Anti-Asian Violence Graduate Writing Workshop
2023-12-15
Graduate Writing Workshop on Anti-Asian Violence CFP! Deadline December 15th for abstracts. To submit and for more information please visit: https://tinyurl.com/aav-grad-workshop

Winter 2024 Undergraduate Check-in
2024-02-20 11:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Young Research Library Presentation Room
Join us for the 2024 Winter Check-in brought to you by the Asian American Studies Department Undergraduate Leadership Committee! We’ll have free food, a raffle for prizes, and good company. Hear about our Spring and Summer Sessions course offerings and talk with faculty.
RSVP here or through http://tinyurl.com/AASDW24Checkin.
We hope to see you there!

Book Talk: Shin Issei Women and Contemporary Japanese American Community
2024-03-03 14:00 - 16:00 | West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple, 2003 Corinth Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90025, United States
Please join us on Sunday, March 3rd at the West LA Buddhist Temple for a Book Talk and Signing with author Tritia Toyota for her b! RSVP with the QR or through this link. Read below for more on Tritia Toyota and the discussants for the event:
Book: Intimate Strangers: Shin Issei Women and Contemporary Japanese American Community, 1980–2020 by author Tritia Toyota
https://tupress.temple.edu/books/intimate-strangers
Book description
At the end of the twentieth century, many twenty-something Japanese women migrated to places like Southern California with few skills and an overall lack of human capital. These women, members of the shin Issei community, sought economic opportunities unavailable to them in their homeland.
In Intimate Strangers, shin Issei women tell stories of precarity, inequality, and continuing marginality, first in Japan, where they were restricted by gendered social structures, and later in the United States, where their experiences were compounded by issues such as citizenship.
Intimate Strangers charts the experiences of shin Issei lives: their existence in Japan prior to migration, their motivations for moving to the United States, their settlement, and their growing awareness of their place in American society. Toyota chronicles how these resilient young women became active agents in circumventing social restrictions to fashion new lives of meaning. The Nikkei community (Americans of Japanese ancestry who were born in the United States) has been transformed by the inclusion of shin Issei, and Toyota describes the tensions around intergroup negotiations over race, identity, and the possibility of common belonging. Intimate Strangers is a perceptive study of migration and community incorporation enacted around cultural differences and processes.

Speaker
Tritia Toyota is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and is a Research Scholar at the Asian American Studies Center with the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of Envisioning America: New Chinese Americans and the Politics of Belonging. She also wrote and produced the documentary Asian America. She is a recipient of the Award for Excellence in Graduate Mentoring and Teaching from the UCLA Asian American Studies Graduate Student Association.

Discussants
Valerie Matsumoto is the UCLA George and Sakaye Aratani Chair on the Japanese American Incarceration, Redress and Community and a Professor of History and Asian American Studies. She is the author of “City Girls: The Nisei Social World in Los Angeles, 1920-1950” and “Farming the Home Place: A Japanese American Community in California, 1919-1982” and co-editor of the essay collection “Over the Edge: Remapping the American West”. She is the recipient of the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award, among several teaching and mentoring awards from faculty colleagues and students at UCLA.

Yasuko Takezawa is a Visiting Professor serving as the Terasaki Chair in U.S.-Japan Relations with UCLA Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies for 2023-2024. She is also a Professor at the Intercultural Research Institute, Kansai Gaidai University, and Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Research in the Humanities, Kyoto University, which she retired from in 2023. She is president of the Japanese Association of Migration Studies, and a member of the Science Council of Japan (SCJ). After her award-winning first book on the transformation of ethnicity among Japanese Americans which focused on their war-time incarceration and redress, her research interests shifted from ethnicity to race. Over the past two decades, Professor Takezawa has been leading a series of large international collaborative research projects. She has earned a reputation as the leading scholar in race studies in Japan.

Books will be on sale at event for book signing by author after program. Prefer payment by credit card – Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover.

