Eddy Zheng and Ga Young Chung speaking with students
Small group discussions on Asian American Activism UCSB 2019
Katherine Lee
Alex Tom
Angelica Cabande
Dr. Diane C. Fujino
Education + Youth Discussion
Pam Tau Lee
May Fu and Nikki Cababa
Nikki Cababa
Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez
About the Book
This book is the result of an intergenerational (scholar) activist relationship between Dr. Diane Fujino and Dr. Robyn Rodriguez. Dr. Fujino was Dr. Rodriguez’s professor while she was an undergraduate at UC Santa Barbara. Dr. Fujino taught an “Asian American Women and Feminism,” course, in which Dr. Rodriguez was enrolled, and that commenced a nearly twenty year relationship as comrades, colleagues and collaborators. In 2017, Drs. Fujino and Rodriguez began discussing the need for more publications on Asian American activism that included both scholarly and activist perspectives in the field of Asian American Studies and also for a new generation of young Asian Americans. They were able to secure funding for a conference to convene a set of prospective contributors for their book idea from the University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) in 2018. By January 2019 they were able to co-convene a “Contemporary Asian American Activism & Intergenerational Perspectives” Symposium at UC Santa Barbara. Among their objectives for the symposium (and ultimately the book) was not only to make visible the social justice struggles Asian American activists are leading today, but to also make visible the fact that Asian Americans have been at the forefront of social justice struggles for generations.
About
Indeed, the struggles of today draw direct and indirect lines of connection to earlier struggles that are often not adequately appreciated. After the symposium, the speakers held intensive closed-door discussions about the current state of Asian American activism, enduring lessons of the Asian American Movement for today and what sorts of themes a book on Asian American activism might cover. Speakers also discussed strategies for engaging readers of the book to not only learn about Asian American activism but to participate in it. Once the book is available early in 2022, this website will provide curricular material for instructors who assign this book in this courses, ideas for non-profits and grassroot groups on how to use the book as a political education tool as well as information on how to connect to activist organizations for readers wanting to get more involved. For now, the site provides information on how to order the book, background information on the contributors and links to the various groups that are showcased or discussed in the book. There is also information on how to connect with Drs. Rodriguez and Fujino for those interested in hosting book events.
