UCLA Asian American Studies Department

Troubling Borders Panel
2021-05-26 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA

Asian American Studies Department Virtual Commencement 2021
2021-06-13 10:30 - 12:00 | Online via Zoom
Please join the Asian American Studies Department for this momentous event as we celebrate our graduating students of 2021, which will be taking place virtually via Zoom.
Date: Sunday, June 13, 2021
Time: 10:30am – 12:00pm (PDT)
Location: Virtual Event using Zoom

Fall 2021 Asian American Studies M.A. Orientation
2021-09-20 11:00 - 15:15 | Online via Zoom
Date: Monday, September 20, 2021
Time: 11:00AM – 3:15PM
Location: Online via Zoom

Fall 2021 Asian American Studies T.A. Orientation
2021-09-21 00:00 | Online via Zoom
Date: Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Time: TBD
Location: Online via Zoom

Empire's Mistress: Gender, Sex and Imperial Intimacies by Vernadette Gonzalez
2021-10-18 16:00 - 17:15 | Online via Zoom
Vernadette Gonzalez is a Professor of American Studies and Director of the Honors Program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She is the author of Empire’s Mistress, Starring Isabel Rosario Cooper (2021) and Securing Paradise: Tourism and Militarism in Hawai‘i and the Philippines (2013) and co-editor of Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai’i (2019).
Talk Abstract: How does attention to the intimate help us understand the gendered and sexualized dynamics of empire, and the ways in which they continue to shape how we tell our stories in the present? Empire’s Mistress pieces together the life story of Isabel Rosario Cooper, a mixed-race vaudeville and early cinema star in Manila who became infamous for her liaison with General Douglas MacArthur during the height of American colonialism in the Philippines. It tracks the mobilities and relationships generated by the United States’ desire for the Philippine archipelago—and the ways in which colonized subjects—particularly women—turned those to their own advantage. The scattered and ephemeral archive of “women like her” whose cosmopolitan itineraries ranged from Manila, to Washington, D.C., and Hollywood, outline a life lived on the edges of power but always at the center of imperial desire.
Register here.

Co-sponsored by the UCLA Asian American Studies Department and Center for Southeast Asian Studies

Queer Dis/inheritance: Vietnamese Radical Activism on Intergenerational Trauma, Refugee Lineage, and Chosen Future
2021-11-01 09:30 - 10:45 | Online via Zoom
Queer Dis/inheritance Talk with Professor Ly Thuy Nguyen
Date: Monday, November 1, 2021
Time: 9:30AM
Location: Online via Zoom
Zoom registration link: https://ucla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUude2grDgsGt3-EgjCOcRHkP9ujAYB8M2e

Co-sponsored by UCLA Asian American Studies Department and UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies

Institute of American Cultures (IAC) Fall Forum
2021-11-09 15:00 - 16:00 | CA
IAC Fall Forum: Tuesday, November 9, 2021, 3–4 PM (PST)
Brief description: You are invited to the UCLA Institute of American Cultures (IAC) annual Fall Forum, featuring the 2021–22 IAC visiting researchers and scholars, graduate and predoctoral fellows, and research grant awardees at UCLA’s four ethnic studies centers. Featured speakers will be interviewed by faculty experts, followed by a Q&A.
Fall Forum Registration link: https://uclaea.zoom.us/webinar/register/5816343257350/WN_k2pSc104RciBB2KmU1jaJw

Playing with No Consequences: A Conversation with Michelle Krusiec
2021-11-12 15:00 - 17:00 | Online via Zoom
Actress and filmmaker Michelle Krusiec has sustained a 25-year career working as a woman of color in an industry that has both tokenized her and given her visibility. In this frank, funny and transparent discussion, Dean Brian Kite speaks with Krusiec about the lessons of invisibility and how it forces us to delve deeper into our work as storytellers. Register here.
Date: Friday, November 12, 2021
Time: 3:00PM – 5:00PM PST
Location: Online

Sponsored by UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, with support from the Center for the Study of Women, Asian American Studies Center, and the Asian American Studies Department.

