Events
Maneuvering Queer Asia: Research Activism, and Identities
Talk by Minwoo Jung, Ph.D.
When/where: Wednesday October 18, 5:00 p.m. at the APIDA Center, Student Union Suite 210
Abstract: For a book project on sexuality politics in Asia, I have conducted fieldwork in three Asian societies, including Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea. During the fieldwork, I explored different political contexts and cultural norms in relation to my research on queer activism. At the same time, I had to navigate different gender and racial norms as I moved between these societies. In this talk, I share a story of my transnational journey with multiple identities and positionalities—as a Korean-born but US-based researcher who crosses multiple geographic and cultural boundaries, as an engaged scholar who straddles both academic and activist norms, and as a cosmopolitan queer subject who learns and sometimes fails in how to appropriately express queerness in these different societies. This talk would be of interest to various students, faculty members, and community members who are interested in gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, social movements, global and transnational processes, as well as East and Southeast Asia.
Bio: Dr. Minwoo Jung is an Assistant Professor at Loyola University, Chicago. His work centers on gender, sexuality, race, and empire, with an emphasis on political activism and knowledge production.
Feeling Politics: The Role of Emotions in Environmental Racism Fights
Talk by Nadia Kim, Ph.D.
When/Where: March 22, 2023, 2-3:30 p.m., in Finch Conference Room AL 660
This talks draws on Nadia's Kim's book "Refusing Death" to explore how we must grasp environmental injustice, as well as other forms of injustice, through a lens of physical and emotional violence and neglect. More specifically, Kim addresses how we best understand this systemic injustice by examining how communities of color receive it and fight back.
Nadia Y. Kim is a Professor of Asian & Asian American Studies and affiliated faculty in Sociology at Loyola Marymount University. Her research focuses on US race and citizenship injustices and on fights against environmental racism/classism.
Public Lecture on The Struggle of Memory Against Forgetting: Transitional Justice in Taiwan
Talk by Jiun-Ru Chiang Ph.D.
When/Where : April 24,2023, 2:00-3:15 p.m., @ West Commons 220
The Transitional Justice Commission was established in May 2018 in order to solve a growing political dilemma: compensating victims without prosecuting perpetrators. However, merely four years later, the commission was formally dissolved in May 2022. What did the commission achieve? What crucial tasks were left undone?
Dr. Jiun-Ru Chiang is a Fulbright Fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center. Born and raised in Taiwan, Dr. Chiang has been involved in human rights advocacy since 2010. He is a former deputy director of Legislator Mei-Nu Yu’s office, and a former researcher of the Transitional Justice Commission in Taiwan. His research currently focuses on Taiwan’s asylum policy and mechanism for Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.
Master Class on Taiwan’s Asylum Policy for Hong Kongers and its Shortcomings
Talk by Jiun-Ru Chiang
When/Where : April 24, 2023, 5:30-6:45 p.m., @ Arts and Letters 105
For the past few years, there has been a rise in the number of political protesters from Hong Kong seeking asylum in Taiwan. In the aftermath of China’s new national security law for Hong Kong introduced in 2020, numerous pro-democracy campaigners have tried to escape from Hong Kong due to the fear of persecution. However, the resettlement policy adopted by the Taiwan government to assist Hong Kongers was seriously criticized. Why is the policy insufficient? What are the next steps for Taiwan’s asylum policy toward Hong Kong?
Dr. Jiun-Ru Chiang is a Fulbright Fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center. Born and raised in Taiwan, Dr. Chiang has been involved in human rights advocacy since 2010. He is a former deputy director of Legislator Mei-Nu Yu’s office, and a former researcher of the Transitional Justice Commission in Taiwan. His research currently focuses on Taiwan’s asylum policy and mechanism for Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.
