" Journal of the West Vol. 53 Iss. 3 (2014) p. 51 - 59 ISSN: 0022-5169
Joel S Franks. "Pacific Islanders and American Football: Hula Honeys, Throwin’ Samoans, and the Rock" The International Journal of the History of Sport Vol. 26 Iss. 16 (2009) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09523360903457007
Joel S Franks. “Ethnicity,” entry written for The Encyclopedia of World Sport, ABC-CLIO.
Joel S Franks. “Race and Minorities” entry for Beacham’s Encyclopedia of American Social Change, Beacham Publishing Corporation, 2002
Joel S Franks. “Pacific Crossings: Hawaiian Baseball in the Twentieth Century and the Great Wally Yonamine,” Nine. Perspectives in Baseball History and Social Policy, Fall, 1999.
Joel S Franks. “Chinese Americans and American Sports, 1880-1940,” Chinese American History and Perspectives, 1996.
Joel S Franks. “Whose Baseball?: The National Pastime in Multicultural California,” Nine: Perspectives in Baseball History and Social Policy, (March, 1996).
Joel S Franks. “Jews in San Francisco’s Nineteenth-Century Boot and Shoe Trade,” Western States Jewish History, (July, 1993).
Joel S Franks. “Rube Levy: A Jewish Shoecutter and the Origin of Baseball in Nineteenth Century San Francisco,” California History, (Summer, 1991).
Joel S Franks. “Cultural Reflections: Early Baseball in California,” The Californian, (September, 1990).
Joel S Franks. “The Rise of Spectator Sports in California, 1850-1900,” Southern California Quarterly, (Winter, 1989).
Joel S Franks. “The California League of 1886-1893: The Last Refuge of Disorganized Baseball,” The Californians, (May-June, 1988).
Joel S Franks. “Of Heroes and Boors: Early Bay Area Baseball,” Baseball Research Journal, (1987.)
Joel S Franks. “Charley Sweeney: Local Boy Makes Good, Then Not So Good,” Baseball History, (Winter, 1987).
Book Reviews
Joel S Franks. "Review of John Iceland, Race and Ethnicity in America" (2017)
Joel S Franks. "Review of Lon Kurashige, Two Faces of Exclusion: The Untold History of Anti-Asian Racism in the United States" (2017)
Joel S Franks. "Review of Selfa A. Chew. Uprooting Community: Japanese Mexicans, World War II, and the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. Choice" Choice (2016)
Joel S Franks. "Review of David K. Yooo and Eiichiro Azuma (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Asian American History" (2016)
Joel S Franks. "Review of David K. Yoo and Eiichiro Azuma (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Asian American History" Choice Vol. 54 Iss. 4 (2016)
Joel S Franks. "Review of Karen L, Ishizuka, To Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties" Choice (2016)
Joel S Franks. "Review of David J. Vaught, The Farmer's Game: Baseball in Rural America" Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture Vol. 22 Iss. 1 (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Review of Samuel O. Regalado, Nikkei Baseball: Japanese American Players from Immigration and Internment to the Major Leagues" Journal of Sport History Vol. 40 Iss. 3 (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Review of Sayuri Guthrie-Shimizu, Transpacific Field of Dreams" NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture Vol. 21 Iss. 1 (2013)
Joel S Franks. "Review of Andrew D. Morris, Colonial Project, National Game: A History of Baseball in Taiwan" Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture Vol. 20 Iss. 1 (2011)
Joel S Franks. "Review of Gerald Gems, The Athletic Crusade: Sport and American Cultural Pluralism" Aethlon (2007)
Joel S Franks. "Review of Stephen Bullock, Playing for Their Nation: Baseball and the American Military During World War II and Jeffrey Powers-Beck, The American Indian Integration of Baseball" Pacific Historical Review Vol. 75 Iss. 3 (2006) https://online.ucpress.edu/phr/article-abstract/75/3/530/78371/Reviews-of-Bullock-Playing-for-Their-Nation?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Joel S Franks. "Review of Paul Zingg, Harry Hooper: An American Baseball Life" Sport in History (2005)
Joel S Franks. "Review of C. Richard King, (ed.) Native Americans in Sports" Journal of Sport History (2004)
Joel S Franks. "Review of Joseph A. Reaves, Taking in a Game: A History of Baseball in Asia" The International Journal of the History of Sport (2003)
Joel S Franks. "Review of Christopher H. Evans and William R. Herzog, (eds.) The Faith of 50 Million: Baseball, Religion, and American Culture" Sport History Review Vol. 34 Iss. 1 (2003)
Joel S Franks. "Review of Richard King and Charles Fruehling Springwood, (eds) Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy" Journal of Sport History (2002)
Joel S Franks. Review of Michael H. Frisch and Daniel J. Walkowitz, (eds.) Working Class America in New Labor Review, Spring, 1984.
Presentation
Joel Franks. "University Scholar Series: Joel Franks" University Scholar Series (2013) https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/uss/17/
Files
Download Curriculum Vitae (73 KB)
![Franks, Joel Stephen](https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/erfa_bios/1286/thumbnail.jpg)
Personal Commentary
I have taught mainly Asian American Studies and American Studies at San Jose State. In my 30+ years I have met many wonderful colleagues and students, and occasionally not so wonderful colleagues and students.
Copied from SelectedWorks' Faculty Profile
Dr. Joel Franks is a native Californian. A former San Jose State student, he taught at SJSU from 1988 to 2019. In addition to teaching at SJSU, he has taught at De Anza College, San Jose City College, Santa Clara University, CSU East Bay, UC Irvine and UC Santa Cruz.