- AAASI is Hiring!The UConn English Department and the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute are seeking a jointly appointed tenure-track assistant professor in twentieth- to twenty-first-century Asian American Literary and Cultural Studies. Further areas of focus might include American Studies; Southeast Asian Studies; critical refugee studies; diaspora and migration; transnational, transhemispheric, and transpacific studies; graphic narrative and […]Posted on October 10, 2023
- Upcoming UConn Reads Events: Light From Uncommon StarsJoin UConn Reads for two weeks of wonderful events in honor of the 2022-2023 selection, Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki.Posted on April 3, 2023
AAASI’s Illuminating Resilience Project
“Academic Integrity at Stake: The Ramseyer Article – Four Letters” edited by Alexis Dudden
Alexis Dudden is Professor of History at the University of Connecticut. Her most recent book, Troubled Apologies, interrogates the interplay between political apology and apologetic history among Japan, Korea, and the United States.She is currently working on a project examining Japan’s territorial disputes. [...]
Asian Americans are not silent. So many of us in the community are actively fighting injustices and anti-racism. However, historically, we have always been silenced, which gives the incredibly false interpretation that all Asian Americans are passive & do not care. Let's talk.
Join UConn Faculty, Staff, Graduate, Undergraduate, and Alumni Asian Americans to unlearn and relearn about each other.
We thank the over 800 attendees for coming to this event!
Resources to continue the conversation:
- Immigrant History Initiative - Strategies for talking to children about racial identity, bullying, and anti-Asian racism | click here.
- Asian American and Pacific Islander Authors and Books #iamnotavirus #makeusvisible | list of Asian American books
- Connecticut specific Facebook group | #MakeUsVisibleCT
Announcing the First Vorasane Scholarship Awards
With great excitement, we are proud to announce the inaugural winners of the Nom and Boulieng Vorasane Scholarship – Lynna Vo and Georgia Mikan.
Lynna is a Sophomore in Human Development and Family Sciences with an Early Childhood Development Specialization applying to the School of Education.
Georgia is a Junior in the Pre-Teaching Elementary Education program in the School of Education specializing in teaching History and Geography in Social Studies.
Announcing the Spring 2022 Artist-in-Residence: Ali Asgar Tara
Ali Asgar Tara (they/them/she/her) is a Bangladeshi transgender artist currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Tara combines video, text, drawing, and community performance to create political, site responsive, and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Twitter @aliasgarart
Tara’s scholarship and art are reflective of their past & present experiences in a very different social, cultural, political, and educational environment. Tara’s current research-based art practice looks at the narratives of queer liberation in the context of the global north and juxtaposes it with their experience and understanding of queerness from the global south and argues how the neoliberal global market economy depoliticizes queerness as an Identity.
This semester, they will lead regular encounters through the Decolonial Critic Lab, a bi-weekly meeting/discussion, designed to provoke critical discussion among the student and the faculty community of UConn which aim to examine the connection between decolonial methods and how Asia has been constructed, represented, mediated, and conceptualized by artists and curators across the globe at the end of the 20th century and early 21st century. Please email jason.o.chang@uconn.edu for information on
virtual attendance.
The AAASI Activist-In-Residence Program Adds Another Member
We welcome JHD (Jennifer Heikkila Díaz) as the 21-22 Activist in residence.
JHD (she/her or they/them) identifies as Korean American, Asian American, and biracial. For over two decades, she/they has worked in coalition with students, families, and school-based staff, pursuing educational equity–most of those years as a teacher, in school administration, and instructional coaching, and some of those years in education nonprofit work. She/they has had the privilege of supporting and partnering with thousands of students, families, teachers, and school leaders. Currently, JHD works at New Haven Promise as the Chief of Talent & Operations and at Fund for Teachers CT as a Program Officer. She/they is part of the CT Anti-Racist Teaching & Learning Collective, and is the co-founder of aapiNHV. She/they spends as much time as possible with young people, including her/their children, Magdalena and Gabriela.
Their residency will support K-12 teacher outreach and resource development for the Make Us Visible CT campaign to build capacity in the Connecticut school system to develop a robust and inclusive Asian American and Pacific Islander curriculum.
We're proud to continue Mike Keo's residency as well.
Meet Mike Keo, founder of the #IAMNOTAVIRUS Campaign was also a founding member of the Make Us Visible CT which successfully campaigned in the Connecticut state legislature to mandate the State Department of Education to create a K-8 Asian American and Pacific Islander model curriculum.
Read about the campaign, and find our resources here.
