The Schedule

Far East Deep South x Make Us Visible: A Conversation About Intertwined Histories

Join Make Us Visible for a discussion of Far East Deep South. It'll be a moving conversation about migration, policy, fragmented memories, and lost history in the Delta. Joining us are the director, producer, historians, and advocates who will share what this film brought to surface for them. This conversation will showcase how Asian American stories can be an effective tool to relate and connect with each other.

Speaker(s): Kate Lee, Mike Keo, Larissa Lam, Baldwin Chiu, and Sherry Williams

Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center Resource Sharing

This workshop will introduce attendees to the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC) and the resources we co-create with K-12 educators and AAPI community members. We will practice thinking routines with short films and works of art commissioned by APAC, and share how our resources may be used in the classroom.

Speaker(s): Andrea Neighbors

Teaching Asian American Stories

The workshop will focus on the importance of teaching Asian American stories in K-12 classroom and starting points for teachers to engage their students with these stories.

Speaker(s): Eric Nguyen

Yuri Kochiyama's Harlem: Place, Politics, and Social Change

In this workshop, the YURI Education Project shares their new walking tour about the Japanese American activist Yuri Kochiyama. In this workshop, we'll feature approximately ten key locations throughout the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in which Kochiyama was a resident for 40 years. As a young person, Yuri Kochiyama was incarcerated in Arkansas with her family and approximately 120,000 other Americans of Japanese ancestry. This formative experience would later shape her work with communities of color in their own struggles for social change. Kochiyama avidly supported Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, advocated for Puerto Rican independence, pursued redress and reparations for the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and fought alongside students seeking ethnic studies programs in their universities.

Kochiyama's political activism was, in part, mediated by her situatedness within a historically Black neighborhood in New York City. So, workshop participants will learn Yuri Kochiyama’s lifelong activism through a place-based experience. Participants will also garner the basic practices that underlie designing place-based learning on Asian American history.

Speaker(s): Dr. Cathlin Goulding

Mirrors and Windows in Contemporary Asian American KidLit

Participants will explore ten books of contemporary children’s literature (kidlit) that serve as exemplary “windows and mirrors” into the Asian American experience, focusing on books for elementary and middle school students. We will also share resources for finding and choosing diverse reads for the classroom.

Speaker(s): Jhoanna Belfer

Teaching AAPI History in K-12: It Matters!

The classroom plays a key role in combatting anti-Asian hate. Visibility and inclusion matters. In this workshop, we will share the importance of teaching AAPI history in K-12. The Asian American Education Project provides educators with the resources, skills, and tools to effectively teach AAPI histories.

Speaker(s): Dr. Virginia Loh-Hagan

From the Classroom to Beyond: An AAPI Student Activist's Story

After witnessing a lack of accurate and holistic representation in her own high school education, Stephanie founded Dear Asian Youth in April of 2020, a youth-led, global organization that promotes intersectional activism for the Asian community. During her time at Dear Asian Youth, Stephanie has worked with 300+ other students across the world — all within her own organization,

Join Stephanie's workshop to comprehensively understand the student voice and incorporate the student perspective in your teaching!

Speaker(s): Stephanie Hu

Asian American Studies in Every Classroom – A Preview of the AAPI Multimedia Textbook

A project of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, the AAPI Multimedia Textbook is a narrative change project that brings together distinguished scholarship, open access technology, and ethnic studies pedagogy to deepen public knowledge about who we are, strengthen students’ historical empathy, and bring Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) stories into every classroom.

With a focus on grades 9 - 14, the AAPI Multimedia Textbook will be the first of its kind as a multimedia learning experience curated by and centered on AAPI communities. The dynamic online platform will allow students to navigate chapters on different topics, periods, and places with visual, audio, and archival artifacts that bring history to life. Chapters will be stand alone and customizable modules designed for a single class period or a week-long series that educators can “take off the shelf” to teach in their classrooms. The digital textbook will be open access for anyone across the country to use, learn from, and share.

At the heart of the AAPI Multimedia Textbook is collaboration. In this session, we will provide a brief introduction of the project and guide teachers through a mock-up chapter on Japanese American Incarceration. To culminate, the textbook team will be in conversation with audience members through a “wishlist” exercise.

Speaker(s): Lauren Higa, Dr. Kelly Fong, Stan Yogi

Chinese American Experience and History

This workshop session will use a lesson planner template for teacher participants to engage in creating potential lessons emphasizing the Chinese American Experience and History among 4th grade students.

