Pathways to Public Service: Federal Careers for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Students
Apr
19
12:00 PM12:00

Pathways to Public Service: Federal Careers for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Students

Join the Mid-Atlantic Region for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders & the Asian American Studies Program to hear from agency representatives about how to make an impact through a career in government. After welcoming remarks, we will have a panel of federal employees describing their path to federal service from 12:20pm to 12:50pm, followed by federal agency tables providing resources for college students from 1:15pm to 2:15pm, and an interactive activity to elicit feedback from AANHPI college students about their experience.

Location: ESJ 2204

View Event →
"A Long March" Film Screening
Apr
9
6:00 PM18:00

"A Long March" Film Screening

Please join the Center for Global Migration Studies for a screening of A Long March, a documentary which “follows Filipino-American veterans as they emotionally trace their paths from war to erasure by the U.S. Government, marching from an obscured history to the Federal courts, right up to the steps of Congress in search of promises denied.” (Los Angeles Pacific Film Festival) The event will also feature a Q&A session with US Army Major General Antonio Taguba. The event will be in-person in Shoemaker Hall 2102 on April 9, 2024. Asian American Studies has graciously co-sponsored this event.

View Event →
Short Film Screening + Performance/Technology Workshop with Dr. Van Tran Nguyen
Apr
3
6:00 PM18:00

Short Film Screening + Performance/Technology Workshop with Dr. Van Tran Nguyen

Dr. Van Tran Nguyen (Visiting Professor, Theatre Scholarship and Performance Studies) will be screening her short film, ERIE COUNTY SMILE (PBS, 2021), a production made with green-screen processing. There will be a Q and A to follow and Dr. Tran Nguyen will lead a hands-on video editing and green-screen workshop showcasing green-screen as a digital narrative form. She will discuss her own video practice, highlighting her use of green-screen as a medium for diasporic folklore. Beginner video editors are welcome to attend!

Short Film Screening + Performance/Technology Workshop with Dr. Van Tran Nguyen
6-7:30pm (dinner from Manila mart will be served starting at 5:30!)
Susquehanna Hall 1120
RSVP here: go.umd.edu/greenscreen

View Event →
2024 Chandi Kumar Annual Lecture Ft. Wei Ming Dariotis, Ph.D
Feb
15
5:30 PM17:30

2024 Chandi Kumar Annual Lecture Ft. Wei Ming Dariotis, Ph.D

  • Asian American Studies Program, University of Maryland (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS
 

"Love + Data = Action"

Wei Ming Dariotis has been a typical Gemini; a cis-gender Bisexual woman, mixed-race Asian American, arts activist in academia, working through collaboration and community to achieve transgressive transformation.

Thursday, February 15, 2024
5:30–7pm with reception to follow
Susquehanna Hall 1120

Lecturer Bio:
Wei Ming Dariotis, PhD, is Assistant Vice President of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. With Laura Kina and Camilla Fojas, she coordinated the Inaugural Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference (DePaul University, 2010), co-defined the discipline of Critical Mixed Race Studies, and co-founded the Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies. She serves on the editorial board of Asian American Literatures: Discourses and Pedagogies, and co-founded Kearny Street Workshop’s legendary APAture: A Window on the Art of Asian Pacific Americans, which helped launch the career of Ali Wong, among others. She is a poet and an artist. Publications include two co-edited anthologies: Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars’ Resistance and Renewal in the Academy (Rutgers, 2020) and War Baby/Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art (UW Press, 2013). At San Francisco State University, Dr. Dariotis was formerly Professor of Asian American Studies (1999-2022), affiliate faculty of the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program (2017-2022), and Faculty Director of the Center for Equity and Excellence in Teaching and Learning (2019-2022).