Sponsored by:
Japanese Institute of Sawtelle
Sawtelle Japantown Association
West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple
West Los Angeles United Methodist Church
Asian American Studies Center – University of California Los Angeles
UCLA Asian American Studies Department
UCLA Nikkei Student Union

The Manicurist's Daughter: A Memoir Reading with Susan Lieu
2024-04-04 17:00 - 18:20 | MS 5200, 520 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095
Please join us in welcoming writer and performance artist Susan Lieu, who will read from her new book, The Manicurist’s Daughter–an emotionally raw memoir about the crumbling of the American Dream and a daughter of refugees who searches for answers after her mother dies during plastic surgery. The Manicurist’s Daughter is much more than a memoir about grief, trauma, and body image. It is a story of fierce determination, strength in shared culture, and finding your place in the world. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
Susan Lieu is a Vietnamese-American author, playwright, and performer who tells stories that refuse to be forgotten. A daughter of nail salon workers, she took her award-winning autobiographical solo show 140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother on a ten-city national tour, with sold-out premieres and accolades from the Los Angeles Times, NPR, and American Theatre. Eight months pregnant, she premiered her sequel, OVER 140 LBS, at ACT Theatre. The Manicurist’s Daughter is her first book.

Starry Field: a Memoir of Lost History
2024-05-02 17:00 - 18:30 | Rolfe 3126, Los Angeles, CA, 90095
Join the UCLA Transnational Gender and Labor Working Group in discussing Margaret Lee’s newest book Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History. Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History is a poignant memoir by journalist Margaret Juhae Lee, who sets out on a search for her family’s history lost to the darkness of Korea’s colonial decades, and contends with the shockwaves of violence that followed them over four generations and across continents. Combining investigative journalism, oral history, and archival research, Margaret reveals the truth about the grandfather she never knew. What she found is that Lee Chul Ha, her grandfather who left her grandmother and two young sons in 1936, was not a source of shame; he was a student revolutionary imprisoned in 1929 for protesting the Japanese government’s colonization of Korea. He was a hero—and eventually honored as a Patriot of South Korea almost 60 years after his death. But reclaiming her grandfather’s legacy, in the end, isn’t what Margaret finds the most valuable. It is through the series of three long-form interviews with her grandmother that Margaret finally finds a sense of recognition she’s been missing her entire life. A story of healing old wounds and the reputation of an extraordinary young man, Starry Field bridges the tales of two women, generations and oceans apart, who share the desire to build family in someplace called home.
Location: UCLA Rolfe 3126
When: May 2nd, 2024 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM (reception to follow)
Margaret Juhae Lee is an Oakland-based writer and a former literary editor of The Nation magazine. She has been the recipient of a Bunting Fellowship from Harvard University, and a Korean Studies Fellowship from the Korean Foundation. She is also a Tin House scholar, and has been awarded residencies at the Mesa Refuge, the Anderson Center, and Mineral School. In 2020, she was named “Person of the Year” by the Sangcheol Cultural Welfare Foundation in Kongju, South Korea, for her work in honoring her grandfather, Patriot Lee Chul Ha. Her articles, reviews, and interviews have been published in The Nation, Newsday, Elle, ARTnews, The Advocate, The Progressive and The Rumpus.
Purchase a copy of the book here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/starry-field-a-memoir-of-lost-history-margaret-juhae-lee/20141983?ean=9781685890933

No-No Boy in Concert at UCLA
2024-05-02 18:00 - 19:30 | UCLA Fowler Amphitheater, 308 Charles E Young Dr N, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, United States
Ticket reservations are required. Doors open at 5:30PM. Concert will start at 6PM.

Please bring a blanket to sit in the grass area to enjoy the live concert!
No-No Boy is an immersive concert experience that illuminates hidden Asian American histories through folk songs, sound pieces, live projections, and storytelling. NPR Music has hailed it as “one of the most insurgent pieces of music you’ll ever hear which re-examines americana with devastating effect… An act of revisionist subversion.” Taking inspiration from his own family’s history living through the Vietnam War as well as many other stories of Asian American experience, Nashville-born songwriter and scholar Julian Saporiti has transformed his years of doctoral study into an innovative project that bridges a divide between art and scholarship. This performance will celebrate No-No Boy’s third full-length LP EMPIRE ELECTRIC released by the Smithsonian Folkways label.
Sounds contain histories and prophecies. If you listen closely, there are winding tales to be found in a string brushed by a handmade bow, worlds to be uncovered in the trill of a bird about to take flight, and truths to be reckoned with in the grain of an unknown voice. This is the revelation at the core of Empire Electric, the third album by No-No Boy, and its songs that examine narratives of imperialism, identity, and spirituality. It tells stories rooted in years of research and relationship-building, made vibrant and profound through a rich congregation of instrumental, environmental, and electronically manipulated sounds from Asia and America. Every single sound, from the gracious swell of a pedal steel to the warbling pluck of a koto, becomes a part of the poetic recasting of shared post-colonial trauma and the startling joys that can be wrung out of that hardship.
https://www.nonoboyproject.com
Dr. Julian Saporiti was born and raised in Nashville, TN. He enjoys making music, encountering the arts, and exploring the outdoors. He currently lives in Portland, OR with his wife and collaborator Emilia Halvorsen Saporiti.

