UG Scholarships for 2011-2012

Two $1,000 scholarships for restaurant workers and children of restaurant workers are available from the Shui Kuen and Allen Chin Scholarship, a program of the Asian Pacific Fund. The scholarship, founded in 2005, honors the values of Detroit restaurant owners Shui Kuen and Allen Chin through supporting the education aspirations of children of workers in the Asian/Pacific Islander food service industry in the U.S.

For full details, eligibility criteria and application information, see Two Scholarships for Restaurant Workers and Their Children

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Adventures in Multicultural Living: Reading, sharing, curating, and subverting books to expand the definition of normal - AnnArbor.com

From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

I just finished reading Lac Su’s memoir, I Love Yous are for White People, a story about growing up poor and Vietnamese American in Los Angeles dodging gangs, alcohol, and an abusive father. It was a tough read, but a sobering reminder that many Asian Americans do not fit neatly into the model minority stereotype.

Now I am reading Bich Minh Nguyen’s memoir, Stealing Buddah’s Dinner, this year’s Michigan Humanities Council’s Great Michigan Read, about growing up Vietnamese American in suburban Grand Rapids and her fixation on American food.

Both writers ache to belong to the world around them. (click on link for more)

Reading, sharing, curating, and subverting books to expand the definition of normal - AnnArbor.com

ImaginAsian Exhibition Submissions

ImaginAsian: Identity and Experience in Contemporary Asian Pacific America

Fundraising Exhibition April 2- May 9, 2010

In celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2010 and to generate funding for materials and sources for Asian American Studies collections at the Purdue University and Indiana University libraries, Kate Agathon, the Council on Asian American Studies, the Tippecanoe Arts Federation, and the Asian American Network of Indiana (AANI) are sponsoring a fundraising installation/exhibition of donated art addressing identity and experience within contemporary Asian Pacific America. The exhibition is intended to raise awareness and understanding of the Asian American community as articulated through a variety of art including photography, visual, and literary.

Open to everyone, submissions are being solicited nation-wide. Celebrity contributors include writer Maxine Hong Kingston, director Michael Kang, actor Parry Shen, hip hop group Far East Movement, Congressman Mike Honda, artist Stella Lai, illustrator/graphic designer Jerry Ma, poet Bao Phi, writer Tao Lin, comic legend Larry Hama, and many other prominent stakeholders within the Asian American community. Contributors do not need to be of Asian descent to participate!

For a donation of $5 or more, contributors are asked to fill an 8.5 x 11” space with creative art, writing, photography or any other artistic medium that addresses contemporary Asian Pacific American identity or the Asian Pacific American experience. Each submission will be vetted by a team for common themes and appropriateness.

Inspired by the Greater Lafayette Art Museum’s Mosaic, ImaginAsian will comprise of a display of 8.5 x 11” creative gifts celebrating the contemporary Asian Pacific American experience. The exhibit will be displayed April 2- May 9, 2010 at the Tippecanoe Arts Federation located at 638 North Street, Lafayette, IN 47901.

Bidders can bid on their favorite pieces of work by taking part in a silent auction that will take place throughout the duration of the exhibit. Submissions must be received by February 28, 2010 and can be sent to:

Kate Agathon

1809 Bengal Place

Lafayette, IN 47909

Checks made payable to the Asian American Network of Indiana are welcome. The Asian American Network of Indiana is a not-for- profit organization. All gifts are tax exempt. For more information, contact Kate Agathon at kate.agathon@gmail.com.

Adventures in Multicultural Living: Living in harmony in a great world house on MLK Day - AnnArbor.com

IMDiversity.com Asian American Village editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang writes in her Adventures in Multicultural Living Column:

In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize lecture, given in 1964, he talks about the idea of a house, “We have inherited a big house, a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together - black and white, Easterners and Westerners, Gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Moslem and Hindu, a family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interests who, because we can never again live without each other, must learn, somehow, in this one big world, to live with each other.”