Please RSVP below for our food count!
go.umd.edu/ckal2024

 
View Event →
Reading Day with AAST
Dec
12
1:00 PM13:00

Reading Day with AAST

  • Asian American Studies Program, University of Maryland (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Continue to wind down and prepare for finals by joining AAST for Reading Day! We'll be providing hot chocolate with marshmallows and coloring books throughout the day. Please RSVP below if you also want pupusas and tamales!

 
View Event →
AAST Sponsored Event: First Gen & Imposter Syndrome with Laura Bohórquez García
Nov
10
12:00 PM12:00

AAST Sponsored Event: First Gen & Imposter Syndrome with Laura Bohórquez García

  • Asian American Studies Program, University of Maryland (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS
 

First Gen & Imposter Syndrome with Laura Bohórquez García

We are excited to announce that MICA, the Division of Student Affairs, and Asian American Studies Program have collaborated to bring Laura Bohórquez García, a first gen UndocuEducator, and entrepreneur for: First-Gen and Imposter Syndrome: Navigating Life, Leadership, and Work with and without work authorization.

Register by Monday, Nov, 6th at stamp.umd.edu/FGI. This event is open to all UMD first students. We will also have first- gen students from Towson University joining us! For any questions please contact Rocio at rfregoso@umd.edu

 
View Event →
From AAST to Where You Wanna Be: Taking What You Learn to Your Industry with Juju Wong, M.Ed.
Oct
12
6:00 PM18:00

From AAST to Where You Wanna Be: Taking What You Learn to Your Industry with Juju Wong, M.Ed.

Are you unsure how you can apply Asian American Studies courses to your future career? Join this interactive workshop to explore how to align AAST frameworks with your professional interests. Learn strategies to frame your academic experiences as transferable skill sets for life after graduation. Come reflect on your own educational journey and engage in a community discussion with your fellow AAST students, staff, faculty, and alumni!

From AAST to What You Wanna Be: Taking What You learn to Your Industry 
Thursday, October 12, 2023 | 6:00 - 7:30pm ET
Tawes 1310
Dinner will be provided from Q'doba!

This program was made possible with the support from MICA, the Graduate School, and the College of Education.

Speaker bio:
Juliana (Juju) Wong, M.Ed. [she/her] is a bicoastal educator & entrepreneur based in New York City and San Francisco. With 12+ years in higher education, Juju centers the social identities and emotions of first-generation, BIPOC students through the college to career process. She integrates her ethnic studies and equity lens to design culturally-relevant workshops for Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) students to feel seen, validated, and humanized. All while doing it in fun, creative, and relatable ways!

Juju is a UMD alumna and received her Master’s in Student Affairs at the College of Education, served as the APIDA Graduate Coordinator at the Office of Multicultural Involvement & Community Advocacy (MICA), and helped establish the Center for Diversity & Inclusion in Higher Education (CDIHE).

FOLLOW @PROFESSORJUUJ ON TIKTOK AND INSTAGRAM!
www.tiktok.com/@professorjuuj
www.instagram.com/professorjuuj
www.julianajujuwong.com

 
 
View Event →
Fall 2023: AAST Welcome
Sep
7
5:00 PM17:00

Fall 2023: AAST Welcome

  • Asian American Studies Program, University of Maryland (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

AAST is happy to welcome our newest Calvin J. Li Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Joan Hong, who will be teaching AAST394: The Asian Immigrant Family and the Second Generation. If you see her, please give her a warm hello to UMD!

We will be hosting our annual AAST Welcome next Thursday, September 7 from 5-6:30pm (SQH 1120) to introduce Dr. Hong and provide updates from AAST expansion efforts. Please join us and connect with all of our faculty, staff, and minors – this is open to all! We'll be bringing Taiwanese Chicken and Fried Tofu from Jumbo Jumbo Cafe for snacks. RSVP by Tuesday, September 5 for food: go.umd.edu/aastwelcomefall23

 
 
View Event →
Together in the Fight for Affirmative Action and Beyond
Jun
7
6:00 PM18:00

Together in the Fight for Affirmative Action and Beyond

As we await the decisions on the two Supreme Court cases considering the use of race as a factor in the admissions process, we want to show our support for education for all!

