1 3 4 5 6




Dear AASC friends, colleagues, and supporters:

 

What can we do in the face of violence, variants, and rollbacks on rights and liberties? As Asian American Studies has taught us, we can draw strength and wisdom from our personal and collective pasts to think critically about the issues of the present and to work towards creating a better future. And here at the Center, we have been focused on doing just that.


Last year, we launched the AAPI Policy Initiative to address the impact and fallout of the pandemic on AAPI communities. Eighteen members of our faculty and their students across the UCLA campus have been conducting research and formulating recommendations for advocacy and policy change related to health, immigration, housing, the economy, and addressing anti-Asian hate. The first of these policy reports, specifically on Asian American businesses, are available on our website. The research findings from the other reports will be released at a policy summit in the fall. We invite you learn more about the initiative and join us (stay tuned for details!).

 

This year, we received state funding for the AAPI Multimedia Textbook to educate high school students and the general public about the AAPI experience and our contributions to American society -- past, present, and possible. As a free, open-access resource, we are looking to meet the need for ethnic studies resources, as well as to bring the stories of our communities into more classrooms and into every home. We are grateful to the California Asian American & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus and our donors and contributors for their support on both initiatives.

 

These efforts will set a foundation for the next generation of change makers and open up unlimited possibilities for the future. We are grateful for your support and trust in these endeavors. We hope you will continue to join us on this path as we work to expand what we are collectively able to see, do, and imagine.


With warm regards,
Karen

 


All Rights Reserved. © UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Los Angeles, California



Remembering Franklin Odo (1939-2022)

Franklin Odo was a pioneer in Asian American Studies and he was interviewed as part of the UCLA Collective Memories project.

To learn more about him, please view his oral history interview conducted on October 30, 2018.



Project Spotlights


  Events

UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press Team at AAAS

Long Beach, CA


Thursday, April 6 to Saturday, April 8
Exhibitors Room

 

Transborder Los Angeles: An Unknown Transpacific History of Japanese-Mexican Relations

by Professor Yu Tokunaga, Kyoto University


Thursday, April 6, 12:00-1:00 pm Book Talk; 3:00-4:00 Student Workshop
UCLA Young Research Library - Presentation Room

Professor Yu Tokunaga (Kyoto University) will join Professor Robert Chao Romero (UCLA) in conversation about his new book, Transborder Los Angeles: An Unknown Transpacific History of Japanese-Mexican Relations. A light lunch will be provided. Limited seating, please RSVP at bit.ly/3jsVtJ9.

 

Sponsored by Institute of American Cultures, Asian American Studies Center, Chicano Studies Research Center

 

The Power of Fiction and the Fragility of Power: Pramoedya Ananta Toer and the Making of Indonesia

Professor Vinay Lal with Maxwell Lane


Tuesday, April 18, 4:00-6:00 pm
Bunche Hall, Room 6275


Vinay Lal, Professor of History and Asian American Studies UCLA will be in conversation with Maxwell Lane, Independent Scholar, translator of Pramoedya, and Visiting Senior Fellow, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies - Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore, on Maxwell Lane's new book Indonesia out of Exile: How Pramoedya's Buru Quartet Killed a Dictatorship.

 

Sponsored by Helen and Morgan Chu Chair, Asian American Studies Center, Institute of American Cultures

 

When You Left Me on That Boulevard

Winner of the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at Sundance


Sunday, April 23, 7:00 pm
Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum

It's Thanksgiving in 2006 and Ly's day consists of phone calls with her boyfriend, getting high with her cousins, and celebrating the holiday with her nosy family. A tender portrayal of suburban life with a Filipino family, about coming together while on the outside. Winner of the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

DCP, color, 13 min. Director: Kayla Abuda Galang. Screenwriter: Kayla Abuda Galang. With: Kailyn Dulay, Whitney Agustin, Gina May Gimongala.

Filmmaker Kayla Abuda Galang will attend for audience Q & A session.
Admission is free. No advance reservations. Free tickets must be obtained on a first come, first served basis at the box office, where seating will be assigned.