A Conversation with No-No Boy
2024-05-23 14:30 - 15:15 | Online via Zoom
No-No Boy illuminates hidden Asian American histories through folk songs, sound pieces, live projections, and storytelling. NPR Music has hailed it as “one of the most insurgent pieces of music you’ll ever hear which re-examines americana with devastating effect… An act of revisionist subversion.” Taking inspiration from his own family’s history living through the Vietnam War as well as many other stories of Asian American experience, Nashville-born songwriter and scholar Julian Saporiti has transformed his years of doctoral study into an innovative project that bridges a divide between art and scholarship. No-No Boy’s third full-length LP EMPIRE ELECTRIC was recently released by the Smithsonian Folkways label.
Join us on May 23rd from 2:30-3:15 PM via Zoom for a conversation with No-No Boy! This conversation is part of the course “Asian and Asian American Classical Reception” taught by Professor Kelly Nguyen (Department of Classics) who will moderate the discussion with No-No Boy on the themes of fragmentation and creation. Students in the course will have engaged with Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee, and the poetry of Hoa Nguyen and Vi Khi Nao. Their conversation will discuss the legacy of the Vietnam War and the concept and consequences of the myth of Western Civilization and the false binaries between East and West, especially as crafted and wielded by imperialism. No-No Boy will also share his music and experience with diaspora. This event is open to the public.
Scan the QR Code or visit this link to register for the event!

Department Open House (2024)
2024-09-25 12:00 - 14:00 | Rolfe Hall 3333
Come on out to our first event of the school year, the Asian American Studies Department Open House! Free food and drinks will be provided. This is a great opportunity to make new friends, meet the AASD staff, or mingle with your professors. Join us on Wednesday, September 25th between 12-2pm at Rolfe Hall 3333. Hope to see you there!

Westside LA AAPI Labor Leader Panel
2025-05-20 12:30 - 14:30 | UCLA Moore Hall 3340 Reading Room
Celebrate AAPI Heritage Month with a panel of Asian American & Pacific Islander labor leaders from West LA building the workers’ movement and resisting repression, attacks on migrants, and fighting for justice.
In conjunction with ASIAN AM / LBR STD M119XP – “Asian american and pacific islander labor issues” with Dr. Chun at UCLA.
When: Tuesday May 20, 12:30-2:30PM
Where: UCLA Moore Hall 3340 Reading Room

Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Day
2025-05-20 18:00 - 20:00
In Cambodia, May 20th is observed as the National Day of Remembrance—a solemn tribute to the victims and survivors of the Cambodian Genocide under the Khmer Rouge regime. The United Khmer Students at UCLA invite students, alumni, and members of the Khmunity to join us in honoring this day at our annual Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Day on Tuesday, May 20th.
Together, we will honor the survivors in our lives, reflect on stories of Khmer resilience, and create a space for collective healing and wellness. The event will include an art gallery, a brief historical lecture, and a panel discussion featuring community leaders and activists.