Asian American Studies Undergrad Spring Check-In
2022-05-11 16:00 - 18:00 | Rolfe Hall Quad
Celebrate AAPI Heritage Month with us Week 7 Wednesday, May 11th from 4-6pm in the Rolfe Hall Quad!
RSVP for the 🌸Asian American Studies Undergrad Spring Check-In🌸 here:tinyurl.com/AASspring22
We invite AAS majors, minors, and prospective students to mix and mingle during our check-in! We will be serving Thai food 🇹🇭 and Filipino dessert 🇵🇭 to all students and faculty who attend!
We will feature additional activities including a faculty panel and have the chance to learn from AAPI orgs on campus. Be sure to RSVP by Sunday, 5/9/22 so we can have plenty of food + snacks to go around!

IAC Fall Forum 2022 – Thursday, October 20, 3-4 PM (PST) via Zoom
2022-10-20 15:00 - 16:00 | CA
You are invited to the UCLA Institute of American Cultures (IAC) annual Fall Forum, featuring the 2022–23 IAC visiting researchers and scholars, graduate and predoctoral fellows, and research grant awardees at UCLA’s four ethnic studies centers. Featured speakers will be interviewed by faculty experts, followed by a live Q&A.

“Unsettling Domesticity: Native Women and the SF Bay Area Outing Program” by Caitlin Keliiaa, Assistant Professor of History at UC Santa Cruz. Interviewer: Juliann Anesi, Assistant Professor of Gender Studies.
“Getting Away with and Getting Rid of Yellowface: Contemporary Musical Theatre and Asian Americans” by Donatella Galella, Associate Professor of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production at UC Riverside. Interviewer: Sean Metzger, Professor and Head of PhD program in Theater and Performance Studies.
“Peeling Apart Impressions: Investigating the Factors that Influence HBCU and PWI Perceptions” by Kiana Foxx, PhD Candidate, Higher Education and Organizational Change. Interviewer: Walter R. Allen, Allan Murray Cartter Chair in Higher Education, Distinguished Professor of Education, Sociology and African American Studies.
“Indigenous Blackness in the Américas: The Queer Politics of Self-Making Garifuna New York” by Paul Joseph López Oro, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies, Smith College. Interviewer: Maylei Blackwell, Professor of Chicana/o and Central American Studies.

IAC Fall Forum 2022 registration link: https://bit.ly/3SpRiu1
IAC Fall Forum Flyer

Asian American Studies Mentorship Program
2022-10-21 | CA
Looking for a mentor in the Asian American Studies community? Seeking advice on which courses to take and went to take them? Well you’re in luck! This year, you can sign up for our Mentorship Program and get matched with another student in the Asian Am community! The deadline to sign up is this Friday, October 21st. Visit tinyurl.co/AASDMentor22 to apply.

Podcasting as a Tool For Social Change
2022-10-24 11:00 - 12:00 | CA
Love listening to podcasts🎧? Interested in beginning your own🤔? Professor Sangalang’s AAS M161 class invites you Week 5 Monday, October 24th at 11am to an online Zoom talk “Podcasting as a Tool for Social Change” with creator and host, Rita Phetmixay, of “Healing Out Lao’d.”🇱🇦
RSVP by Sunday, 10/24: https://tinyurl.com/rita1024
*This event is hosted by the UCLA Asian American Studies Department and Asian American Studies Center. @ucla_aasd @uclaaasc

The Southeast: A Curatorial Atmosphere, a talk by Dr. Patrick D. Flores
2022-11-03 12:00 - 13:30 | CA
📚Educational Talk & Giveaway🎉 The Southeast: A Curatorial Atmosphere, a talk by Dr. Patrick D. Flores
Event Date & Time: Thursday, November 3, 2022 @ 12pm noon
Event Location: 11372 Bunche Hall
Event webpage & RSVP: www.international.ucla.edu/cseas/event/15833
*Giveaways for the first five students who rsvp to the event! Prizes will be distributed after the event. Patrick Flores Southeast Asian Atmosphere November 2022