I love the imagery of that house, so easy to picture. A nice Victorian, neat and trim, brightly painted, purple and pink, warm lights shining through lace curtains, with all the peoples of the world living in harmony together inside - everyone happily cooking together, feasting and celebrating, sharing the bounty of the garden, raking leaves and shoveling snow with the seasons, emptying the dishwasher, doing the laundry, vacuuming the floor, fixing the car, fighting for the bathroom…

Wait. But how do you do that, exactly? (click on link for more)

Living in harmony in a great world house on MLK Day - AnnArbor.com

Adventures in Multicultural Living--Ode to Halloween Costumes, Plus Warning - AnnArbor.com

From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

As I child, observing the world as it was presented to me by the mainstream, I often decided to shut doors myself before anyone actually told me to. Growing up in the age of Farrah Fawcett, I knew that one had to be blond in order to be beautiful, by definition. My horseback riding friends and I knew from statistics that at ten years old we were already too tall to ever become jockeys. Common sense told me that I could never become a country-western singer, no matter how many pairs of cowboy boots I owned. Even school assignments like, “If you could live anywhere in time, where would it be?” were problematic because I knew that as a girl, and as a Chinese girl, I would not be able to just “drop in” anywhere in history.

However, once a year, I could be whatever I wanted to be, construct whatever image or story I wanted for myself, travel backwards and forwards in history and literature, creatively cross over any social barriers. It was also a chance to pretend to be pretty and show off how smart I could be.

One night a year—Halloween. (click on link for more)

Adventures in Multicultural Living--Ode to Halloween Costumes, Plus Warning - AnnArbor.com

Adventures in Multicultural Living--Ganesha, Diwali, and Ravi Shankar too - AnnArbor.com

From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

I was at the University of Michigan Art Museum (UMMA) a few weeks ago when a museum staff member perched up high on the fourth floor where she could monitor many levels of the museum barked out at a family on the second floor not to touch. I turn to see a South Asian family showing their two young daughters, about 3 and 5 years old, an 11th century Ganesha carved out of volcanic rock.

Chastened, they back away. Curious, I go take a closer look.

The face is almost completely worn away from centuries of people touching and anointing the deity's forehead with tikka powder and oil, but he is still unmistakably Ganesha, with his elephant's head and round belly... (click on link for more)

Ganesha, Diwali, and Ravi Shankar too - AnnArbor.com

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PoliSci PhD Fellowship Program

The American Political Science Association is accepting applications for the


2010-2011 APSA Minority Fellowship Program


The American Political Science Association is accepting applications for the 2010-2011 APSA Minority Fellowship Program. Deadline: postmarked by October 2, 2009.

Eligibility

• The APSA Minority Fellows program is designed primarily for minority students applying to enter a doctoral program in POLITICAL SCIENCE for the FIRST TIME.
• Additional eligibility criteria include: Applicants must be members of one of the following racial/ethnic minority groups: African Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, Latinos/as, and Native Americans (federal and state recognized tribes)
• Applicants must demonstrate an interest in teaching and potential for research in political science
• Applicant must be a United States citizen at time of award
• Applicants must demonstrate financial need
  

To apply, and review eligibility requirements and application materials, please visit: http://www.apsanet.org/content_3284.cfm

The APSA Minority Fellowship Program is in its 40th year. Please forward this announcement to interested students/individuals.

Ronald Takaki, pioneering scholar of race relations, dies at 70

Report issued today by "UC Berkeley News," reported by Yasmin Anwar of the Public Affairs office. A complete obituary was expected later today:

BERKELEY — May 27, 2009 — Ronald Takaki, a professor emeritus of ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and prolific scholar of U.S. race relations who taught UC's first black history course, died at his home in Berkeley on Tuesday (May 26). He was 70.

During his more than four decades at UC Berkeley, Takaki joined the Free Speech Movement, established the nation's first ethnic studies Ph.D. program as well as Berkeley's American Cultures requirement for graduation, and advised President Clinton in 1997 on his major speech on race.

A descendent of Japanese plantation workers in Hawaii, Takaki left the islands in the late 1950s to study at Ohio's College of Wooster, where he earned a bachelor's degree. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in American history from UC Berkeley in 1967 and was hired at UCLA, where he taught the campus's first black history course. He joined Berkeley's Ethnic Studies department in 1971 and served as chair from 1975-77.

