Workshop Descriptions
Workshop Block A: Saturday 10:45-11:45a
Connecting Histories - Elaine Chiu and Alex Cena
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” Through dialogue and group interaction, participants will connect their own personal histories to important events or people in the Asian American community that have shaped the world we live in today. We will highlight how the Asian American story is interconnected with experiences and histories of other communities. We will showcase the power of storytelling as a medium for engaging our students to think critically about history and help them break down their own preconceptions of the Asian American experience.
When South Asian Teachers Teach South Asian Literature - K. Geetha Holdsworth
There are approximately 17.3 million Asian Americans in the U.S., constituting 5.6% of the U.S. population. However, in states with small Asian populations, some students have very little direct experience with the Asian community. Using whole and small group activities, this workshop intends to examine how a Southeast Asian educator confronts teaching in a community in which one is the sole Asian adult. Using the literature and texts of Ancient India, and global writers such as Arundhati Roy and Jhumpa Lahiri, is it possible for an Asian teacher to share her culture, create a window into culture for her students, avoid being the token Indian, and create a safe space for the few Asian identified students?
Collective Traumas of Korean American Experience: Uncovering a Source of Solidarity, Dismantling Perceptions of Privilege
Susie An
This workshop will explore: domestic abuse, especially as represented in multiple suicide-homicides perpetrated by patriarchs of Korean American families throughout the U.S. at the turn of the 21st century; extreme physical abuse/discipline of South Korea’s own soldiers during its militarized modernity regime; sexualized, gendered violence of Japanese colonialism and contemporary sex work; and the Los Angeles riots. Thinking through our collective memories will facilitate the memorialization of our ancestors, the hope of love for our students, and the significance of the emotional, communal labor we partake in as teachers.
Multiracial Asians: Hyping the Hyphen - Jolina Kitaji Clement
Though incredibly difficult to categorize, the multiracial population in the US is growing rapidly with mixed-race Asians outpacing the rest. Though a broad category within a broad category, multiracial Asians come with unique challenges and perspectives that merit consideration. Consider/discuss questions like: How we can support our multicultural Asian students and colleagues? What does the Model Minority Myth mean if you aren’t “full” Asian? Why is the term “hapa” problematic? What role can multiracial Asians play in advocating for other marginalized groups? How can we be sure to include multiracial Asians in the broader Asian and Asian American school communities?
Connecting Histories - Elaine Chiu and Alex Cena
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” Through dialogue and group interaction, participants will connect their own personal histories to important events or people in the Asian American community that have shaped the world we live in today. We will highlight how the Asian American story is interconnected with experiences and histories of other communities. We will showcase the power of storytelling as a medium for engaging our students to think critically about history and help them break down their own preconceptions of the Asian American experience.
When South Asian Teachers Teach South Asian Literature - K. Geetha Holdsworth
There are approximately 17.3 million Asian Americans in the U.S., constituting 5.6% of the U.S. population. However, in states with small Asian populations, some students have very little direct experience with the Asian community. Using whole and small group activities, this workshop intends to examine how a Southeast Asian educator confronts teaching in a community in which one is the sole Asian adult. Using the literature and texts of Ancient India, and global writers such as Arundhati Roy and Jhumpa Lahiri, is it possible for an Asian teacher to share her culture, create a window into culture for her students, avoid being the token Indian, and create a safe space for the few Asian identified students?
Collective Traumas of Korean American Experience: Uncovering a Source of Solidarity, Dismantling Perceptions of Privilege
Susie An
This workshop will explore: domestic abuse, especially as represented in multiple suicide-homicides perpetrated by patriarchs of Korean American families throughout the U.S. at the turn of the 21st century; extreme physical abuse/discipline of South Korea’s own soldiers during its militarized modernity regime; sexualized, gendered violence of Japanese colonialism and contemporary sex work; and the Los Angeles riots. Thinking through our collective memories will facilitate the memorialization of our ancestors, the hope of love for our students, and the significance of the emotional, communal labor we partake in as teachers.