"Elemental Cartographies: Mapping Winds in Indigenous Economies of Abundance in the Era of Climate Change" with Candace Fujikane
2022-11-08 12:00 - 13:00 | CA
Stop by Young Research Library on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 12pm to attend the public lecture by Candace Fujikane on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 as she covers the topic, “Elemental Cartographies: Mapping Winds in Indigenous Economies of Abundance in the Era of Climate Change.”
This event is cosponsored by the UCLA Department of English, Asian American Studies, Center for the Study of Women, Center for Asian American Studies, and the Laboratory of Environmental Narrative.

Death & Dying in Diaspora, a talk by Allan P. Isaac
2022-11-08 16:00 - 17:30 | CA
📚Educational Talk📚 Death & Dying in Diaspora, a talk by Allan P. Isaac
Event Date & Time: Tuesday, November 8, 2022 @ 4pm
Event Location: 10383 Bunche Hall
Event webpage & RSVP: https://www.international.ucla.edu/cseas/event/15834

Gridiron Capital: How American Football Became a Samoan Game with Lisa Uperesa
2022-11-15 15:00 - 17:00 | Royce Hall, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Interested in the history of football🏈? Learn from author Lisa Uperesa as she discusses how a “Polynesian Pipeline” brought football players from American Sāmoa to Hawai’i and the mainland United States to play Gridiron Capital: his high stakes game in her book, American football became a Samoan Game.
🗓Save the date: Tuesday, November 15th, 3-5pm 📍UCLA Royce Hall, Herbert Morris Seminar Room 306 💻RSVP here: https://gridironcapital.eventbrite.com
This event is sponsored by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and the UCLA Asian American Studies Department.

Winter 2023 Undergraduate Check-In
2023-01-25 12:00 - 14:00 | Rolfe 2125, 345 Portola Plaza, Room 2125, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, United States
The Asian American Studies Department, in conjunction with the Pilipinx Studies Minor, invites you to the Winter 2023 Undergraduate Check-In on January 25th, 12PM-2PM at Rolfe 2125. This is a great opportunity to meet other Asian American Studies Majors and Minors, as well as department faculty and lecturers.
Come join us free food, drinks, and the chance to win one of these three prizes: a weighted blanket, a copy of Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H-Mart, or a “Coffee Before Talkie” mug.

RSVP at this link: Winter Check-In RSVP.

We hope to see you there!

MANZANAR, DIVERTED: When Water Becomes Dust Film Screening
2023-02-13 18:00 - 21:00 | James Bridges Theater, 235 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Film screening ALERT!🚨🎥
Come to this screening of award winning documentary Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust! Learn the story of how these women came together to protect their land and water in LA. Support this amazing documentary!🎬
When: February 13th, 2023 📆
Time: 6-9pm 🕦
Where: James Bridges Theater 📍
Register at: https://tinyurl.com/mrysahfh or use QR code

"Refusing Death: Immigrant Women and the Fight For Justice in LA"
2023-03-01 15:30 - 17:00 | 10383 Bunche Hall, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Want to learn more about race and environmental justice in LA? Come to this event with Professor Kim from Loyola Marymount University to talk about the book “Refusing Death”! Dive deep into discussions of race, class, gender, and more!

When: March 1st, 2023
Time: 3:30-5 PM (reception 5-6PM)
Where: Bunche Hall/ Zoom
RSVP for Webinar at: bit.ly/Kim-Webinar Event
RSVP for Reception: bit.ly/Kim-Reception

New Directions in Vietnamese/American Studies Book Panel
2023-03-09 17:00 - 18:15 | CA
Join us for this upcoming book talk panel that will engage new directions in Vietnamese and Vietnamese American Studies! It will discuss two recent edited volumes: Building a Republican Nation in Vietnam, 1920-1963 (2022) and Toward a Framework for Vietnamese American Studies: History, Community, and Memory (2023).