Join AAST for Together in the Fight for Affirmative Action and Beyond, hosted by UMD NAACP, Asian American Student Union (AASU), PLUMAS, and United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS).

Wednesday, June 7
6–7:30pm
Susquehanna Hall 1120
RSVP here for your free t-shirt and dinner!

 



View Event →
Asian American Foodways Cooking Demo
Apr
25
12:30 PM12:30

Asian American Foodways Cooking Demo

Join AAST298G: Asian American Foodways for a cooking demo of spam musubi (tofu musubi will also be available)! Participants will also learn the historical context of the popular food and its connection to militarism and war.

This event is in collaboration with the UMD Campus Pantry. Food donations are welcome!

 
 
View Event →
Writing Workshop with Kimberly Nguyen
Apr
20
5:00 PM17:00

Writing Workshop with Kimberly Nguyen

It seems that every Asian-American has at one time brought an ethnic home-cooked meal to school and experienced alienation in the school lunchroom. It has become part of our collective lore and a common memory/experience for us to connect over. But just as repeating a word over and over causes it to lose meaning, repeating an iteration of a story over and over causes it to lose its efficacy. In this workshop, we will explore how to make meaning from these memories, to turn our recollections into compelling narratives that refuse to get lost in the multitudes.

Kimberly Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American diaspora poet originally from Omaha, Nebraska but now living in New York City. Her work can be found in diaCRITICS, Muzzle Magazine, The Minnesota Review, The Journal and others. She was a recipient of a Beatrice Daw Brown Prize, and she was a finalist for Frontier Poetry’s 2021 OPEN and New Poets Awards and Palette Poetry’s 2021 Previously Published Poem Prize. She was a 2021 Emerging Voices Fellow at PEN America and is currently a 2022-2023 Poetry Coalition Fellow.

This event is in collaboration with AASU with support from the SEE

 
View Event →
Storytelling as Activism: The Bhutanese Diaspora and the Politics of Documenting Displacement
Apr
13
5:30 PM17:30

Storytelling as Activism: The Bhutanese Diaspora and the Politics of Documenting Displacement

2023 Chandni Kumar Annual Lecture on Asian Americans and Activism ft. Dr. Sam Vong and Thakur Mishra

The three will touch upon community engagement within South Asian America and Bhutanese refugee communities in particular, public history, and how to bridge the work of local storytellers with cultural institutions like the Smithsonian.

View Event →
Open Class Series
Mar
14
2:00 PM14:00

Open Class Series

  • Asian American Studies Program, University of Maryland (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

In this presentation, Dr. Iqbal will discuss Islam’s novel Bright Lines, exploring how tradition, modernity, immodesty, and the imperatives of domesticity confront one another throughout the novel. He will shed some light on what it means to live an American life as a Bangladeshi and the novel’s engagement with the experience of living between home and a landscape that in many ways is foreign to the characters of the novel.

View Event →
AAST x AASU Town Hall
Mar
8
5:30 PM17:30

AAST x AASU Town Hall

On Wednesday, March 8, the Asian American Studies Program (AAST) and Asian American Student Union (AASU) will host a town hall for AAST minors and broader student community to learn about the current efforts to expand the program. Attend to learn about the history of student organizing that led to the institutionalization of AAST at UMD in 2000! There will be breakout groups for students, staff, and faculty to exchange ideas and feedback, and collectively unite on action steps.

Pizza will be proivded!

