Asian American Studies Commons^™

The Body Negotiating Unprecedented Movement, Mei Bock

Honors Projects

A collection of poems exploring threads including the Lower East Side, immigration, stray animals, art, and Chinese-American identity.

Portland's Lost Chinatown, Artthew H. Ng

University Honors Theses

Portland's Chinatown is one of the oldest North American urban Chinatowns, but is largely unexplored in the literature. It is currently a Chinatown in name only, missing Chinese residential buildings as well as popular Chinese businesses. This article explores the mystery of Portland Chinatown's birth and death, analyzing its history with a sociological lens. It had a similar lifespan to other Chinatowns in the US. However, Portland's Old Chinatown was unique, as unlike an ethnic enclave, it did not have clearly defined boundaries, growing to cover seventy city blocks at its peak. Therefore, when urban renewal started taking place in …

International Student Orientations: Indian Students At American Universities Around The Turn Of The Twentieth Century, Param S. Ajmera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the writings and experiences of five Indian international students in the United States during late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By drawing attention to these students, I attend to the ways in which notions of freedom, progress, and inclusivity associated with American higher education, and liberalism more generally, are related to structures of racialized and colonial dispossession in India. I build these arguments by reading archival sources such as university administrative records, student publications, personal and official correspondence, as well as understudied aesthetic works, such as memoirs, travel narratives, essays, doctoral dissertations, and public lectures. These historical …

“Filipinos In California, Community, And Identity”: A Personal Inquiry, Sam T. Mcclintock

The Forum: Journal of History

No abstract provided.

Re-Envisioning Caribbean Costa Rica: Chinese-West Indian Interaction In Limón During The Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries, Benjamin N. Narváez

History Publications

While West Indians constituted a much larger immigrant group in the port of Limón, Costa Rica and its environs, Chinese also migrated there during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In hopes of maintaining their culture and in response to the prejudice they faced, both groups formed their own tightknit transnational subcommunities. Nevertheless, they also interacted with each other. These interactions ranged from tension and conflict on the one hand, to routine, peaceful interaction and even collaboration on the other. In particular, class differences and the marginalization these groups experienced combined to produce this complex relationship. Tension and conflict …

Cumulative Grief, Xuan Pham

Masters Theses

A written thesis to accompany the M.F.A. Exhibition Cumulative Grief, in which the artist's personal and familial narrative explores the complexity and nuances of racial grief.

Asian American History And Politics, Rahaf Abdalkareem

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

Asian American Studies offers a scholarly avenue to discuss questions of racial inequality, domestic capitalism, and global imperialism. The debate also includes research on how Asian Americans of the first and second generations cope with adaptation and assimilation, in particular on their Americanization and active pursuit of higher education and prestigious professions in a community that still discriminates against them. In the United States, Asian American Studies focuses on the identities, historical and current perspectives of people and communities. Nationalism, migrants, Asian American masculinity, Asian American femininity, cultural politics, and media coverage are topics and concerns that are central in …

Peril, Pandemic, And Crisis: Asian American Studies, Alexis Desany, Carter Lawton, David Wiley

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

Hello and Welcome to our Zine!! We are so happy you stopped by! :) We were presented the opportunity to create a zine on Asian American studies through Josen Diaz’s ETHN course. Although this started out as a project, it became so much more to our group. We had the opportunity to explore different Asian American cultures, their history, and their influence on American culture and politics. This project allowed us to relate all of the historical readings from the Chinese Exclusion Act and the world wars to events that occur today. Over the semester, we developed our overall knowledge …

A Look At Asian American Studies, Emery Mckee, Ryan Caragher, Emma Rohrer, Gabe Velazquez

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

Our Zine hopes to cover the multitude of topics discussed in our Intro to Asian American Studies class. Each section is based on a reading relevant to a specific subject covered in the class, whether that be the history of Japanese internment camps or the globalization of the Filipino workforce. After a deeper analysis of the history and tradition in each reading, our zine also focuses on the social, political, and intellectual significance of Asian American articles and stories. There are many significant facts and key ideas that truly speak for themselves on the issues and events being discussed along …