Panelists include: Nguyễn Thị Minh, Thuy Vo Dang, Tuong Vu, Cindy Nguyen, Hoang Phong Tuan, and Alex-Thai Vo.

First Light: Settler Colonial Science and Kanaka ʻŌiwi Resistance at Mauna a Wākea
2023-03-13 14:00 - 15:30 | 2125 Rolfe Hall, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Who’s ready for this series of research talks?!🤩 First up is Dr. Iokepa Casumbal-Salazar’s presentation on Settler Colonial Science and Kanaka ʻŌiwi Resistance at Mauna a Wākea. Learn more about decolonization, self-determination, and so much more! Come to ask him about his past research on social movements in and beyond Hawai’i!
Stay tuned for more on this series of research talks on our Instagram, Facebook and website (relaunch coming soon 👀)
When: March 13th 2023 📅
Where: Rolfe Hall 2125 📍
Time: 2pm- 3:30pm 🕑

Book Launch for "The Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives"
2023-03-16 12:30 - 13:45 | Online via Zoom
Please join us for the virtual UCLA Book Launch for The Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives! The 38 chapters included in this collection encompass a range of forcibly displaced subjects, a mix of geographical and historical contexts, and a variety of storytelling modalities. This book launch will feature presentations from 8 of the volume’s authors.

Check out the QR codes on the flyer for the Zoom registration info and open-access volume link! Alternatively, you can visit https://tinyurl.com/RoutledgeHandbookRegistration to register and https://tinyurl.com/ReadtheHandbook to read.

U.S. Settler Militarism and CHamoru Survival in Guåhan
2023-03-24 14:00 - 15:30 | 2125 Rolfe Hall, Los Angeles, CA, United States
The UCLA Asian American Studies Department will be hosting our second Pacific Islander Studies Research Talk by Dr. Alfred Flores:

In 1944 the US military began occupying privately owned land throughout Guåhan as part of its reinvasion strategy. The US government facilitated this process through the creation of the Land and Claims Commission (GLCC), which accelerated and legitimated the military’s condemning of these lands during World War II and the Cold War. Together, the GLCC, the “liberation” of Guåhan narrative, and the Organic Act of 1950 enabled a process of US settler militarism that resulted in the US military’s occupation of approximately 50% of all land on the island in the early 1950s. Despite these draconian policies, CHamoru land stewardship persisted through the låncho (ranch) and other forms of survival that challenged US military occupation.
Alfred Peredo Flores is an assistant professor in the Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies at Harvey Mudd College. He received his Ph.D. in History from UCLA, his M.A. and B.A. degrees in Public History and History from UCR, and an A.A. degree in Liberal Arts from College of the Desert. His research and teaching focuses on Pacific Islander Studies with an emphasis in diaspora, indigeneity, labor, militarization, oral history, and settler colonialism in Micronesia. Dr. Flores’ research has appeared in Amerasia Journal, American Quarterly, Critical Ethic Studies Journal, Brill, and Oxford University Press. His forthcoming book titled, Tip of the Spear: Land, Labor, and US Settler Militarism in Guåhan, 1944-1962 (Cornell University Press), will be released in September 2023.