If you would like to join virtually, register via zoom: bit.ly/aasttownhall

 
View Event →
Book Chat on "Hawaii is My Haven: Race and Indigeneity in the Black Pacific"
Feb
21
5:00 PM17:00

Book Chat on "Hawaii is My Haven: Race and Indigeneity in the Black Pacific"

Dr. Nitasha Sharma, Northwestern University, Professor of African American Studies and Asian American Studies will engage in a discussion of her new book, "Hawai'i is my Haven: Race and Indigeneity in the Black Pacific." This ethnography is based on a decade of fieldwork including interviews with 60 people of African descent in the islands, including Black Hawaiians, Black Japanese, and African American transplants from the continental U.S. Two questions frame this project: What does the Pacific offer people of African descent? And how does the racial lens of African Americans illuminate inequalities, including antiBlack racism, in the islands?

 
 
View Event →
The "Enemy Alien" Files: Hidden Files of WWII
Feb
20
to Mar 15

The "Enemy Alien" Files: Hidden Files of WWII

  • Exhibit: Hornbake Library (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

The "Enemy Aliens" Exhibit will be displayed at Hornbake Library February 20-March 15. The exhibit reveals the little-known stories of over 31,000 German, Italian, and Japanese immigrant residents and citizens of the U.S and seized from 18 Latin American nations who were imprisoned as “enemy aliens” in the U.S. in over 50 Department of Justice and Army camps and detention facilities during WWII. This poignant history carries broad lessons for issues of deportation and removal today. 

Join the UMD Libraries, Asian American Studies Program, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, Italian Studies Program (SLLC), and EAF Consortium as we present this exhibit on the UMD Campus. 

Two Learning Session Opportunities/Walking Tour
Stamp Student Union, Thurgood Marshall Room (Rm. 2113) 
Monday Feb 20th, 1p-1:30 (followed by walking tour) and 5-5:30 (followed by walking tour)

Exhibit at  Hornbake Library from February 20-March 15

 
 
View Event →
Community Support Space
Jan
26
11:30 AM11:30

Community Support Space

We at the Asian American Studies Program extend our welcome and, especially, our care for your well-being as you return to campus this week in the wake of the tragic mass shooting in Monterey Park, CA, home to one of the largest and most vibrant Asian American communities in the nation. As many of you know, another mass killing of farm workers in Half Moon Bay, CA occurred on Monday afternoon.

We know that news of gun violence in Asian American communities at the start of a Lunar New Year and beginning of a new semester evokes a sense of profound loss, despair and confusion. Our hearts are with the loved ones of the victims, those recovering, and with you as you prepare for and plan for a future that includes a deeper understanding of the complexities and forces shaping Asian American communities.

We will be hosting a gathering space with our colleagues in MICA on Thursday, January 26, from 11:30am - 2pm in the MICA Cozy Corner (basement of The Stamp). This space is open to all who want to spend time in community and process recent events collectively. Breathing practices and art supplies will be available for grounding tools to start the semester.

 
 
View Event →
Nov
7
5:30 PM17:30

Equity Through Numbers

  • Asian American Studies Program, University of Maryland (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

The Robert H. Smith School of Business and the Asian American Studies Program are excited to welcome Robert Santos, Director, U.S. Census Bureau, to the University of Maryland! Please join us to be in conversation with Director Santos as he shares his journey to becoming the first person of color to receive Senate confirmation to lead the federal government's largest statistical agency. Director Santos will share his perspective on the role of data in ensuring political representation and equitable federal funding around the United States. The opening introduction will be by Dr. Georgina Dodge, Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion at UMD.

This program is also supported by the Juanita Tamayo Lott Endowment in Asian American Studies; US Latino/a/x Studies; Federal Fellows Programs at UMD; the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Outreach Group of the American Statistical Association; and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI).

When: Monday, November 7, 2022
Time: 5:30pm - 6:30pm, with reception to follow
Where: Frank Auditorium, 1524 Van Munching Hall
RSVP: go.umd.edu/robertsantos

View Event →
Sep
12
to Dec 10

Fall 2022: AAST Open Class Series

  • Asian American Studies Program, University of Maryland (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

This Fall, several AAST classes will be welcoming guest speakers into their classroom and selected AAST class sessions will be open to the UMD community. Learn more about the speakers below!