An Asian American Writer’s Notebook: Past, Present, and Future Tense
2025-05-29 17:00 - 19:00 | UCLA Harry and Yvonne Lenart Auditorium
An Asian American Writer’s Notebook: Past, Present, and Future Tense
Join us for the David Nishida and Tina Yamano Nishida Distinguished Lecture and Panel featuring keynote speaker Helen Zia, activist, journalist and author, who will be in conversation with Julie Ha, Journalist & co-director of “Free Chol Soo Lee” documentary and Amber Phung, Journalist with Pacific Ties newsmagazine. The program is dedicated to trailblazing journalist and activist K.W. Lee.
Helen Zia, longtime activist, award-winning writer and Fulbright Scholar, offers insights and observations on current challenges facing Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Amid growing political division and increasing concerns over censorship and free speech, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities are combating disinformation through developing counter-narratives. This lecture and panel brings together activists and writers to explore how Asian American voices are navigating a rapidly shifting political, cultural, and social landscape. Join us for a timely and critical discussion on the role of Asian American and Pacific Islanders activists, writers, and multimedia artists in preserving democratic values, amplifying underrepresented voices, and confronting systemic challenges in today’s charged political environment.
DATE: May 29, 2025
5:00pm Reception at the UCLA Art Council Amphitheater in front of the Lenart Auditorium(located outside the Fowler Museum, adjacent to the Lenart Auditorium).Featuring a new book on saleIntersections: A Journalistic History of Asian Pacific American.
6:00pm Program at the UCLA Harry and Yvonne Lenart Auditorium(located below the Fowler Museum)
Registration: https://tinyurl.com/53y95e8b
Free to the Public

Revisiting Zionism as a Form of Racism and Racial Discrimination
2025-11-13 17:30 - 19:00 | RSVP for location, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Join us on Thursday, November 13, 2025, for a presentation by Professor Noura Erakat, followed by a panel discussion with Professor Robin D.G. Kelley (Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History, UCLA Department of History) and Professor Nour Joudah (Assistant Professor, UCLA Department of Asian American Studies).
More about Prof. Erakat:
Dr. Erakat is an internationally renowned human rights attorney and professor of Africana Studies and the Program in Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, with research specializations in humanitarian law, refugee law, feminist jurisprudence, and critical race theory. She is a leading voice on Palestine as the author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine and the co-editor of Aborted State: the UN Initiative and New Palestinian Junctures. She frequently appears on news programs including CBS News, CNN, MSNBC, PBS News Hour, NPR, BBC World Service, and Democracy Now, and has been featured in many major publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Times, The Nation, USA Today, Al Shabaka, Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera, and Jadaliyya, where she serves as a founding co-editor.

Vietnamerica
2025-11-18 14:00 - 16:30 | 2125 Rolfe Hall, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Join us for a screening of Vietnamerica on November 18th!
Learn more about the film below:
Film Description: Following the wars in Vietnam, over two million people fled to country with the collapse of the Republic of Vietnam. That exodus, referred to by many as “the boat people” resulted in nearly half dying while in flight, battling the elements, starvation, and pirates.
Vietnamerica follows Master Nguyen Hoa as he returns to former refugee camps in Southeast Asia after three decades abroad to search for the graves of his wife and two children. Having fled Vietnam in 1981 on a boat with his family and friends, Hoa was the only survivor.
Executive Producer Nancy Bui of the Vietnamese Heritage Foundation joins GETSEA and 25 universities across North America to watch Vietnamerica together simultaneously and connect via Zoom for a discussion with the filmmaker about the Vietnamese diaspora, their struggle, and how Master Hoa’s story is a prism to see the larger group.
For more information on the film, visit http://vietnamericamovie.org.

PISA's 40th Anniversary Celebration
2026-01-30 18:00 - 21:00 | Tom Bradley International Hall 300
The year 2026 marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Pacific Islands’ Student Association at UCLA. To honor this milestone, we are bringing together students, alumni, faculty, and staff for an evening rooted in gratitude, reflection, and community. The celebration will highlight PISA’s legacy of student leadership and advocacy and will include welcome remarks, introductions of our current Board members and interns, prayer, shared food, and dancing to close the evening. Additionally, we are honored to welcome UCLA alumni Sefa Aina as our keynote speaker, whose leadership and contributions continue to inspire communities across generations.
We would be grateful to have you join us as we reflect on 40 years of PISA and celebrate the many individuals who have shaped and sustained this organization. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP here.