A Brief Journey Through Asian American History, Jordan Rahe, Julian-Ross Fernandez, Jefferson Kiyasu, Dylan Latham

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

In order to understand the complexities of the Asian American experience, readers must be able to comprehend how the past has built a foundation for the treatment of individuals both inside and outside of the Asian community. Based on various academic editorials and books, we have analyzed what we believe to be the most valuable historical facts, stories, and ideas and presented them in a way that provides the most important information along with our perceptions of each topic. This compilation of articles looks to bring largely unknown issues to the forefront of reader’s minds, in a pursuit to create …

From The Yellow Peril To The Model Minority: A History Of Asian American Immigration, Annabelle Jefferies, Ben Police, Jack Evenson, Sam Stiker

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

Throughout the past semester, our group has read books, interpreted art and propaganda, and grappled with ideas from scholars on the topic of Asian American immigration and assimilation into the society of the United States. The zines that were created in response to these different forms of media discuss this process of immigration and inclusion as a slow, ongoing process that began with Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century. They also investigate this historical process through a lens of prejudice and racism in our country as a result of global geopolitical events, such as the Vietnam War or the …

Introduction To Asian American Studies: Final Zine Project (3), Regina Gaffney, Jonny Mather, Conner Prendergast

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

Over the past few months, we have studied the importance of Asian American history. Specifically, the ideas of connecting: class, gender, sexuality, nationalism, war, colonialism and race to contemporary issues going on in the world today. The following is a collection of Zine format projects aimed at displaying key ideas in the research of American History. Each week contains new information and a different display format. Moreover, we have made connections to modern day issues in an attempt to demonstrate how learning from past events can influence decisions made in the future.

Introduction To Asian American Studies: Final Zine Project (2), Jason Redlew, William Jonathan Brown, Joey Provost, Maiki Kawakami

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

Over the course of this class, we have examined different perspectives on historical events and learned about how these events have impacted minority lives. This careful examination allows us to be self-critical of both our actions and the actions of our country. Each week, we were tasked with reading a piece of literature that critiques a historical event or provides a different interpretation. Our goal was to take the message of each reading and represent it through a creative magazine article, known as a zine. As we began this project, we had some trouble comprehending the deeper meaning behind the …

Introduction To Asian American Studies: Final Zine Project (1), Matthew Bohamed, Jakob Osland, Deshaun Harvey, Mikey Hawkins

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

This zine is an accumulation of all of the zines that our group has made throughout the semester based upon reading assignments covering a wide variety issues that affect Asian Americans in the United States. The following are some of the zine topics within this final accumulation of our zines throughout the semester, to give you an idea of what follows this introduction page. The first zine is based off a text from Erika Lee, titled “The Chinese Must Go!” which touches upon the anti-Chinese movement in the United States and the issues associated with movements against Chinese immigrant labor …

History, Culture, And Humanity: Contextualizing Modern Oppressions, Rosalyn Arvizu, Payton Asch, Thalia Petronelli

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

In our Fall 2020 Introduction to Asian American Studies class, small student cohorts were tasked with creating a zine page for the various concepts analyzed in class. We read many articles in relation to Asian American oppression, both globally and locally. This included topics such as the history of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the anti-Chinese movement, and the various racializations different Asian ethnicities faced. We read about the model minority myth and its prevalence after the Vietnam War, Korean War, and Cold War. Additionally, we discussed the militarization and radicalization of the United States' colonial projects in Hawai'i, Guam, …

Introduction To Asian American Studies: Final Zine Project (4), Lauren Hendrickson, Kelli Kufta, Madi Earnshaw, Hayley Lee

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

ABOUT US… We are a group of USD students studying Asian American history & politics. Over the course of the semester, we have studied histories of labor, migration, war, incarceration, and displacement. This course has allowed us to better understand the ways in which Asian American identity has emerged. This course has given us the tools necessary to explore Asian American history and to contextualize what we have learned so we can apply it to contemporary issues both within and outside of the United States. ABOUT OUR ZINE… In each of our weekly zines, we really focused on the significance …

An Artistic Exploration Of Asian American Studies, Eileen Rhatigan, Alanah Winston, Myah Pace, Tristan Brown

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

No abstract provided.