Speaker(s): Dr. Wenli Jen

Chinese Exclusion and Immigration

In 1882, the US government passed legislation that barred Chinese labor migration for ten years and declared Chinese immigrants ineligible for naturalization. It was the first immigration restriction act in U.S. history. In this session, we will examine documents from the 1870s through the 1890s charting American attitudes toward Chinese and the anti-Chinese movement. The session illuminates how Chinese exclusion is critical to understanding the origins of the U.S. gatekeeping state and the racialization of Chinese (and later, other Asians) as perpetual foreigners in the United States.

Speaker(s): Karalee Wong Nakatsuka and Dr. Jane Hong

Filipino American Contributions

Cesar Chavez and the Farm Labor Movement are referenced in the CA HSS Framework in Kindergarten, the 4th and 11th grades. A major contributor to the success of the movement was the involvement of Filipino Americans, who often worked side by side with Mexican American laborers.This session provides classroom lessons for elementary and high school teachers interested in teaching about Filipino American history and their leadership in the Farm Labor Movement. The lessons were developed through a partnership with the California History-Social Science Project and the Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP). Utilizing these lessons in your study of the Farm Labor Movement will provide your students with a comprehensive, well-rounded understanding of an important time in our history. In addition, study of Filipino experiences expands students' ability to know and name the many diverse voices and perspectives that make the whole of American History.

Thank you to the writing team for their expertise on this project and to the people, organizations, and archives whose primary sources brought this project to life.

Speaker(s): Dr. Tuyen Tran and Jazmine Fortes

Who controls history? The Vietnam War from the Vietnamese American Perspective

As fellow scholars and educators, we are excited to share with you our collection of units and lesson plans, resources, and ready to use materials that engage learners in an interdisciplinary approach that explores and examines the lasting effects of US militarism and empire, and the impact of refugee resettlement and community building.

Through the study of Vietnamese American history and experiences, learners will access knowledge and skills that will help them critically understand the world today and imagine a better world tomorrow. We look forward to hearing your thoughts, experiences and feedback as you review and use the provided materials.

Speaker(s): Dr. Thuy Vo Dang, Yvonne Tran, and Virginia Nguyen

Building Korean American and Asian American Studies Courses for 9-12 in Anaheim Union High School District by supporting students to know and tell their story

The purpose of this session is to support educators with taking their first steps toward approaching Ethnic Studies, Asian American Studies, and Korean American Stories with a focus on ethnography. The audience will be engaged to consider their ‘why’ of ethnic studies beginning with what they know. They will then have the opportunity to learn how to support their students by knowing them by their name, need, assets, stories, and passions in a culturally honoring manner as they build community and norms. A case study will be given for Project Based Learning called, “My Story of Resilience” of how students were able to know their story, tell their story, listen to the stories of others with empathy and respect, and to do something good with their story. Resources from the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum adopted by the state of California will be discussed.

Speaker(s): Dr. Jeff Kim

Incorporating Inclusive Practices with Students

Are you seeking to implement inclusive practices in your classroom? Look no further! CUSD Against Racism is an entirely student-led organization working to combat inequity, inequality, and racism in Capistrano Unified School District. Since its founding in the Summer of 2020, students have been organizing rallies, writing petitions, and collaborating with educators to foster a safe learning community. Join this passionate group of students to workshop inclusive initiatives to introduce into your classroom, where you will receive valuable perspective and feedback from students. (MAX 15 participants)

Speaker(s): Kanei Padhya, Blue Eslami, Bethany Padilla, Mai-Ly Wilkinson, Natisha Patirupananda, Psi Padhya, Jieen Chen, Ella Mitchell, and Stephanie Hu

Japanese Americans and Justice

Japanese Americans have fought for justice, notably during the WWII exclusion and incarceration, but they have also done so at many other times and places. We will explore some of these stands, such as the their participation in the first explicitly multiracial union in the West, Supreme Court cases challenging their wartime treatment on the West Coast, their role in challenging the planter elite in Hawai’i and their more recent allyship with Muslims and Sikhs since 9/11.

Speaker(s): Dr. Thomas Fujita Rony

Using Math to Fight for Fair Reparations

A cross-curricular lesson that uses math to argue for fair reparations for Japanese American Internment Camp survivors.

Speaker(s): Naehee Kwun