2024 CUNY Thomas Tam Scholarship

The Scholarship awards $1,000 to an individual qualified undergraduate student that is currently enrolled at any of the twenty-one colleges within CUNY, Asian or non-Asian, who has demonstrated creativity in the communication of the concerns of the Asian American community in areas such as health, education, culture, media or advocacy/activism.

Read more

2024 CUNY Thomas Tam Visiting Professor

Christine Bacareza Balance is associate professor of performing & media arts and Asian American studies at Cornell University, where she is core faculty with the Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) and former director of Asian American studies. Prof. Balance is the 2024 CUNY Thomas Tam Visiting Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center. She received her Ph.D. in performance studies at New York University (NYU).

Prof. Balance’s first book, Tropical Renditions: Making Musical Scenes in Filipino America (2016) received the Best First Book award from the Filipino Studies caucus of the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS). Along with Prof. Lucy San Pablo Burns, she is co-editor of the artist-scholar anthology, California Dreaming: Movement and Migration in the Asian American Imaginary (2020). Prof. Balance’s articles on the production history of Apocalypse Now, former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos, Asian American YouTube artists, OPM and Filipino phonography culture, Jessica Hagedorn’s West Coast Gangster Choir, and spree killer Andrew Cunanan have been published in various academic journals.

Read more

2023 CUNY Thomas Tam Scholarship Recipient

The Scholarship awards $1,000 to an individual qualified undergraduate student that is currently enrolled at any of the twenty-one colleges within CUNY, Asian or non-Asian, who has demonstrated creativity in the communication of the concerns of the Asian American community in areas such as health, education, culture, media or advocacy/activism.

Read more

AAARI 20th Annual Gala (2022)

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.

Read more

CUNY Thomas Tam Scholarship 2022 Recipient

The Scholarship awards $1,000 to an individual qualified undergraduate student that is currently enrolled at any of the twenty-one colleges within CUNY, Asian or non-Asian, who has demonstrated creativity in the communication of the concerns of the Asian American community in areas such as health, education, culture, media or advocacy/activism.

Read more