The Asian American Experience, Isabel Poljakovic, Oriana Sampath, Ryan Cu

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

The following zine pages aim to provide insight into the global experiences of Asian Americans. There are many ethnicities encapsulated in the term Asian Americans. In addition, each ethnic group has unique experiences. Studying Asian American race and gender relations is essential in unpacking global power dynamics. This zine attempts to show the way Asian American experiences have evolved over time. It attempts to connect history to the present by showing how Asian Americans are still affected by events that happened centuries ago Through exploring specific historic events, this zine reveals how the U.S. constructed the “Asian American” racial category. …

History Of Asian Americans, Brittany Le, Christine Sivilay, Mollie Frager

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

For our History of Asian Americans project, we aimed to creatively showcase some of the important topics discussed in the readings throughout this course. Additionally, our group related these historical topics to modern day issues or personal experiences. This was particularly interesting due to the current events taking place this semester like COVID-19, BLM Movement, and the election. In our project, we strayed away from summaries and explanations as much as possible while still providing context. We aimed to use our creative and critical thinking to highlight certain underlying aspects of the readings we thought were important, but may not …

Bringing The Marginalized Into Conversations About American Raciality, Erin Kane, Keely Gaeta, Emily Norris

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

In this collection of analyses that explore the multi-faceted Asian American identity, we hoped to speak honestly about the Asian American condition. The Asian American condition is one of constantly being without a seat at the table of the American racial consciousness. This zine delves into Asian American identity through the lenses of history, psychology, and lived experience. The historical perspective of Asian American identity has been explored at the hands of the “benevolent” West. History is written by the victors. For Asian Americans, the victor has always been the United States meaning that the interpretation of their identity has …

Asian American Studies, Annie Ho, Vicky Liu, Benjamin Stephen

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

Asian Americans have faced a long heritage of exclusion and injustice in relation to race, class, gender, sexuality, colonialism, immigration, labor, and a myriad of other problems throughout their history, particularly during times of shifting demographics, economic crisis, or war. In today's society, these inequities go largely unnoticed and are not addressed as often as they should be. This zine is meant to bring those inequities to light and discuss the history of Asians in America. We cover a wide range of topics, from the Vietnam war, to Japanese concentration camps, to the “model minority” myth. Understanding the history of …

Introduction To Asian American Studies: Final Zine Project (5), Delaney Tax, Maria Zesbaugh, Ashley Montrezza

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

This zine allowed us to confront the ways in which colonization and its historical implications play into modern race relations. This is especially evident in the ways bodies are valued and devalued based on social location, birthplace, and racial appearance. Our weekly zines confronted the direct interactions between colonial violence and individuals, as well as their communities. We also worked to intentionally contrast this to the western construction of whiteness, and pulled from historical and modern examples of how whiteness has been weaponized against Asian communities in order to further marginalize them. Adjacency to whiteness, however, has also been used …

(Re) Model Minority: A Discussion Of The Past And Present, Eden Concepcion, Jason Luu, Jannah Orbita, John Tran

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

PURPOSE. The purpose of this zine is to look at historical events that have influenced the way Asian American communities cope with injustices in the United States, and how Asian Americans have been treated throughout history and until now. Throughout this zine, we draw connections between the past and the present– some things may have changed, but others still remain the same. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR... Analysis of Discriminatory Law Before & After Historical Analysis Satire PANDEMIC. With racial tensions towards Asian American high throughout the world because of COVID-19, it has become relevant to learn about the origins …