Multiracial Asians: Hyping the Hyphen - Jolina Kitaji Clement
Though incredibly difficult to categorize, the multiracial population in the US is growing rapidly with mixed-race Asians outpacing the rest. Though a broad category within a broad category, multiracial Asians come with unique challenges and perspectives that merit consideration. Consider/discuss questions like: How we can support our multicultural Asian students and colleagues? What does the Model Minority Myth mean if you aren’t “full” Asian? Why is the term “hapa” problematic? What role can multiracial Asians play in advocating for other marginalized groups? How can we be sure to include multiracial Asians in the broader Asian and Asian American school communities?
Workshop Block B: Saturday 2:00-3:00p
Authentic Selves: Bringing Our Full Identities to the Classroom - Maya Suzuki Daniels
As teachers and educators, we are sometimes asked to check our identities at the door and teach in a "neutral" or "apolitical" way. This workshop seeks to interrogate these assumptions by asking participants to examine what we honor and what we relinquish when we engage in our work as professional educators. Using ideas and selected texts from bell hooks' Teaching to Transgress as a guide, educators will have the opportunity to consider how to bring more of themselves into the classroom, especially when those identities are beneficial to building relationships with students and bridges to curriculum.
Place, Space, and Voice: Supporting Our API Students in Working Towards Racial Justice for All - Naoko Akiyama
Since the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, we have observed our Asian students asking more frequently: Where do we belong in the conversation and work of racial justice? Our Asian students are grappling with the desire to draw attention to the impacts of racism on the Asian-American community without seeming to redirect or take the focus away from the experiences of their Black and Latinx peers. Let's use this space to collaborate, discuss, and discover ways we can support our Asian students in exploring their identity, deconstructing the model minority myth, shattering the illusion of a proximity to whiteness, and standing up together against anti-Black racism.
Affinity Groups: The What, the Why, and the How - Marc Allard, Tuan Nguyen, Abraham Pachikara
What is the status of Affinity Groups at your school? Affinity groups are “safe spaces” where people have the opportunity to speak to their own experiences and the impact of such experiences based on how they identify. Affinity groups have been shown to increase one’s sense of inclusivity in an organization or school, but is it possible to have an affinity group at your school? If you already have one, is it necessarily a “safe space” for all people that participate? Who should be the advisor? Will other students feel excluded? Hear about personal experiences with affinity groups (for adults and students), what adults/students have to say about affinity groups, and collaborate with fellow colleagues to strategize how to overcome obstacles that may stand in the way of forming or continuing an affinity group at your school.
Authentic Selves: Bringing Our Full Identities to the Classroom - Maya Suzuki Daniels
As teachers and educators, we are sometimes asked to check our identities at the door and teach in a "neutral" or "apolitical" way. This workshop seeks to interrogate these assumptions by asking participants to examine what we honor and what we relinquish when we engage in our work as professional educators. Using ideas and selected texts from bell hooks' Teaching to Transgress as a guide, educators will have the opportunity to consider how to bring more of themselves into the classroom, especially when those identities are beneficial to building relationships with students and bridges to curriculum.
Place, Space, and Voice: Supporting Our API Students in Working Towards Racial Justice for All - Naoko Akiyama
Since the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, we have observed our Asian students asking more frequently: Where do we belong in the conversation and work of racial justice? Our Asian students are grappling with the desire to draw attention to the impacts of racism on the Asian-American community without seeming to redirect or take the focus away from the experiences of their Black and Latinx peers. Let's use this space to collaborate, discuss, and discover ways we can support our Asian students in exploring their identity, deconstructing the model minority myth, shattering the illusion of a proximity to whiteness, and standing up together against anti-Black racism.
Affinity Groups: The What, the Why, and the How - Marc Allard, Tuan Nguyen, Abraham Pachikara
What is the status of Affinity Groups at your school? Affinity groups are “safe spaces” where people have the opportunity to speak to their own experiences and the impact of such experiences based on how they identify. Affinity groups have been shown to increase one’s sense of inclusivity in an organization or school, but is it possible to have an affinity group at your school? If you already have one, is it necessarily a “safe space” for all people that participate? Who should be the advisor? Will other students feel excluded? Hear about personal experiences with affinity groups (for adults and students), what adults/students have to say about affinity groups, and collaborate with fellow colleagues to strategize how to overcome obstacles that may stand in the way of forming or continuing an affinity group at your school.