Upcoming Events
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Mar
29
Foreign Policy Seminar: ‘The United States, Race, and Nuclear Weapons in Asia, 1945-1965’ 4:30pm
Foreign Policy Seminar: ‘The United States, Race, and Nuclear Weapons in Asia, 1945-1965’
Friday, March 29th, 2024
04:30 PM - 06:00 PM
Wood Hall
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Apr
1
Film Screening and Discussion of Vincent Who?: The Murder of a Chinese-American Man 5:00pm
Film Screening and Discussion of Vincent Who?: The Murder of a Chinese-American Man
Monday, April 1st, 2024
05:00 PM - 06:30 PM
Homer Babbidge Library
In 1982, at the height of anti-Japanese sentiments arising from massive layoffs in the auto industry, a Chinese-American named Vincent Chin was murdered in Detroit by two white autoworkers. Chin’s killers, however, got off with a $3,000 fine and 3 years probation, but no jail time. Outraged by this injustice, Asian Americans around the country united for the first time across ethnic and socioeconomic lines to form a pan-Asian identity and civil rights movement.
Among its significant outcomes, the movement led to the historic broadening of federal civil rights protection to include all people in America regardless of immigrant status or ethnicity.
Vincent Who? explores this important legacy through interviews with the key players at the time as well as a whole new generation of activists whose lives were impacted by Vincent Chin. It also looks at the case in relation to the larger narrative of Asian American history, in such events as Chinese Exclusion, Japanese American Internment in WWII, the 1992 L.A. Riots, anti-Asian hate crimes, and post-9/11 racial profiling.
Ultimately, Vincent Who? asks how far Asian Americans have come since the case and how far they have yet to go.
For in spite of Vincent Chin’s monumental significance in both the Asian American experience and the civil rights history of America, the vast majority of people today (including most Asian Americans) have little or no knowledge of him.
Film screening will be followed by a discussion with students from the Pan Asian Council (PAC) and the Asian American Cultural Center, and a viewing of the exhibit ‘Please Reduce Racism at UConn: The December 3, 1987 Incident’
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Apr
13
Hao Bang Ah, Dragon! by Chinese Theatre Works 11:00am
Hao Bang Ah, Dragon! by Chinese Theatre Works
Saturday, April 13th, 2024
11:00 AM
Ballard Institute
Recommended for ages 4+. The show runtime is approximately 40 minutes, with a puppet demo and talkback.
Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Members/Seniors: $10; Students: $8; Kids: $6 (12 years and under).
Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, by calling 860-486-8580, or online at bimp.ticketleap.com. A surcharge will be added to any purchases made online. Tickets may also be purchased at the Ballard Institute on the day of the performance starting at 10 a.m. There will be open seating and no reservations. Visitors can park in the Storrs Center Garage located at 33 Royce Circle. For more information about these performances or if you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860-486-8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.
Helpful Links
Asian American Cultural Center: https://asacc.uconn.edu/
Association for Asian American Faculty and Staff (AAAFS): https://asacc.uconn.edu/
Office of Diversity and Inclusion: https://diversity.uconn.edu/
Meet The Director!
Welcome to the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute. Read Jason Chang's message here.
Contact Us
For more information about the program, please contact Jason Chang, Director of the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute, at
jason.o.chang@uconn.edu or (860) 486-5717.
Office: Beach Hall 417
For all other inquiries, please contact the CLAS Business Center at bsc@uconn.edu or (860) 486-1231.
Location:
417 Beach Hall
354 Mansfield Rd. U-1091
Storrs, CT 06269-1091
Room 425 (Conference Room)
Room 422 (Stephanie Lumbra)
Follow AAASI on Twitter
Job Opening: @UHMAsianStudies is accepting applications for a tenure-track on Asian, Asian-American and/or Pacific Islander studies with an emphasis on Environmental Humanities.
App Deadline: Jan 15
http://tinyurl.com/2vw5rs52
#AcademicJobs @AcademicJobBot
We're grateful for becoming an #AANAPISI!
Thanks to the Minority Serving Institution grants we are launching a new project @UConnHartford.
Stay tuned for new programs, new hires, new classes, & more student services!
UConn Hartford Welcomes Transformative Project Serving Asian American Students - UConn Today
'The robust presence of Asian students on this campus has underscored the importance of comprehending and addressing ...
today.uconn.edu
How does Asian American non-profit work provide lessons for broadly addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion in public administration practice?
@ARNOVA @ASPANational @naspaa @APJournalPA @SIPG_NSU @UConnAAASI @ILF_national
FOCUS ON FACULTY & INSTITUTE INITIATIVES
An interview conducted by Jason O. Chang, director of the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute, with Ryan Verano ’18 (CLAS), a UConn economics major and Asian American studies minor, on his mission in the healthcare field.
Read the interview here.