Race and the Question of Palestine
2026-02-04 14:00 | Charles E. Young Research Library 11360
Join us for an insightful afternoon with Dr. Lana Tatour as she discusses her latest edited volume, Race and the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press 2025). This talk explores the critical intersections of settler colonialism and the grammar of race, examining how racial structures operate as a technology of power and colonial rule.
About the Book: This book develops from the position that the colonization of Palestine—like other imperial and settler colonial projects—cannot be understood outside the grammar of race. Race and the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press 2025) explores how race operates as a technology of power and colonial rule, a political and economic structure, a set of legal and discursive practices, and a classificatory system. Offering a wide-ranging set of essays by historians, legal scholars, political scientists, sociologists, literary scholars, and race critical theorists, this collection illuminates how race should be understood in terms of its political work, and not as an identity category interchangeable with ethnicity, culture, or nationalism. Essays build on a long-standing tradition of theorizing race in Palestine studies and speak to four interconnected themes—the politics of racialization and regimes of race, racism and antiracism, race and capital accumulation, and Black–Palestinian solidarity. These engagements challenge the exceptionalism of the Palestinian case, and stress the importance of locating Palestine within global histories and present politics of imperialism, settler colonialism, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy
About the Speaker: Lana Tatour is a Senior Lecturer in Global Development at the University of New South Wales. She is a scholar of settler colonialism, indigeneity, race, and citizenship, with a focus on Palestine. Her coedited book, Race and the Question of Palestine was published in 2025 with Stanford University Press. She is currently completing her monograph, Colonized Citizens: Liberalism, Settler Colonialism, and Palestinian resistance. Lana is also a public commentator. She has appeared on ABC News, the BBC, and TRT World, and her publications have appeared in The Guardian, Al-Jazeera, Mondoweiss, Middle East Eye, The Age, Overland, and more.

The Arrogance of Power Film Screening
2026-02-24 12:30 - 13:45 | Public Affairs Building 4371
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Philippines’ EDSA People’s Power protests, the Luskin AAPI Caucus at UCLA is hosting a film screening of the 1983 documentary, “Arrogance of Power.” This documentary shows the fascist might of the Marcos regime and how militarization and human rights violations were institutionalized in Philippine political life. This event serves as a reminder of the vigilance required to protect human rights from abusive and corrupt powers.
Join us as we discuss the historical importance of the EDSA Revolution and the lessons we pull from it to navigate today’s political climate. We will also share information about the UCLA Asian American Studies digital exhibit Never Forget, a digital exhibition of political posters and oral histories chronicling the transnational Anti-Martial Law Movement.
Filipino catering will be provided by LA Rose Cafe; spots are limited, so food is first come first serve.
Additionally, we will hold balikbayan box donation drive to support typhoon relief(which one/s?) in the Philippines, in collaboration with the Filipino Migrant Center of Long Beach! We encourage folks to please bring medical supplies, non-perishable goods, and/or toiletries to donate for typhoon relief in the Philippines. To learn more about donation needs, visit tinyurl.com/LuskinBalikbayan

Forty Years Since the Philippines' People Power Revolution: Persisting Against Conditions of Martial Law
2026-02-24 16:00 - 17:00 | Online via Zoom
Join us as we reflect on how a people’s uprising toppled a dictator’s two-decade rule—and examine the persistent conditions of martial law that continue to shape our present. Through stories and poetry, we honor the strength of collective resistance and the enduring power of the people.
This online event will feature speakers who will share, through stories and poetry, memories of how a people’s uprising toppled a dictator’s two-decade rule, remind us of the persistent conditions of martial law, and highlight the ongoing strength of people power.
Speakers and poetry readers include Xenia Tupas, Joy Sales, Josen Diaz, Jason Magabo Perez, with others from MALAYA MOVEMENT USA and Anak Bayan UCSC. Moderated by Lucy MSP Burns.
Event registration here