Human Rights in Afghanistan under the Taliban
Lecture Series on Human Rights in the Asia Pacific Region
Speaker: Dr. Wais Aria, Amnesty International Afghanistan Country Specialist
When/where: Monday, March 6, 5:00-6:15 p.m., in AL 105
Dr. Wais Aria is the Afghanistan Country Specialist for Amnesty International. Before the Taliban's return to power in 2021, he was part of a civil society working group on human rights in Afghanistan, where he founded the Tabish Social Health Education Organization to serve displaced populations. Since relocating to the United States in 2021, Dr. Aria founded the Forced Migration Studies Center for Afghanistan and also continues to serve as the Deputy Chair for South Asia at the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network and in the annual United Nations NGO consultation in Geneva on a durable solution to the refugee issue.
Organized by the Center for Human Rights and the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, with generous support from The Peacemakers Fund at the San Diego Foundation.
Flash Fiction Writing Workshop
Hosts Dr. Alvin Henry and Dr. Stephen Suh
Tuesday, December 13, 2022, @6-7 p.m.
APIDA Center, Aztec Student Union, 210A-K
Let's write some flash fiction (stories with 6-1000 words)!
Learn how APIDA authors are rethinking this way of writing. The goal is to craft stories under 50 words. We will build on THE MAGIC FISH by Trung Le Nguyen and explore themes related to fairy tales, memories, family, immigration/migration, etc.
The Colonization of West Papua and the Climate Crisis
Featuring Mr. Raki Ap, Free West Papua Campaign and the Papuan Green State Vision Against Climate Change
Tuesday, December 6, 2022 @ 9:30-10:45am
West Papua has been called a "transnational colony." In 1969, the territory became part of Indonesia, with the support of the United States. Since then, transnational corporations have profited from West Papua's rich natural resources and plantation crops produced on its land.
Why should you care? Many products that we use every day, from food and health products to our electronic devices, are made with such resources.
Raki Ap will discuss the situation: how it has devastated the landscape and the way of life of the indigenous people of West Papua. He will discuss a green alternative that will help mitigate the climate crisis by protecting the land, environment, and rights of the West Papuan people.
Mr. Raki Ap is the youngest son of Papuan anthropologist and musician, Arnold Ap, who was assassinated by the Indonesian Army in 1984. He currently lives in The Hague in The Netherlands and is the international spokesperson for the Free West Papua Campaign. A passionate and tireless educator for forest protection, biodiversity, and the climate crisis from the indigenous perspective, Raki is also the international representative of the Papuan Green State Vision Against Climate Change.
Sponsored by the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies and the Center for Human Rights.
Community-Based Practices for the Social Integration of North Korean Refugees in South Korea
Talk by Hyang Eun Kim, Ph.D.
Tuesday, November 29, 2022 @ 2-3PM
in Finch Conference Room (AL 660)
About 30,000 immigrants have escaped from North Korea and settled in South Korea. While the population has grown remarkably, North Koreans face a number of negative circumstances, including maladaptation, marginalization, and social tension and conflict with South Korean. South Korea has developed institutions to support North Korean refugees, but most are based on the premise that refugees are merely receivers of benefits from the Korean government and citizens. There is a need for an innovative approach to reinforce their social integration and citizenship. Dr. Hyang Eun Kim will present on the status of North Korean refugees in South Korea, public assistance for settlement, social adjustment issues, and community-based practices to promote inclusion of North Korean refugees.
Dr. Hyang Eun Kim is a Professor of Social Welfare at Kosin University (Busan, South Korea). She is a visiting Fulbright Scholar in Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities.
Sponsored by the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies and the Center for Human Rights.
KPOP Dance and Social Media
Lecture by Chuyun Oh
Thurday, November 10, 2022 @12pm
@ Digital Humanities Center (LA 61 Bottom floor of the SDSU Library Dome)
Chuyun Oh (PhD. UT Austin) is a Fulbright scholar and Associate Professor of Dance Theory at San Diego State University. She will discuss K-pop dance and fandom based on K-pop Dance: Fandoming Yourself on Social Media (Routledge), #1 Amazon New Release in Communications and Pop Dance in July 2022. Her award-winning scholarship has appeared in global media, top-tier journals, and anthologies. As a graduate of Kirov Ballet Academy, she received international dance competition awards and performed worldwide as a professional ballet/modern dancer before entering academia.
Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Media and Performance, the Digital Humanities Initiative, the DH Center, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, and the APIDA Center.