Asian American / Asian Research Institute

disOrientalism Part 8: Godzilla v. The Karens
2025-09-08 19:00 - 20:15 (America/New_York) | Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, New York, NY, 10003
A spectacular all-star show with the city’s most accomplished AAPI performers curated and hosted by New York’s original comedy dragon ladies – notorious comedienne/rapper Kate Siahaan-Rigg alongside child star-turned-Broadway-actress Olivia Oguma. Come be thrilled by the virtuostic skills of Jazz world fave Helen Sung, the comedy of rising star Julia Shiplett, original music by Broadway baby and new wave rocker Sam Poon, and the legendary spoken word/rock duo Slanty Eyed Mama. This program lasts about 75 minutes and is guaranteed to boost your immunity against boredom, inaction, xenophobia, orientalism, and bowl cuts.

Stand Against Hatred: The South Asian Community Pre and Post 9/11
2025-09-08 19:30 - 20:30 | NY
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, marked a turning point in American policies toward immigration, privacy, and the way South Asian Americans were perceived and treated. South Asian Americans faced an increase in hate crimes and bias-motivated incidents. Yet, they resisted and thrived. This workshop shares a few lesson plans on South Asian Americans, from the 1800s to the present day.
This workshop is free for educators and will take place virtually. It will be facilitated by Jayson Chang.

Ready, Set, GO! Last-minute planning for National Voter Registration Day
2025-09-09 13:00 - 14:00 | NY
National Voter Registration Day is just around the corner and in this last-minute planning webinar, we’re making sure you’re prepped for an AWESOME and exciting event! In this interactive webinar, we’ll cover everything you need to run a drive on National Voter Registration Day from how to set up your swag, to preparing your volunteers, to reviewing your resources. Need some motivation to get out there and register voters? We’ve got that too! As always, we’ll have Q&A time so you can ask questions about your planned events.

Jaipur Literature Festival
2025-09-09 16:00 - 22:00 | Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10021
Celebrating books, ideas, and dialogue, the Jaipur Literature Festival — described as “the greatest literary show on Earth” — returns to New York in 2025, presenting a series of conversations and performances examining the human experience through the imaginations of some of the world’s leading authors, thinkers, and performers. A caravan of pre-eminent writers, essayists, commentators, and raconteurs is almost here to take you on a journey to worlds woven by words and ideas.

An Evening of Jeongga
2025-09-09 18:30 - 20:00 | The Korea Society, 350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY, 10017
Step into the world of JeongGa (正歌), the refined vocal art once cherished by scholars and nobles of Joseon Dynasty. Join us for an evening of lyrical elegance with ALeum Lee‘s resonant voice, accompanied by WooSung Jung on DaeGeum (flute) and HeeJung Han on HaeGeum (string instrument). Lee will also share thoughtful reflections on the origins and evolution of GaGok, Korean lyric song cycles, offering personal and refreshing insights into the meaning of Korean traditional vocal music today.

Workshop on "Who Built America? Working People and the Nation’s History"
2025-09-10 12:15 - 13:30 | Queens College – Library (President’s Conference Room), 65-30 Kissena Blvd - QNS01 - RO525, Flushing, NY, 11367
Join us on September 10 at 12.15 pm in President’s Conference Room #1 (RO 527) for a workshop introducing Who Built America? Working People and the Nation’s History, a newly launched OER by the American Social History Project (ASHP). We’ll explore how this resource—featuring thousands of primary sources and supplemental materials—can support educators in teaching historical inquiry and primary-source analysis across the disciplines, from history and composition to U.S. literature, political science, art history, and beyond. The workshop will be led by ASHP’s Assistant Director for Digital Projects Dr. Stefano Morello and ASHP historian Dr. Carli Snyder.

Working with the Media & Leveraging Social Media
2025-09-10 14:00 - 15:00 | NY
Taking advantage of local media outlets and social media networks can dramatically increase your event’s visibility and impact. National Voter Education Week, Vote Early Day, and Election Hero Day will join for an interactive workshop that will teach you how to reach out to traditional media outlets, craft media pitches that will get noticed, and effectively use your social media network to promote your civic engagement celebrations. We’ll discuss actionable strategies you can use to amplify your voice, and resources that you can utilize to reach your community.