Workshop Block C: Sunday 9:15-10:15a
Punching Mirrors: Radical Praxis in Asian Pedagogy - Rajesh Barnabass
Problem-posing teaching refers to a method of teaching that emphasizes critical thinking for the purpose of liberation. This workshop explores the ways in which non-Western modes of thinking offer a unique vastness through which to conceptualize this problem-posing teaching. We use the theory and praxis of two Asian figures, familiar in the West, to explore an epistemology of vastness: Bruce Lee and J. Krishnamurti. Their epistemology of vastness is rooted in traditional East Asian and Subcontinental worldviews. While the depth of their practice has been lost in the appropriative and fetishizing encounter with Western consumers, we aim to reclaim their praxis and reclaim its radical possibilities for liberatory teaching. We juxtapose Lee’s character in Enter the Dragon encountering his enemy in a hall of mirrors with Jia Tolentio’s (2019) Trick Mirror in working to reverse the distortions of popular Asian figures and reclaim their radical humanizing possibilities.
Raise Your Voice: Telling Stories of Our Students and Our - Christina Torres
The way we begin breaking down myths about AAPI teachers, students, and communities is by telling our own stories and getting them out into the larger world. This workshop will have two parts: 40 minutes will be devoted to multiple modes of student publishing. We will cover creating podcasts and using narrative writing as forms of identity development for students. The last 20 minutes will be for teachers to think about their writing. How can they use their position as educators to not only uplift the stories of their students, but to share their own narratives to break down myths about our communities as well? We'll cover the writing process as well as online publishing.
Reflective Conversations: Transforming Oppression and Privilege into Agency and Action - Alyson Kaneshiro
The harmful effects of the model minority myth on Asian Americans remain invisible if we do not examine how it operates within systems of oppression and privilege. In this workshop, we will examine the model minority myth stereotype, reflect on how we experience privilege and oppression in our daily lives, and share ideas for how to turn oppression and privilege into agency and action. This workshop incorporates the SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) structure where participants “speak from the I” and have facilitated group conversations where all voices can be heard.
Punching Mirrors: Radical Praxis in Asian Pedagogy - Rajesh Barnabass
Problem-posing teaching refers to a method of teaching that emphasizes critical thinking for the purpose of liberation. This workshop explores the ways in which non-Western modes of thinking offer a unique vastness through which to conceptualize this problem-posing teaching. We use the theory and praxis of two Asian figures, familiar in the West, to explore an epistemology of vastness: Bruce Lee and J. Krishnamurti. Their epistemology of vastness is rooted in traditional East Asian and Subcontinental worldviews. While the depth of their practice has been lost in the appropriative and fetishizing encounter with Western consumers, we aim to reclaim their praxis and reclaim its radical possibilities for liberatory teaching. We juxtapose Lee’s character in Enter the Dragon encountering his enemy in a hall of mirrors with Jia Tolentio’s (2019) Trick Mirror in working to reverse the distortions of popular Asian figures and reclaim their radical humanizing possibilities.
Raise Your Voice: Telling Stories of Our Students and Our - Christina Torres
The way we begin breaking down myths about AAPI teachers, students, and communities is by telling our own stories and getting them out into the larger world. This workshop will have two parts: 40 minutes will be devoted to multiple modes of student publishing. We will cover creating podcasts and using narrative writing as forms of identity development for students. The last 20 minutes will be for teachers to think about their writing. How can they use their position as educators to not only uplift the stories of their students, but to share their own narratives to break down myths about our communities as well? We'll cover the writing process as well as online publishing.
Reflective Conversations: Transforming Oppression and Privilege into Agency and Action - Alyson Kaneshiro
The harmful effects of the model minority myth on Asian Americans remain invisible if we do not examine how it operates within systems of oppression and privilege. In this workshop, we will examine the model minority myth stereotype, reflect on how we experience privilege and oppression in our daily lives, and share ideas for how to turn oppression and privilege into agency and action. This workshop incorporates the SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) structure where participants “speak from the I” and have facilitated group conversations where all voices can be heard.
