Programs

Building Infrastructure for Asian American/Asian Studies & AAPI Communities across CUNY

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The Asian American / Asian Research Institute is delighted to receive a $40,000 grant from the CUNY Black, Race and Ethnic Studies Initiative (BRESI) to support our work. Over the next year, BRESI funding will support AAARI’s work to develop and institutionalize Asian American/Asian Studies (AA/AS) infrastructure at CUNY, as well to foster Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community-building and leadership among CUNY faculty, staff, and students. 

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NY Congressional District 10 Candidate Forum

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Please join APA VOICE, the Asian American / Asian Research Institute, and other partners for a candidate forum for the newly created New York Congressional District 10 representing neighborhoods including Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and Sunset Park.

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2022 AAIFF: CUNY Shorts Showcase

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Films in this year’s CUNY Shorts Showcase, part of the 45th Asian American International Film Festival, deal with topics/genres including anti-Asian hate and its mental toll, coping with death, working immigrant parents and their children, creating a space for Muslim students, and the fight for Asian American Studies.

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AAARI 20th Annual Gala (2022)

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AAARI celebrated its 20th anniversary as part of CUNY, and honored leaders and CUNY alumni, Joyce Moy (former Executive Director of AAARI), Hon. John C. Liu (NYS Senate, Queens 11th District) and Ms. Naheed Samadi Bahram (US Country Director for Women for Afghan Women; Queens College alumnae), as well as student award recipients for the CUNY Thomas Tam Scholarship (Vikii Wong, CUNY School of Professional Studies) and Chynn-CUNY Essay and Morality Essay Contest.

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Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Activists

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Portrayed in Western discourse as tribal and traditional, Afghans have in fact intensely debated women’s rights, democracy, modernity, and Islam as part of their nation building in the post-9/11 era. In her new book, Television and the Afghan Culture Wars, Wazhmah Osman places television at the heart of these public and politically charged clashes while revealing how the medium also provides war-weary Afghans with a semblance of open discussion and healing. After four decades of gender and sectarian violence, she argues, the internationally funded media sector has the potential to bring about justice, national integration, and peace.

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The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes and Global Politics

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Drawing on ten years of research across five continents, prize-winning historian Mae Ngai narrates the story of the thousands of Chinese who left their homeland in pursuit of gold, and how they formed communities and organizations to help navigate their perilous new world. Out of their encounters with whites, and the emigrants’ assertion of autonomy and humanity, arose the pernicious western myth of the “coolie” laborer, a racist stereotype used to drive anti-Chinese sentiment.

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