Hong Seon Jang | Minor Landscaping [Opening Reception]
2025-09-10 17:00 - 19:00 | The Korea Society, 350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY, 10017
With his installations, Hong Seon Jang transforms industrial products and found objects in order to explore the usually recognizable surroundings. As their conventional function and values are reinterpreted, distorted, and subverted, Jang investigates opposing concepts and contrasting ideas, such as authority and subordination, internal and external dynamics, and the interplay between security and threat. Through his art, Jang invites viewers to re-examine how symbols acquire cultural and ideological significance, and how their meanings transform in displacement.

Metamorphosis: Chinese Imagination and Transformation - Conversation with Artists
2025-09-10 18:30 - 20:00 | China Institute, 40 Rector Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10006
Celebrate the first day of the exhibition “Metamorphosis: Chinese Imagination and Transformation” with featured artists Bingyi, Fung Ming Chip, Sun Xun, Kelly Wang, and Zhang Jian-Jun, who will discuss how “metamorphosis” played a part in their works in the exhibition and their artistic practice. Among the projects highlighted are Sun Xun’s artist residency and the new commission of Bingyi’s Dream Chamber. Moderated by the exhibition curator, Dr. Susan L. Beningson.

Panel: Filmmaking Is Resistance
2025-09-10 19:00 - 20:00 | Brooklyn Community Pride Center, 1561 Bedford Ave, Suite Ground A, Brooklyn, NY, 11225
At this challenging time, what are new ways that film can be used to challenge the systems and ignite social change? What tools and resources are available to support filmmakers and activists doing this important work? Join us for a candid conversation with three filmmaker-activists, Kitty Hu, JT Takagi, and Brandon Smith, working at the intersection of media and movement-building.

Film Screening - 7 Days in September
2025-09-11 18:30 - 20:30 | NYPL Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 476 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10018
The documentary, publicly screened for the first time in many years, goes where news cameras didn’t to follow New Yorkers in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

NYPL 2025 Bronx Job Fair and Expo: Get Hired in Healthcare
2025-09-12 10:00 - 15:00 | Bronx Library Center, 310 East Kingsbridge Road, Bronx, NY, 10458
Are you ready to start or grow your career in the healthcare industry? Join The New York Public Library’s Job Fair & Expo 2025—a FREE all-day event connecting you with hiring employers, career experts, and training opportunities in healthcare!

Papermoon Puppet Theatre: Puno, Sewing Memories (Premiere)
2025-09-12 19:30 - 21:00 | Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10021
Compelling, bold, and aware, Indonesia’s Papermoon Puppet Theatre has transformed puppetry the way graphic novels changed comics.
How do we experience loss? How can we hold and appreciate what has been left to us? Puno, Sewing Memories is the story of Tala, a young girl who is coping with her father’s passing and learning about life and death.

Book Launch - Introducing Đàn Tranh Techniques & Expressions: Tablatures, Illustrations, Tales, and Songs
2025-09-13 11:00 - 14:00 | CPC One, 45 Suffolk Street, New York, NY, 10002
Mekong NYC is excited to host New York City’s first ever book launch of “Introducing Đàn Tranh Techniques & Expressions: Tablatures, Illustrations, Tales, and Songs.” Join us in a guided conversation with the authors, Anh Thu Phan and Ngo Thanh Nhan, and editor, Kim To!
Enjoy a performance of the songs featured in the book, hands on dan tranh playing, and light refreshments.

Dennis Lim Selects
2025-09-14 | Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10021
Film critic, programmer, author and current Artistic Director of the New York Film Festival Dennis Lim joins us on the eve of the 63rd NYFF to present a guest selection of films that have shaped his sensibility, reflect his filmic philosophy, and illustrate his remarkable career.
2pm – Independencia
A screening and conversation with NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim featuring Raya Martin’s ‘Independencia’ on 35mm; preceded by Apichatpong Weerrasethakul’s ‘The Anthem’.
6pm – Eureka
Film critic, programmer, author and current NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim introduces the late Shinji Aoyama’s rarely screened opus ‘Eureka’ (2000).