Film Screening: Third Act by Tad Nakamura '03
2026-02-27 19:00 - 20:00 | Darren Star Screening Room, Melnitz 1422
UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, in collaboration with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and UCLA Asian American Studies Department, present Third Act, by Tad Nakamura ’03 about his father Robert Nakamura MFA ’75, director, UCLA film professor, and founder of the UCLA Center for EthnoCommunications. Join us for this special screening and conversation. About the film: “Generations of artists call Robert A. Nakamura “The Godfather of Asian American film,” but his son, Tad, calls him Dad. As the filmmaking son of a filmmaking legend, Tad uses the lessons his dad taught him to decipher the legacy of an aging man who was a child survivor of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans, a successful photographer who gave it up to tell his own story, an activist at the dawn of a social movement—and a father whose struggles have won his son freedoms that eluded Japanese Americans of his generation. As Parkinson’s Disease clouds his memory, Tad sets out to retrieve his story—and in the process discovers his own. The two have made films together, with Robert always by Tad’s side.”
Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival! Don’t miss this powerful and moving film followed by an exclusive conversation with the director himself!
Come early for the lobby reception, connect with community, and celebrate Asian American storytelling on the big screen!
Reception at 6:00 PM | Screening at 7:00 PM
Seats will fill up FAST — RSVP now!

SEACLEAR x AASD Mixer
2026-03-06 17:30 - 19:30 | Student Activities Center 1&2, 220 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join SEA CLEAR’s Transfer Component for *FREE dinner and a discussion with UCLA’s Asian American Studies Department! This year, we are exploring the importance of role models, representation within higher education, and how our past experiences shape our orientations to life!
Everyone is welcome and will have the opportunity to share and discuss their experiences!
RSVP: tinyurl.com/scaasd26
*Food is limited! RSVP to help us make sure that we have enough food for everyone. A confirmation or waitlist email will be sent for more information.

Gender, Criminalization, Authoritarianism & Agency with Andrea Ritchie
2026-04-08 11:00 - 12:30 | 2125 Rolfe Hall, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Please join us for an exciting talk with Andrea Ritchie, Co-Founder of Interrupting Criminalization. This public lecture will be followed by a dialogue with Dr. Lee Ann Wang and a Q&A session.
About the Speaker: Andrea Ritchie is a Black lesbian immigrant survivor who has been documenting, organizing, advocating, litigating, and agitating around policing and criminalization of Black women, girls, trans, and gender nonconforming people for the past three decades. She is the author of numerous books and most recently published Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies as well as international reports on the racial and sexual violence of policing, surveillance, and public safety enforcement for the United Nations, Amnesty International, INCITE!, Desis Rising Up and Moving, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Ritchie was a movement lawyer in New York for LGBTQ communities and along with Mariam Kaba, co-founded Interrupting Criminalization, a network of over 20 organizations working to end police violence against Black women, girls, trans and gender nonconforming people. This flyer is too small to fit all of Andrea Ritchie’s life work!
We hope to see you there!

Ethnic Studies Mixer
2026-04-08 17:00 - 19:00 | Rolfe Court, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
The Ethnic Studies Departments at UCLA are excited to announce that they are bringing back our Ethnic Studies Mixer! Join us as we get to talk about the Ethnic departments’ history and current works. Meet people across the departments over provided dinner!
Each department is also putting together a raffle prize you can win. Come by and be a potential winner!

Dreaming Together: California Student Survivors Reimagining Campus Responses to Sexual Violence
2026-04-10 10:00 - 12:00 | Royce 314 + Zoom, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Join Survivors+Allies (S+A) for a vital conversation as they share findings from their recent study with student survivors across California colleges. We’re moving beyond the status quo to discuss intersectional healing, resource navigation, and justice on our campuses.
Whether you’re a survivor, an ally, or an advocate, your voice and presence matter.
RSVP Here: bit.ly/SurvivorsDreaming

Film Screening of Toward a More Perfect Rebellion: Celebrating the Legacy of Robert A. Nakamura
2026-04-11 19:30 - 21:00 | Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Join the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, and the Center for EthnoCommunications for a special evening honoring the life and work of Robert A. Nakamura. Often referred to as the “Godfather of Asian American media,” Nakamura’s visionary filmmaking and activism have paved the way for generations of storytellers.
The program will feature a free screening of his influential work, followed by an in-depth Q&A session with special guests to discuss his lasting impact on cinema, education, and community advocacy.

