Asian American / Asian Research Institute

Book Launch - Introducing Đàn Tranh Techniques & Expressions: Tablatures, Illustrations, Tales, and Songs
2025-09-13 11:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | 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.

Pacific Island Film Festival of New York City 2025
2025-09-18 - 2025-09-21 | NY
The Pacific Island Film Festival (PIFF) of New York City is an annual festival dedicated to telling a richer, more comprehensive story of the Pacific Islands. PIFF endeavors to be a platform for indigenous Pacific Island voices to be heard and recognized—celebrating, showcasing and cultivating the stories, art, talent and cultural resources of the Pacific Islands with the broader New York community.

After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People (Book Talk)
2025-09-18 11:30 - 13:00 | Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, 47-49 East 65th Street, New York, NY, 10065
Join Roosevelt House’s Public Policy Program alongside the Department of Economics at Hunter College for a book talk on the new book After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People by Dean Spears and Michael Geruso. In After the Spike, economists Dean Spears and Michael Geruso sound a wakeup call, explaining why global depopulation is coming, why it matters, and what to do now.
The book talk and Q&A session will be hosted by one of the authors and Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Dean Spears, alongside Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Hunter College, Dr. Sangita Vyas.

Ctrl+Alt+Lit: Fan Fiction, Zines, and Independent Literature
2025-09-18 18:00 - 20:00 | Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW), 18 West 21st Street, Suite 900, New York, NY, 10010, United States
From Tumblr threads to self-published novels, alternative literature is rewriting how we tell stories and who gets to tell them. Ctrl+Alt+Lit will explore how alt-lit remixes cultural narratives and creates community beyond traditional publishing, diving into a world shaped by parasocial relationships, the internet, and all of the media therein, including fan fiction, zines, newsletters, and forums. Featuring a panel of experts from 4N, Choo Choo press, and Acacia Magazine, followed by a zine swap and mixer, Ctrl+Alt+Lit aims to offer a countercanon rooted in passion, identity, and connection.

Hawaiian History Month: ‘Iolani Palace
2025-09-18 19:00 - 20:00 | NY
Giannela Vargas is a 1.5 generation Filipina American from San Diego, California. She currently is a Program Coordinator & Curriculum Developer for The Asian American Education Project and the Assistant Coordinator for the SDSU APIDA Center. She earned a B.A. in Liberal Studies, with an emphasis in Elementary Education and a Multiple Subjects Credential from SDSU. A former elementary school educator, Giannela finds inspiration from her experiences as an immigrant to continue learning and teaching about Asian American histories and narratives. In her free time, Giannela likes to read, exercise, and spend time with family and friends.

2025 National ACE Annual Conference
2025-09-19 | New York Marriott Marquis, 1535 Broadway, New York, NY, 10036
The 2025 National ACE Annual Conference is one of the largest gatherings of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs and all small business leaders in the country.

Ways of Undoing with Dawn Chan
2025-09-19 18:30 - 19:30 | Asia Art Archive in America, 23 Cranberry Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201
What happens if you refuse to fly for work? For gallerists, curators, and others working in the globalized field of contemporary visual art, air travel and other carbon-intensive infrastructures are a necessity. Underwritten by nations in pursuit of soft power, or by patrons jet-setting their way through a global art-fair circuit, the forms of exchange most prominently driving contemporary art’s circulation have become entirely reliant on jet fuel.
On Friday 9/19, writer and cultural critic Dawn Chan will present an on-going research project springing from a single constraint: What happens when an art critic refuses to fly for art events and press trips? Going beyond a narrow understanding of flight-free alternatives (like Zoom talks), the project proposes serious, whimsical, unsettling, even absurdist alternatives. Could one hire an actor as a doppelganger? Stage a Twitch livestream lecture? Retain an attorney as a mouthpiece for a day? Jointly review a faraway show with a local critic?

Radical Histories: A Roundtable of Korean/American Authors
2025-09-19 19:00 - 20:30 | Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW), 18 West 21st Street, Suite 900, New York, NY, 10010, United States
Join AAWW and Brooklyn Bookfest for a roundtable of Korean/American authors, featuring Alice Sola Kim, Cathy Park Hong, Ed Park, Gina Chung, Hannah Bae, and Jane Kim!