AANHPI Theatre, Film, and Television Community Gathering
2025-09-15 16:30 - 19:00 | Signature Theatre, 480 West 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10036
Calling all AANHPI creatives and arts administrators in theatre, television, and film—you’re invited to a joyful gathering at Signature Theatre hosted by Signature Resident Artist Lauren Yee and Signature Staff Member Gaven D. Trinidad.
Come through for free pizza, great vibes, and a chance to connect with fellow AANHPI artists and storytellers. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, this is your space to build community, share stories, and maybe even find your next creative collaborator.

Writing City Nature, Writing the City Self: A Workshop with Rajiv Mohabir
2025-09-15 18:30 - 20:00 | Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW), 18 West 21st Street, Suite 900, New York, NY, 10010, United States
Writing about the environment is not the province of the rich, the country-dwelling, and the white poet. Asian American poets and writers have been expanding their ideas of the natural world to be expansive, including human-made structure and infrastructures as being natural. They write starting with where they are located. In this three-hour workshop you will explore place-based writing the environment in the natural world of New York City and how reflections of the self echo our own attitudes towards how we regard the “natural world.” Together, we will consider race, settler colonialism, capitalism, ecological collapse, and restoration as well as how poets have answered, re-answered, and rewritten the central questions of nature writing today. With this as a sigil, in our time together, you will draft at least one new poem or piece of short prose.

This Moment in Immigration: What’s at Stake and What Can Be Done
2025-09-15 18:30 - 20:00 | Center for Brooklyn History, 128 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11201
Across the country, migrants and refugees are living in fear as the nation confronts a pivotal moment in our history. Sweeping state-level restrictions along with drastic changes in national policies around asylum access, deportations, ICE raids, and detentions, have both intensified the debate over who is welcome in America and under what terms, and created unbearable circumstances for the millions living in the United States who must ask themselves on a daily basis – when I leave my home, will I return?
Join four leading voices on the frontlines of immigration advocacy, policy, journalism, and humanitarian response. Omar Jadwat, Director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, has led landmark litigation to defend immigrant rights nationwide; Hans Van de Weerd, Senior Vice President for Resettlement, Asylum & Integration at the International Rescue Committee, oversees programs supporting refugees and asylum seekers in the U.S. and Europe; Murad Awawdeh, President & CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, brings decades of grassroots organizing and policy leadership; and Ethar El-Katatney, Editor-in-Chief of Documented, works to deliver essential news and information to immigrant communities.

Reparations and the Human
2025-09-15 18:30 - 20:00 | NY
Join us for a conversation about David L. Eng’s latest book, Reparations and the Human. Eng, Joan Wallach Scott, and Michelle Stephens will discuss reparations and human rights in the context of the Holocaust and the atomic bombings of Japan, and with particular attention to how reparation functions across both political and psychoanalytic theory. In the wake of catastrophe, how does the Transpacific in the Cold War era provide a limit case for the politics of repair and definitions of the human? Who can be recognized as victims, who must be seen as perpetrators, and who deserves repair?

Cementing the Quad: Power, Partnership, and Regional Purpose
2025-09-16 09:30 - 22:30 | Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10021
As Quad leaders prepare to convene in India this Fall, the Indo-Pacific finds itself at a moment of strategic flux. From the Pacific Islands to South Asia and Southeast Asia, regional actors are increasingly wary about how their security, development, technology, and climate needs and priorities are being addressed within an evolving and uncertain geopolitical landscape. As the Quad navigates growing expectations and each member manages complex bilateral relations with the United States and China, key questions persist: Can the Quad sustain its momentum amid shifting foreign policy headwinds? What will keep the United States committed? And more importantly, how can the Quad evolve into a durable framework for not just the member countries to work together and progress on shared interests but also ensure wider, inclusive regional cooperation?
This panel will not only delve into regional perceptions but also assess the evolving role of the Quad and its future trajectory amid bilateral tensions, U.S. policy shifts, and changing geopolitical dynamics. Speakers include Danny Russel, Distinguished Fellow, Asia Society Policy Institute; Masafumi Ishii, former Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia; Nishank Motwani, Senior Fellow and Director Alliance Strategy, Australian Strategic Policy Institute; and Farwa Aamer, Director for South Asia Initiatives, Asia Society Policy Institute. Emma Chanlett-Avery, Director for Political-Security Affairs, Asia Society Policy Institute, will moderate the conversation. Rorry Daniels, Managing Director, Asia Society Policy Institute, will offer welcoming remarks.