Fall 2022 at a Glance:

Tuesday, October 4, 3:30 PM

AAST394: Growing up Asian American: The Second Generation ft. Julienne Palbusa, Ph.D
“At some point, you are no longer faking”: From navigating college to informing higher education decision making

Tuesday, October 4, 6:30 PM

AAST363: Filipino American History and Biography ft. Eleonor Castillo, Ph.D
What are the Lived Experiences of Filipinx American Teachers?

Thursday, October 13, 9:30 AM

AAST351: Asian Americans and Media ft stef torralba
Undocumented Queer and Trans* U.S. Filipinxs/as/os in Film

View Event →
Feb
23
6:00 PM18:00

Webinar: 5th Chandni Kumar Annual Lecture on Asian Americans and Activism

  • Asian American Studies Program, University of Maryland (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

The Chandni Kumar Annual Lecture on Asian Americans and Activism was established by the Kumar Family out of a desire to empower and inspire student activism and engagement for the Asian American community. Each year, a speaker is invited to address topics such as their own history of activism, civic and political engagement, student activism, social and racial justice, and coalition-building. A student is also named an Impact Award recipient to recognize their work in furthering social justice issues on campus.


This year's lecture speaker is Neha Singhal, high school teacher, curriculum designer, restorative justice coach, and staff trainer in MCPS. She also taught courses in the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Maryland and worked in immigration policy, striving for grassroots-led change at the local, state, and national levels. She is passionate about full-spectrum reproductive justice and serves her community as a birth doula.

This lecture is part of The Chandni Kumar Annual Lecture on Asian Americans and Activism, established by the Kumar Family out of a desire to empower and inspire student activism and engagement for the Asian American community.

View Event →
Nov
4
2:00 PM14:00

Kat Chow Discusses Her New Book, Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir

  • Asian American Studies Program, University of Maryland (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Location: Margaret Brent (Room 2112) in Stamp Student Union

RSVP at go.umd.edu/katchow

For readers of Helen Macdonald and Elizabeth Alexander, an intimate and haunting portrait of grief and the search for meaning from a singular new talent as told through the prism of three generations of her Chinese American family.

Kat Chow has always been unusually fixated on death. She worried constantly about her parents dying—especially her mother. A vivacious and mischievous woman, Kat's mother made a morbid joke that would haunt her for years to come: when she died, she'd like to be stuffed and displayed in Kat's future apartment in order to always watch over her.

After her mother dies unexpectedly from cancer, Kat, her sisters, and their father are plunged into a debilitating, lonely grief. With a distinct voice that is wry and heartfelt, Kat weaves together a story of the fallout of grief that follows her extended family as they emigrate from China and Hong Kong to Cuba and America. Seeing Ghosts asks what it means to reclaim and tell your family’s story: Is writing an exorcism or is it its own form of preservation? The result is an extraordinary new contribution to the literature of the American family, and a provocative and transformative meditation on who we become facing loss.

Kat Chow is a writer and a journalist. She was previously a reporter at NPR, where she was a founding member of the Code Switch team. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and on Radiolab, among others. She’s one of Pop Culture Happy Hour’s fourth chairs. She has received a residency fellowship from the Millay Colony and was an inaugural recipient of the Yi Dae Up fellowship at the Jack Jones Literary Arts Retreat.

View Event →
AAST Minors Dinner Featuring Welcome for Dr. Binod Paudyal
Oct
14
5:30 PM17:30

AAST Minors Dinner Featuring Welcome for Dr. Binod Paudyal

  • Asian American Studies Program, University of Maryland (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Welcome back Asian American Studies minors! Join us for a time of getting reacquainted and meeting new folks. Get to know other minors. Our new teaching faculty member, Dr. Binod Paudyal, will share about his professional and personal journey.

Dinner will be provided so please RSVP:

View Event →