 

Presented by UCLA FIlm & Television Archive with community partner UCLA Asian American Studies Center

 

Free Chol Soo Lee

Film Screening


Saturday, May 6, 7:30 pm
Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum

In 1970s San Francisco, 20-year-old Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee is convicted of a Chinatown gang murder he did not commit. While Lee is serving a life sentence, a journalist takes a special interest in his case and writes a series of stories that inspire Asian Americans to rally to free him, starting a movement that unites the community like never before. But once out, Lee struggles to live up to his newfound status as a symbol, and his demons ultimately threaten to destroy the legacy of the movement and the man himself. Combining rich archival footage, firsthand accounts, and narration drawn from personal writings, this poignant documentary paints an intimate portrait of the complex man at the center of a movement. Highlighting the radical power of activism paired with a scathing critique of the criminal justice system, Free Chol Soo Lee serves as an urgent reminder that his legacy is more relevant than ever.

Following the film, the filmmakers Julie Ha and Eugene Yi will speak about their relationship to the case and their filmmaking journey. They will be joined by activists who were involved in the Free Chol Soo Lee campaign, a member of the formerly incarcerated Asian American community, and a representative of the UCLA Korean American Student Association.

DCP, color, 83 min. Director: Julie Ha, Eugene Yi.

In-Person Q&A with filmmakers Julie Ha, Eugene Yi; Benjamin Kang (UCLA KASA), Jai Lee Wong (member of Chol Soo Lee Defense Committee), Michael Suzuki (L.A. Country Office of the Public Defender). Moderated by Charlene Tonai Din, Jennifer Chun. Admission is free. No advance reservations. Free tickets must be obtained on a first come, first served basis at the box office, where seating will be assigned.

 

Presented by UCLA Film & Television Archives, with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and community partners, UCLA Documentary Film Legal Clinic, UCLA Asian American Studies Department, UCLA Korean American Student Association, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, UCLA Nikkei Student Union.

 

Koreatown, Los Angeles, Immigration, Race, the "American Dream"

Book talk by Shelley Sang-Hee Lee, Professor, American Studies, Brown University


Wednesday, May 10, 5:00-6:30 pm
UCLA Haines Hall, Room 220

Register Online

 

Sponsored by Asian American Studies Department & Center, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment - Labor Studies

 

AAPI Policy Summit 2022

 

AAPI POLICY SUMMIT
Building Solutions for an Equitable Future


DATE: Friday, February 10, 2023


UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center | Centennial Ballroom
425 Westwood Plaza | Los Angeles, CA 90095

 

LEARN MORE

 

 

  What's News

Remembering Franklin Odo

May 6, 1939 - September 28, 2022






2023 UCLA Activist-in-Residence Program
Application Deadline: November 02, 2022







Asian American Studies Center to create free resource for high school teachers







Professor Robert Teranishi Awarded 2021-2022 Don T. Nakanishi Award for Outstanding Engaged Scholarship







Dr. Kelly Fong, 2021-2022 recipient of the C. Doris and Toshio Hoshide Distinguished Teaching Prize in Asian American Studies at UCLA







Amerasia Journal Call for Papers: Creativity and Critique in Asian American Literature







Housing Insecurity Persists for Renters of Color amid the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened California's chronic economic and housing inequalities for low-income and people-of-color households. This research brief uses data from the US Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey (HPS) and California's Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) to analyze the experience of renters and their participation in critical emergency rental-assistance programs.


Contemporary Asian American Activism: Building Movements for Liberation







Asian American Studies Center
Statement on Recent Hate Incident





Asian American Businesses: The Impacts of Anti-Asian Racism, 2021











Asian American Businesses: Identifying Gaps and Supporting Recovery 2021










Potential Differential Undercount in 2020 Census Redistricting Data: Los Angeles County, California 2021






1871 Los Angeles Chinatown Massacre, 150th Year Commemoration

Watch the commemorative performance, program, and panel discussion.


Vanessa Unmuted tackles Anti-Asian Hate

The Center released a new online "Storybook" as part of its ongoing efforts to provide educational and interactive learning materials about the history and experiences of Asian American and Pacific Islanders.


#ICYMI Watch the first of our offerings from our Asian American & Pacific Islander Policy Initiative!


#ICYMI Watch the latest webinar from #TranslateCOVID that addresses vaccines, variants, and community health education and outreach efforts.


Congratulations to Professor Renee Tajima-Pena and the team of PBS' Asian Americans series on their Peabody Win in the Documentary Category!