Among his numerous accolades for scholarship and activism, Takaki received a Pulitzer nomination for his book, "A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America" (Little Brown and Company, 1993); a Distinguished Teaching Award from UC Berkeley and the 2003 Fred Cody Award for lifetime achievement from the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association.

"When I think of Ron, the words that come to mind are: solidarity, justice, easy-going, self-effacing, generous, creative," said Beatriz Manz, chair of UC Berkeley's Department of Ethnic Studies. "He poked fun at himself and had a contagious laughter. He embodied kindness. He was agreeable, conciliatory and non-confrontational."

He is survived by his wife, Carol, his three children and his grandchildren. Plans for a campus memorial service are pending. A complete obituary will be posted on Thursday.

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/05/27_takaki.shtml

Online APAs Memorializing Scholar Ron Takaki

Reports of the passing of noted historian Ronald Takaki have been circulating widely among Asian Americans in the blogosphere and via networking vehicles such as Twitter, Facebook and individual email exchanges.

While any official reporting confirming the rumors has yet to be released in Bay Area media or by the news bureau at UC Berkeley, where Takaki has been a respected emeritus professor in the Ethnic Studies Department, already scores if not hundreds of individuals and bloggers have been publishing appreciations of Dr. Takaki's work as a "people's historian" whose long career was dedicated to championing "a more inclusive and accurate history of all the peoples of America."

His works such as Strangers from a Different Shore and A Different Mirror have been noted as pioneering examples of historical scholarship that approaches research of U.S. peoples from a multicultural perspectives.

As blogger Keith Kamisugi recounts on hapihour.org,

Over 34 years, Ron taught 20,000 students, and has written twelve books which
have influenced thousands more. One of them, “A Different Mirror,” won the
American Book Award, and has sold over a half million copies; it is the text for
anyone interested in the history — and the future — of multicultural America.

[Emphasis mine]

His influence was was limited not only to his publishing activity, but also to shaping the curriculum on and beyond his campus, and inspiring a generation of students and younger scholars. He was instrumental in bringing to life to the PhD in Ethnic Studies, as well as an undergraduate major and ultimately a multicultural credit requirement for graduation. Many of those memorializing Dr. Takaki in the past day are former students who also spoke of his impact in the classroom and calling his lessons "life changing".

Other Readings

• Ethnic Studies Pioneer to Retire
  By Chau Doan, Contributing Writer, Daily Californian, Friday, April 23, 2004
• Ron Takaki Wikipedia Entry
• Department of Ethnic Studies at UC-Berkeley

Webcast Tonight: Asia Society president Vishakha N. Desai

7:00 to 8:30 PM Eastern -

In the program "Collectors and Curators: A Unique Partnership Between Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd and Sherman E. Lee" Vishakha N. Desai, president of Asia Society will be giving a lecture on the complex relationships between curators and collectors, in addition to focusing on the decades of collaboration between Lee and the Rockefellers as the family built their Asian art collection. The Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection of Asian Art became one of the most notable collections of Asian art in the United States and was fundamental to the creation of the Asia Society.

The video webcast will be available live on http://www.AsiaSociety.org from 7:00-8:30 PM.

Event: UCLA AASC 40 th Anniversary, Don Nakanishi Tribute

AAV got in this announcement that may be of interest to friends in SoCal and wanted to pass it along. Don Nakanishi's name has been virtually synonymous with the Asian American Studies at UCLA, as well as the Amerasia Journal, and while the UCLA Center remains an important, vibrant research hub in the field, there's no doubt that Don's daily presence will be missed in his retirement. -- The Editors

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SAVE THE DATE!
Saturday, May 16th, 2009 4-7pm
UCLA Dickson Court North
UCLA Asian American Studies Center
Celebrating 40 Years
knowledge legacy leadership

Special Tribute to Don T. Nakanishi


The UCLA Asian American Studies Center invites you to join us on Saturday, May 16, 2009 from 4-7pm for an outdoor reception and program as we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. We will also honor Director and Professor Don T. Nakanishi's retirement after 19 years of distinguished leadership and service.