2025 Chinatown Beautification Day
2025-09-20 - 2025-09-21 | FPWA, 40 Broad Street, New York, NY, 10004
Join us for the 2025 Chinatown Beautification Day (CBD) hosted by the Chinatown Youth Initiatives, a 2-day annual youth conference and clean up event focused on beautifying Chinatown. This year, CBD is scheduled for September 20th (conference day) and will taking place at FPWA at 40 Broad St, New York, NY 10004. The clean-up day on September 21st will be at the New York Chinese School at 62 Mott St 3rd floor, New York, NY 10013.

NYC Gallery Art Walk – Asian and Asian American artists
2025-09-20 15:00 - 17:30 | Tribeca/SoHo, New York, NY
Join The Serica Initiative and the Katonah Museum of Art for a special guided exploration of contemporary Asian art in New York City. Led by renowned curator Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe, Director and Chief Curator of the Katonah Museum of Art, this immersive experience will introduce you to groundbreaking Asian and Asian American artists whose work spans multiple media and cultural perspectives. Guests will also enjoy starting and ending receptions, providing opportunities to connect with fellow attendees, gallery staff, and even some of the artists themselves over light refreshments.

Breaking Genre: When Artists Don’t Stay in Their Lane, Presented by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop
2025-09-21 11:00 - 13:00 | Koraen War Veterans Park (North Stage, Cadman Plaza East), Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, NY, 11201
From horror poets to literary sci-fi novelists, genre and form boundaries are more porous than ever, especially for Asian American artists and storytellers. This multi-disciplinary panel of Asian American authors and artists – Samira Asma-Sadeque, Siyang Lim, Katie Yee – who challenge normative conventions, from blending forms to redefining the limits of genre itself. What happens when you write a ghost story that’s also a memoir? How does an illustrator use imagery in the way a poet uses language? How do readers, publishers, and critics respond when artists refuse to be categorized? A lively discussion moderated by AAWW Executive Director, Jafreen Uddin.

Speaking Up: Elevating Voices and Impact of AANAPISIs
2025-09-22 15:00 - 16:00 | NY
This panel will explore the critical role of Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs) in advancing educational equity and student success through research, practice, and policy. Featuring insights from educational researchers, practitioners, and policy advocates, the discussion will highlight how AANAPISIs elevate the voices and experiences of AANHPI students and communities.

Staged Reading - Thursdays Come at Morning
2025-09-22 19:00 - 20:30 | Houghton Hall-Astaire Ballroom, 22 East 30th Street, New York, NY, 10016
Starring Chris Chinn and Les J.N. Mau with Brian Tong
Stage Management by Mars Juno Bartolome Neri
ABOUT THE PLAY
Howard and Sam, two American Asian men in their 60s meet in a Honolulu cemetery, with Howard visiting the gravesite of his mother and Sam visiting the gravesite of his husband. They strike up a conversation and share their experiences as primary caregivers. Will it lead to a possible relationship? They still have love to give, but Howard is still the caregiver for his father and Sam is still grieving the loss of his husband. Are their best days behind them?

Is Deglobalization Inevitable?
2025-09-23 17:30 - 19:30 | NY
Is the current movement towards deglobalization just part of a cycle that has had its ups and downs, or are we in a structural movement towards a more permanent isolation of countries from a trade and economic point of view?
The topic of deglobalization has never been more prominent than it is today. The topic has been elevated in importance for some time now as we have seen dramatic changes in country trade practices, relative manufacturing and service strengths, economic trends, and political positions. The tariff situation brought about by the U.S. recently has made it even more consequential today.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz will open with a fireside chat on the evening’s central issue, followed by a lively debate between two leading experts: Professor Walden Bello, credited with coining the term “deglobalization,” and Professor Edward Ashbee. They’ll present opposing views in a traditional debate format—opening statements, rebuttals, and closing remarks.
