Pan-ethnic Student Organizing: the History of the Association for Asian American Graduate

Students at Madison

Mytoan Nguyen Dept of Sociology PhD Candidate

Co-Chair AAAGS 2008-2009Saturday, April 25, 2009

“Our Campus, Our World” Conference

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Outline

• Mission and history of AAAGS• Membership and alumni profiles• Events and Activities• Panethnic Organizing: Challenges and

Rewards• Broader themes to be addressed

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Mission of AAAGS

• Improve the quality of the graduate school experience for students who self-identify as members or allies of the Asian American community;

• Outreach to important agents within the Asian American community on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, the University of Wisconsin system, and the general Madison and Wisconsin community;

• Increase awareness about issues concerning the Asian American community through education

Source: AAAGS Bylaws Adopted Dec 2008

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Formation of AAAGS

• AAAGS was formed during the mid-1990s by a group of Asian American graduate students including Sharon Lee (now on faculty at Urbana-Champagne), Kevin Kumashiro, and Joy Lei

• Re-chartered in Spring 2006 by Linda Park and a few other graduate students

• Listserve which was 17 individuals now reaches over 130 individuals, not including past alums

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Who are AAAGS

members?

Email roster reaches 130 individuals

Dept/School No.English/Creative Writing 8Law 8Education 7Pharmacy 3Sociology 3History 2Human Development and Family Studies

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Medical School 2Southeast Asian Studies, MA degree

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Math 1Nursing 1Political Science 1Population Health 1Public Affairs 1Statistics 1Toxicology 1Zoology 1TOTAL Active Members 45

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Defining what it means to be Asian American in Wisconsin – an ongoing

dialogue!• Processes of group identification produced at the micro-

and macro-sociological level of interaction and structures (Omi and Winant, 1986; Lowe 1996; Espiritu 1993)

• This is a category assigned to U.S. graduate students by the UW graduate school, and if you are identified as part of a “targeted Southeast Asian” group, there are other meanings attached to your experience here

• It is a self-identification invoked by some individuals in addition to other affiliations such as gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and academic discipline

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“Asian American” . . . Continued

• This identity has varied salience at different moments in an individual’s life course

• Not everyone self-identifies with this racial category as strongly as identifying with an ethnic heritage (such as Hmong, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc.)

• Defining who is part of the “Asian American” community depends on previous experiences of the individual and their needs

• History of the Asian American crystallization of a group identity dates back to the Civil Rights Movement, panethnic struggles, and an the interpretation of historical exclusion, discrimination, construction of subjectivities and a fluid drawing of the boundaries of Asian American in Wisconsin

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Member Profile

Vanessa MerinaCreative Writing/Fiction MFA

•Of Filipina and Caucasian heritage •Moved here from San Francisco Aug 2008•Previously worked in public policy, arts volunteering, and publishing•Volunteer Coordinator of the Asian American Film Series at the Wisconsin Film Festival 2009 on behalf of AAAGS

“AAAGS provides community and support outside my department/discipline, helps me to explore Asian American identity in an academic context and see where these intersect, and provides opportunities (leadership, social, academic, cultural) to gain skills, meet new people.

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Alum Profile

Nancy Vue

• Hmong American from Northern California• Previously worked as a Judicial Fellow in Oakland,

CA, and earned an MA from SF State in Ethnic Studies

• Graduate from University of Wisconsin Law School, JD 2008

• Currently is Assistant Public Defender, Criminal Defense at Wisconsin State Public Defenders ‘Office

• Handles 40-50 human cases per month• Nancy was the guest speaker at the AAAGS

Mentorship Mixer Feb 2009

“Professionally AAAGS has helped expose me to different academic perspectives that I would not otherwise hear … being from California, AAAGS has helped me feel more committed to working for the community at large in Madison.”

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Signature Events

• Monthly general meetings• Social Mixers on/off campus• Asian Am Faculty, Grad, Staff dinner and

Dialogue• Asian American Voices – highlights a theme

and brings together scholars, community leaders, and artists/performers

• Mentorship mixers and skills trainings

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Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Dinner

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Undergraduate Mentorship

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Graduate Social Mixers

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Panethnic Student Activism: challenges and rewards

• Collective solidarity based on perceived group identification

• Tensions between demands of Graduate Student professional life vs. volunteer capacity

• Funding through grants and collaborations• Coalition building with staff, faculty, other

student groups• Knowledge diffusion to/from the local

community• Leadership renewal each year

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Some challenges for AAAGS

“A significant challenge to AAAGS (both past and present) was that members had different needs. There were some students interested in building an intellectual community concerning Asian American issues, some interested in social justice issues surrounding Asian Americans, some interested in mentoring undergrads, and some who wanted to meet other Asian Americans on campus and have more social activities. In some ways, it’s been hard to keep up the momentum.” (Linda Park, HDFS grad, Nov 2008)

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Some broad themes• AAAGS’ existence challenges the existing

norm that graduate student development and professionalization is limited to just the academic discipline and training.

• Other aspects of graduate student life matter for success, including networks across different depts and schools and with the broader campus community.

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Challenges of how institutional memory of a student-led group be transmitted when the leadership changes each year – more formalized bureaucratic procedures? Staff affiliates?

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As future scientists and intellectuals, academic faculty/staff and public/private employees, there is a constant need to reflect on the connection between knowledge production and social justice/social interventions and what our role is during our time at Madison.

What is the potential of a group such as AAAGS to do social justice work? (Pierre Bourdieu 2004; Michael Burawoy 2005)

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Questions/Comments welcome!

• Thank you!• Email: uw.aaags@gmail.com • Blog: www.aaags.blogspot.com• Check us out on facebook: “UW Association of

Asian American Graduate Students”

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