Admission is complimentary, but please RSVP by Tuesday, May 5, 2009.

Email aascrsvp@aasc.ucla.edu or call (310) 825-2974.
Parking is available in Lot 2 and 3. Rates are $9 per day.
For more information, contact Jolie Chea at jchea@aasc.ucla.edu
or (310) 825-2974, or visit www.aasc.ucla.edu

4/18 Seattle Conference Will Launch Korematsu Center for Law and Equality

A conference and celebration will mark the formal launch of Seattle University School of Law's Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality Saturday, April 18.

There is no charge to attend, but space is limited and registration is required by April 8. Register online or by calling 206.398.4300.

The Korematsu Center for Law and Equality will study and combat discrimination through research, advocacy and education projects. It aims to advance social justice by fostering critical thinking about discrimination in U.S. society and through targeted advocacy to foster equality and freedom.

"This new center allows our talented faculty to build on the law school's strengths in the areas of race and the law to advance our mission for a more just and humane world," Dean Kellye Testy said.

The center's work will be divided into three units: research, advocacy and education projects.
Its research unit will focus on understanding the relationship between law and categories of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, disability and religion, especially with regard to their intersections. It will bring together scholars from various disciplines and will support interdisciplinary scholarship.

The advocacy unit will apply this understanding to combat discrimination through targeted advocacy efforts. The education unit will create a focus area in Law and Equality for J.D. students and will help train the next generation of scholar/teacher/activists through post-graduate teaching and advocacy fellowships.

The Center is named for Fred Korematsu, who defied an order that required all persons of Japanese ancestry in the area of Oakland, California, to report for detention. He was jailed and then sent for internment. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed his conviction. Forty years later, the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California vacated that conviction on proof that the government had suppressed, altered and destroyed material evidence that contradicted the government's claim of military necessity.

Korematsu went on to champion the cause of civil liberties, seeking redress for Japanese Americans who were wrongfully interned and traveling the country speaking about his case and other violations of civil rights, especially after 9/11.

The center is directed by Professor Robert Chang, a noted scholar in the area of race and the law. Professor Lori Bannai, who was a member of the legal team that worked to reverse Korematsu's wartime conviction and is writing a biography of Korematsu, is associate director. The center will build on the law school's strong faculty in the area of law and equality, including Professors Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, leading authorities in critical race theory, and Professor Margaret Chon, co-author of "Race, Rights and Reparation: Law and the Japanese American Internment.

Release: Aratani Nikkeijin Scholarship for Japanese Americans

Keio Academy of New York is pleased to announce a new scholarship program for Japanese - American students, the ARATANI FOUNDATION NIKKEIJIN - SCHOLARSHIP. This scholarship was made possible through a generous gift from Mr. George Aratani, a Japanese-American businessman and philanthropist, and the founder of the Mikasa Corporation, Kenwood Corporation, and various trading companies. In this article, I would like to relate how this scholarship was established.

The idea for the scholarship came from Mr. Aratani's personal experience as a heritage language learner. He was born in 1917 in Gardena, California and moved to Santa Maria where he completed high school. His father, a first generation nikkei*, told him to study in Japan and Mr. Aratani went to Tokyo in 1935. After 10 months, his Japanese had made such excellent progress that he entered Keio University, where he cultivated a life-long friendship with many Japanese people including the late Dr. Shinzo Koizumi, a distinguished scholar and former president of the University. When Mr. Aratani returned to California to transfer to Stanford, his father was pleased at his son's progress and exclaimed, "Oh, Nihongo ga umaku natta na (Your Japanese has improved a lot!)."

Throughout his trying experience in the concentration camp during World War II and his service in the US military, Mr. Aratani always appreciated his opportunity to study in Japan. Therefore, he has been extremely active in contributing to the social welfare of the nikkei community, the preservation and passing on of Japanese cultural heritage, and the promotion of friendship between the United States and Japan . In April 2008, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star by the Japanese government for his contributions.

