Asian American / Asian Research Institute
The City University of New York
Representing a truly global mosaic, the talented student writers and contributors are from across the CUNY system, drawing on their unique heritage and personal journeys from places such as Bangladesh, China, India, Iraq, Jamaica, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines to reflect on what it means to navigate multiple cultural worlds.
A hybrid panel with Queens and Baruch College presidents explores how student visa revocations are reshaping CUNY campuses, immigrant communities, and New York’s educational landscape.
Born 1941 in Oakland, California’s Chinatown, William Gee Wong is the only son of his father, known as Pop. Born in Guangdong Province, China, Pop emigrated to Oakland as a teenager during the Chinese Exclusion era in 1912 and entered the U.S. legally as the “son of a native,” despite having partially false papers. Sons of Chinatown is Wong’s evocative dual memoir of his and his father’s parallel experiences in America.
Economic and structural inequality, racial scapegoating, and anti-Asian xenophobia all played a role in violence against Asian Americans, then, and continue unabated to today in 2021. Against the backdrop of the continuing global Covid-19 crisis and anti-Asian violence and hate in the United States, we present to you the reader some signals of hope and reclamation on the local and national level: Asian Americans recognizing and reclaiming their place in the larger civil society despite immense institutional and ideological barriers.
AAARI is hosting a day-long symposium to build connection and community, and collectively vision the future possibilities and directions for Asian American studies at CUNY.
Participants will learn about the importance of creating a platform for collaboration and synergy among AAPI leaders who have reached the position of president/chancellor in higher education, and a sustainable pipeline to support ascending AAPI leaders.