Never Forget: Filipinx Americans and the Anti-Martial Law Movement: A roundtable session for the 2023 Asian American Studies Conference
2023-03-31 11:45 - 13:15 | CA
Throughout Ferdinand Marcos’s 21-year reign over the Philippines, resistance movements took shape, continued, and developed alongside and against the regime. While these movements formed in opposition to the brutality of Marcos’s rule (tortures, disappearances, and killings; political corruption and crony capitalism; censorship of the press; support for and advancement of imperialist programs), they also functioned as a network of political organizing that struggled against the long legacy of colonialism and racial capitalism.
This roundtable focuses on understanding the anti-martial law movements to discuss historical revisionism, knowledge formation, and Filipinx American political organizing. This session also introduces an upcoming online exhibit of rare posters from the transnational movement against Marcos’s martial law, part of the ongoing archival process led by the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA. The collection of posters and materials were collected throughout the 1970s and 1980s as part of anti-martial law political work in Los Angeles and California and transnationally in the Philippines.
Roundtable members include Xenia Tupas (Human rights activist and Migrante Los Angeles), Cathy Miraballes (Migrante Los Angeles), Joy Sales (Cal State LA, Malaya Movement Los Angeles), Josen Diaz (University of San Diego), with Karen Umemoto (Asian American Studies Center, UCLA). Moderated by Lucy Burns (UCLA).

Pacific Islander Studies Research Talk Series: Moompetam: Trans-Indigenous Recognitions and Futurities
2023-04-03 10:00 - 11:30 | 2125 Rolfe Hall, Los Angeles, CA, United States
We are excited to welcome Professor Kēhaulani Vaughn for our next Pacific Islander Studies Research Talk! Her talk is entitled, “Moompetam: Trans-Indigenous Recognitions and Futurities.” See the flyer below for more information!

Book Talk: "Transborder Los Angeles: An Unknown Transpacific History of Japanese-Mexican Relations"
2023-04-05 12:00 - 15:00 | Charles E. Young Research Library, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Please join Professor Yu Tokunaga and Chao Romero in their book talk on the new book “Transborder Los Angeles: An Unknown Transpacific History of Japanese-Mexican Relations” 📖 and his student workshop right after! 🗣Learn about new and interesting things in YRL, but make sure to RSVP before March 24th!
Where: Young Research Library (YRL) Presentation Room 📍
When: April 5th, 2023 📆
Book Talk- 12pm 🕘
Student Workshop 3-4pm 🕘
RVSP before March 24th: bit.ly/3HT82XI

Student Workshop: "Transborder Los Angeles: An Unknown Transpacific History of Japanese-Mexican Relations"
2023-04-05 15:00 - 16:00 | Charles E. Young Research Library, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Pacific Islander Studies Research Talk Series: Pacific Cultural Performance and Social Media as ‘Digital Malae’
2023-04-10 14:30 - 16:00 | 2125 Rolfe Hall, Los Angeles, CA, United States
We are excited to welcome Lisa Uperesa for our upcoming Pacific Islander Studies Research Talk! Her talk is entitled, “Pacific Cultural Performance and Social Media as ‘Digital Malae’”. Come and listen to her talk on April 10th! See flyer below for more information.

Research Talk Series: "Mapping Decolonized Futures: Indigenous Visions for Palestine and Hawai'i"
2023-04-14 14:00 - 15:30 | 2125 Rolfe Hall, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Joining us in another installation of our Research Talk Series is Dr. Nour Joudah, who will be talking about her research on “Mapping Decolonized Futures: Indigenous Visions for Palestine and Hawai’i.” Please refer to the flyer for more details.

Alumni Career Panel
2023-04-26 18:00 - 19:30 | Online via Zoom
Join us on April 26th 6-7:30PM on zoom for our Alumni Career Panel! You will have the opportunity to learn about the different career pathways that Asian American Studies alumni have taken themselves and be entered for a chance to win one of three Squishmallows in our raffle.

RSVP now at tinyurl.com/AASDAlumniPanel

Panelists include:

Lotay Yang | CEO, Investment Management
Trung Nguyen | AAS Professor at San Jose State
Lawrence Lipana | Anesthesiologist
Erica Yamamura | Consultant, Professor
Brian Kohaya | Master in Urban and Regional Planning

RSVP as soon as you can here or on tinyurl.com/AASDAlumniPanel.