Keio Academy of New York (KANY) was established in NY State in 1990 by Keio University as its 5th affiliated high school. Our mission is to educate future leaders in the global society by emphasizing bilingual and bicultural educational curriculum. While our school traditionally attracts many students from the international Japanese business community, we are trying to diversify our students' cultural background. KANY hopes to invite the best and brightest Japanese-American students who are willing to master Japanese as their heritage language.

As the only Japanese high school in the United States, Keio Academy has been trying to reach out and contribute to local and Japanese-American communities. In this regard, we have contacted Ambassador Sakurai of the Japanese Consulate in New York as he has been actively promoting heritage language and culture study. The Ambassador expressed his support and appreciation for our plan. We think it is socially meaningful to enhance the chances for Japanese-Americans to learn their heritage language and culture. It will also diversify the student body at Keio Academy and the scholarship recipients will make a big impact on our students in favorable ways. When I met Mr. Aratani last March and told him of the scholarship plan, he was especially pleased that the opportunity is intended for high school students. I strongly hope that those Japanese-American students who wish to learn their ancestors' language and culture will become a true bridge between the United States and Japan.

Successful applicants will be admitted to Keio Academy of New York as 9th or 10th graders and their first full year of tuition and their admission fee will be waived.

For information or inquiries regarding qualifications or the application process, please visit our website or contact us by email or by FAX at (914-694-4830). Please ask for the Admissions Office, Attn. Ms. Matsuki. The published deadline is February 27, 2009.


-Sumio Sakomura
Headmaster of Keio Academy of New York
(February 1, 2009)

*nikkei = of Japanese ancestry

Sumio Sakomura, Headmaster of Keio Academy of New York and Professor at Keio University, Department of Law (English Education), was born in Oita Prefecture in 1948 and moved to Yamaguchi Prefecture at age five. He attended International Christian University and after earning his Bachelors degree in 1970 and Masters degree three years later, he became a full time instructor at the Department of Law, Keio University. In 2002, he established the Keio Foreign Language Research and Education Center

Vicente M. Diaz “When Vessels Collide: The Revitalization of Traditional Canoes and Postcolonial Commemorations in the Pacific Islands”

University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities presents:
Remaking Heritage
Vicente M. Diaz
“When Vessels Collide: The Revitalization of Traditional Canoes and Postcolonial Commemorations in the Pacific Islands”
Tuesday, October 28, 12 PM, 202 South Thayer Washington Street, Room 2022, Ann Arbor, MI

This talk on the revitalization of traditional canoes in the Pacific Islands is part of series of brown bag talks on Remaking Heritage.

Vicente M. Diaz is Pohnpeian and Filipino, born and raised on Guam. He taught Pacific History and Micronesian Studies at the University of Guam from 1991 to 2001, before joining the faculty at the Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies unit, Program in American Culture, The University of Michigan. Diaz's research and teaching interests include Native Pacific Cultural Studies, Cultural Studies of Sports, Traditional Voyaging, and Pacific Film and Video Production and Studies.

Free and open to the public

Asian University for Women Launched; Seeks Inaugural Faculty

This just came up on the IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Jobs Center. The editors thought it of interest both as a major development in international women's education access and for scholars/educators possibly interested in participating in the enterprise from the ground-floor:

The Asian University for Women is inviting applications for its inaugural faculty of 16 positions to begin in Bangladesh in July 2009.

The AUW is being established as a leading institution of higher education for women across South and Southeast Asia. While international in its vision and scope, the University will remain rooted in a context unique to the diverse cultural, religious, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds of South and South East Asia. The civic and academic goal of the AUW is to better prepare disadvantaged women of high ability and potential through a world-class education that will encompass both the progressive liberal arts & sciences and requisite professional training in order to further the intellectual and professional development of eligible young women.

The AUW is currently advertising calls for faculty applications in three areas:

• Four opportunities for Social Science faculty
• Four opportunities for Humanities faculty
• Four opportunities for Quantitative Reasoning faculty

Review of applications begins this week. The AUW is being supported in the U.S. by a Boston/Cambridge-based Foundation.

The IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Jobs Center periodically highlights a shortlist of featured opportunities of particular interest to Asian American Village readers, culled from among the tens of thousands of job postings at the IMDiversity.com Career Center Job Bank.