2025 AAPI Policy Priorities Survey Briefing
2025-09-16 12:00 - 13:00 | NY
Join NCAPA and AAPI Data for an in-depth discussion of survey findings about AAPI policy priorities.
We’ll break down critical insights from the latest survey and discuss how these priorities can guide effective messaging, advocacy, and mobilization efforts through fall 2025 and beyond.

Tracing the Creation of "The Gangster We Are All Looking For"
2025-09-16 12:00 - 13:30 | Queensborough Performing Arts Center, 222-05 56th Avenue, Oakland Gardens, NY, 11364
In this multimedia presentation, acclaimed performance artist and author, lê thị diễm thúy, will share the story of how she wrote her book, The Gangster We Are All Looking For. This lyrical autobiographical novel tells the coming-of-age of a Vietnamese refugee growing up in post-Vietnam War California as she navigates grief and the changes within her family, affected by loss, war, identity and economic instability. Join us as thúy recounts her writing journey and encourages readers to tap into their own creativity and stories.
This program is organized by QCC’s English department and made possible through funding from the Harriet & Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center.

Dan Wang on Engineers vs. Lawyers
2025-09-16 18:30 - 20:00 | Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10021
The phrase “developing country” is often pejorative. It conjures images of dust, concrete, corruption and a reckless dash towards modernity. But it also connotes change and the palpable sense of a brighter future. Is China a developing country? Can the United States still develop? In his new book Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future (W. W. Norton, August 2025), the writer and analyst Dan Wang argues for a new paradigm to understand the People’s Republic in contrast to the United States. China is an engineering state, where a sledgehammer is the tool for all jobs; the U.S. is a lawyerly society, where everything is gavelled to a halt. The book takes readers from the rise of China’s tech behemoths to the disasters of its One Child and Zero-Covid policies. Parts reportage, philosophy, memoir and history, Breakneck makes a fascinating argument about the future of both China and the United States.

The Remarkable Madame Pandit: Champion of India, Citizen of the World
2025-09-16 18:30 - 20:00 | Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, 47-49 East 65th Street, New York, NY, 10065
Join us for a conversation with Hunter professor, Manu Bhagavan, as he discusses his new, definitive biography of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit—India’s first woman cabinet minister, pioneering diplomat, and global icon. The Remarkable Madame Pandit brings to life a trailblazing figure who shaped 20th-century India and the international stage, from challenging colonial rule to confronting authoritarianism. Drawing on years of international research, Bhagavan reveals the untold story of a woman who broke barriers and redefined diplomacy. The conversation will be moderated by Vishakha Desai, President Emerita of the Asia Society, former Senior Advisor for Global Affairs to the President and Senior Research Scholar at the Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University.

Mapping Deportations
2025-09-17 15:00 - 16:00 | NY
Join the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law (CILP) and Million Dollar Hoods (MDH) for this webinar launch of a groundbreaking new project: Mapping Deportations.
Mapping Deportations is a website that uses maps, data, and timelines to unmask the relationship between race and U.S. immigration enforcement throughout U.S. history. Tracking every deportation since 1895, the data shows that 96% of all deportations have been to countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa. In short, Mapping Deportations illustrates how the immigration laws, and particularly deportation policy, have engineered the racial make-up of the country since its founding—a phenomenon that is taking place in plain sight today.
This event will feature a webinar presentation and discussion about the website between MDH Cartographer Mariah Tso (Diné), MDH founder Kelly Lytle Hernández, and CILP Faculty Co-Director Ahilan Arulanantham, and will be moderated by CILP Faculty Co-Director Hiroshi Motomura.