Refugee/Migrant/Citizen: Making Early Middle Eastern-American Race amidst Mass Violence, Displacement, and Resistance
2026-04-30 16:00 - 18:00 | 2125 Rolfe Hall, Los Angeles, CA, United States
In this talk, Dr. Sophia Armen recasts the early racial classification of Middle Eastern/SWANA (South West Asian North African) peoples in the United States from the perspectives of refugees and community organizers, arguing that refugeehood was central to the formation of early SWANA racialization during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, or “racial prerequisite era.” Drawing on experiences of Ottoman Arab, Armenian, and Assyrian communities in the U.S., she explores the ways in which racial categories were shaped not only through top-down state power and legal outcomes, but also from below, as migrants and refugees contested their classification, built community formations, and organized transnationally amidst genocide, mass displacement, deportations, and racial terror. Uniting critical refugee studies, Asian American studies, and critical gender studies, she asserts that examining early Middle Eastern refugee lifeworlds offers insight into larger systems of race, power, citizenship, and empire. Ultimately, she demonstrates that anti–Middle Eastern racism is not a product of the post-9/11 present, but foundational to U.S. racial regimes.
About the Speaker: Dr. Sophia Armen is a UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA and holds a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from UC San Diego.
Refreshments will be served.
RSVP here: bit.ly/4co6CCt

Film Screening - Palestine 36
2026-05-07 16:00 - 18:00 | Kinsey Pavilion 1220B, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Join us for a free screening of Palestine 36, a film by Annemarie Jacir. Recently shortlisted for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards, this screening offers a unique opportunity to view this acclaimed work on campus.

Launch Event - Reclaiming Our Narrative: Foundations & Futures
2026-05-09 10:00 - 15:00 | UCLA Luskin Conference Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Foundations and Futures is here! Developed by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, this Asian American and Pacific Islander Multimedia Textbook includes 50 chapters, 1,500+ media assets, and 250+ ready-to-use lesson plans. This project is designed to transform classrooms into spaces of empathy, critical thinking, and change!
We are excited to be a community partner for this groundbreaking launch, please join us for Reclaiming Our Narrative: Presenting Foundations and Futures on May 9, 2026 at the UCLA Luskin Conference Center. The program will also feature a keynote by Dr. Maya Soetoro, who will guide us in exploring the power of peace education.
At a moment when ethnic studies faces increasing scrutiny and books continue to be banned, we hope that Foundations and Futures can empower educators to uplift, protect, and preserve Asian American and Pacific Islander histories.
🗓 May 9, 2026
⏰10:00am to 3:00pm (Registration check in begins at 9:00am)
📍UCLA Luskin Conference Center Ballroom
🔗Link to register: bit.ly/40LTiT3

Book Talk - Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
2026-05-12 14:30 - 15:30 | UCLA James West Alumni Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States
We are excited to host Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer and artist Leanne Betasamosake Simpson next month as part of the Department of American Indian Studies’ (DAIS) Special Speaker Series. Hear Leanne speak about her newest book, Theory of Water (2025), and get your signed copy on Tuesday, May 12 at 2:30 at the James West Alumni Center – Founder’s Room.
About the Author:

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg musician, writer and academic. She is the author of eight books, including As We Have Always Done (winner of the NAISA subsequent book prize) and the novel Noopiming which was short listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Dublin Literary Prize. Her collaboration with Robyn Maynard, Rehearsals for Living is a National Best Seller and was short listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction. Leanne’s new work, Theory of Water is a national best seller and won the Writer’s Trust Hilary Weston prize for non-fiction. Leanne has lectured and taught extensively at universities across Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Europe and has over twenty years experience with Indigenous land based education. Leanne is also a musician. Her latest release Live Like the Sky is out now from You’ve Changed Records. Theory of Ice (2021) was named to the Polaris Prize short list, and she was the 2021 winner of the Prism Prize’s Willie Dunn Award, presented to a Canadian trailblazer who has demonstrated excellence within the music video production community. Leanne holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba and is a member of Alderville First Nation.

UCLA Korean American Studies Symposium Series
2026-05-18 17:00 - 19:00 | Online via Zoom
Don’t miss this upcoming virtual symposium featuring insights from leading experts in Anthropology and Asian American Studies. We’ll be diving deep into the historical roots of racial violence and discussing paths toward collective resistance.
Speakers:
Jenny Banh (Fresno State University)
Scott Kurashige (The James and Grace Lee Boggs Foundation)
Kyeyoung Park (UCLA)
Register:
BIT.LY/UCLA-ANTIASIANVIOLENCE2026