Asian Americans: Life And History In The United States, Annalyn Boothe, Shuyi Jiao, Hailey Freitag

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

In this zine, we educate ourselves on the history of Asian Americans and reflect on how the past has shaped our present and continues to construct the future. With the exception of Ocean Vuong’s novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, all the texts we studied are academic. Generally, the academic texts discuss how one anti-Asian policy leads to further exclusion and/or oppression. These chronological examinations of Asian immigrants in the United States helped us recognize and critically investigate current social and economic tensions experienced by Asian Americans. In order to clearly illustrate the ongoing cause and effects of past polices …

Reflections On A Movement, Mark Bautista, James Estillore, Paolo Garcia, Nadia Mohebati

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

In this zine, we aimed to explore several texts and discuss their significance in understanding both Asian American history and politics, as well as the oral histories and experiences that are often forgotten. In addition to this, each topic covered in our zine investigates how these events throughout time have shaped and continually affected the Asian American experience today. Throughout our time dissecting these select texts on the topic of Asian American Ethnic Studies, the editorial team came to understand the significance of employing a framework of the Asian American plight in regard to how we process modern events. From …

A Study Of Asian American Issues In The United States, Nicoline Pedersen, Krista Celo, Eden Stilman, Seren Ventullo

Ethnic Studies Student Zines

Throughout this zine you will explore a variety of obstacles that Asian Americans have faced in regards to their immigration and acclimation into American society and culture. Over the last century, individuals from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa have either migrated to America in hopes of a better life, or have been forced out of their homes due to war conflicts or as a necessity for cheap labor. Despite the means of their arrival, Americans have historically maintained an imperialistic outlook that America is the superior country. While the white American believes he is saving these transpacific countries from …

Relationship Counseling For The U.S.: Understanding White America's Role In Asian American Experiences, Alison N. Lawrence

Tredway Library Prize for First-Year Research

This paper explores the relationship between White Americans and Asian Americans in an effort to discover the root of the difficulties that first and second generation Asian Americans experience while attempting to integrate into American society. Through an analysis of perspectives from Asian American literature as well as historical and current events, it highlights the racist systems that are ingrained in our everyday lives, continuously reminding Asian Americans that they are out of place in their own country. It concludes with a discussion of White America's necessary role in dismantling these systems, and offers strategies to create a more welcoming …

“I Don’T Want To Hear Your Language!” White Social Imagination And The Demography Of Roman Corinth, Ekaputra Tupamahu

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

This article aims to deconstruct the hidden pervasive whiteness in biblical scholarship and to propose another way to reimagine the linguistic dynamic of Roman Corinth from an Asian American perspective. It highlights the legal and historical interconnectedness of whiteness and the dominance of English. English is a critical marker of whiteness in the United States. In this context, immigrants are expected to conform to and assimilate themselves with whiteness by performing English. This particular racialized context has influenced and resulted in a scholarly historical reconstruction of immigrants in Roman Corinth as “Greek speaking im/migrants.” Immigrants can come from many different …

Two Poems: Stop Time Before; Forsaken Ones, Ánh-Hoa Thị Nguyễn

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This creative work features two poems: Stop Time Before; Forsaken Ones

Asian Immigrants In Leadership Roles In The United States: Exploration For Leader Development, Ramil L. Cabela

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cultural identity and resource availability aspects in traditional leadership development literature remain understudied, especially among minority populations like Asian immigrants.

This study explores the leadership journeys of 24 United States immigrants from China, India and the Philippines using a phenomenological approach, primarily with semi-structured interviews. Experiences of 18 additional immigrant leaders published in popular media were also analyzed.

Data from the study reveals that Asian migrants’ roads to leadership in U.S. organizations are heterogeneous and characterized by either linear or nonlinear, overlapping phases of leader development where migrant leaders overcome assimilation challenges and leverage their unique, individual human capital to …