Birthright Citizenship: A History of the Present Webinar
2025-09-17 17:00 - 18:15 | NY
Current initiatives to restrict birthright citizenship would have broad implications for many American communities. Why does the US have birthright citizenship? How have immigrants and other populations shaped US citizenship, and how would proposed changes affect different groups? Our panel of experts will provide the historical context for today’s birthright citizenship debate.
The History of the Present webinar series is designed to give historical context for a contemporary immigration issue, aimed at both an interdisciplinary scholarly audience and the general public.

Teaching Digital Literacy with Densho
2025-09-17 17:30 - 19:00 | NY
Educators today face the urgent challenge of helping students navigate rampant misinformation and disinformation, alongside a broader erosion of public trust in history and journalism. This free webinar for K–12 educators, featuring panelists from Densho and the Southern Poverty Law Center, explores how teachers can equip students with the tools to evaluate digital sources, recognize bias, and think critically about both past and present information using Densho’s rich collection of resources.

MOCA TALKS with Professor Thomas Lee: Wong Kim Ark and the Principle of Birthright Citizenship
2025-09-17 18:30 - 19:30 | Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre Street, New York, NY, 10013
The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) cordially invites you to a special conversation featuring Thomas Lee, Leitner Family Professor of International Law and Co-Director of the Center on Asian Americans and the Law at Fordham Law School.
In this timely discussion, Professor Lee will explore the landmark Supreme Court case of Wong Kim Ark and the principle of birthright citizenship. The presentation will specifically address the aftermath of this pivotal ruling, highlighting the experiences of Wong Kim Ark’s descendants and other Chinese immigrants who sought entry into the United States by asserting U.S. citizenship during the era of the Exclusion Acts. Professor Lee will offer insights into how these significant legal precedents continue to influence American identity, civil rights, and immigration policy today.

In Celebration of Seabeast
2025-09-17 18:30 - 20:00 | Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW), 18 West 21st Street, Suite 900, New York, NY, 10010, United States
Join AAWW for a celebration of Seabeast by Rajiv Mohabir, featuring Megan Pinto, Ashna Ali, and Rosamond King!
Organized as an alphabetical bestiary, Seabeast lyrically catalogues whale species by common name and behaviors, resulting in a poetic compendium that defies pathetic fallacy even as it sings the similarities between homo sapiens and the marine mammoths that have long captured our fascination. In his fifth full-length collection, Rajiv Mohabir winds together the threads of cetacean evolution, natural history, animal migration, and human culture and colonization as they concern the endurance of all species. In anthropomorphizing these complex mammals, Mohabir argues, we overwrite and erase their sublime difference and selfhood, their distinct and separate experience of embodiment; yet, in refusing to recognize the familiarities of whale behavior and social patterns, we subjugate these magnificent creatures, affirming a hierarchy that establishes anything inhuman as inherently less than human and enabling cruelty toward all manner of living things.

Contemporary China: Demystifying Economic and Social Changes
2025-09-17 18:30 - 20:00 | CUNY Graduate Center (Elebash Recital Hall), 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10016
From the perspective of the West, China is easily misunderstood. Is it capitalist or communist, an adversary or a vital economic partner, a modernized nation or a retrograde regime? A panel of experts demystifies the vast economic and societal changes that have transformed China in recent decades. They discuss China’s remarkable strides toward eradicating poverty and the simultaneous growing inequality that has produced a new billionaire class; the decline in the birthrate despite the end of the One Child Policy; and how increased access to technology, with the limitations of censorship, is affecting the social landscape.
Featuring Yong Cai, associate professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Qin Gao, professor of social policy and social work at Columbia University; Rongbin Han, professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia; and Branko Milanovic, research professor at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, CUNY Graduate Center, author of Capitalism, Alone and Visions of Inequality. Moderated by John Torpey, professor of sociology and history and director of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center.
