Vol 26 | No 1 | Fall 17
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OC&SEAA Center/Asian-American Studies Students Take Washington, D.C.

ImageUCI Asian-American Studies students have been working under the direction of Professor Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Chair of Asian-American Studies, and Dr. Thuy Vo Dang, Curator for the Southeast Asian Archive, on a project that is now called the "Beginnings of Activism" for the department of Asian-American Studies at UCI (BADAAS@UCI). This team has been researching how Asian-American Studies was established on campus. In 2016-2017 academic year, Asian-American Studies celebrated its 25th anniversary, so this research is timely and an important means through which we can learn about the significant role that student activism played in the formation of an ethnic studies program at UCI. Every week the team met in the OC& SEAA Center to discuss their discoveries and progress.

The team first turned to archival sources to become more familiar with the time period and achieve a basic sense of events. Special Collections and Archives provided the majority of the necessary sources that the team needed such as course catalogs, newspapers and organization records from University Archives. By looking at course catalogs, they were able to learn that Asian-American Studies started off as an interdisciplinary program, became a minor in 1996, and the following year became a major.

Newspaper archives informed them about events such as a 1991 demonstration at Wayzgoose (now called Celebrate UCI) by the newly formed student group ESCAPE (Ethnic Student Coalition Against Prejudicial Education. During this demonstration, 200 protesters marched to demand the development of Ethnic Studies programs at UCI. This protest was not only for Asian-American Studies, but also for African-American Studies, Chicano/Latino Studies and Native American Studies. Students took a coalitional approach to organizing for the type of education they felt was lacking on campus at the time.

From there, the team moved on to conducting oral histories. They were hoping to create a collection from the interviews as well as the artifacts that past alumni, staff and faculty had graciously donated. The interviews added a personal element that the archives lacked since the interviewees were telling their story and were able to illuminate some details that the official records did not include.

The team presented their research in different venues on campus and beyond. They were invited to present at the OC&SEAA Center for an API heritage month event and, a few days later, they presented their findings at the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) spring Symposium. UROP provided funding to the research team. Additionally, the research team had an opportunity to present to a national audience at the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Conference in Washington D.C. in June 2017. Attendance by four members of the research team was sponsored by the department of Asian-American studies, UROP, the UCDC Program and the Office of Inclusive Excellence.

This type of research is important because it helped highlight the efforts of students in the early 1990s, which otherwise may have been forgotten. The student researchers were able to assemble and preserve an important aspect of UCI history, share their methods and findings with a wide audience and hopefully inspire others to become more involved in shaping their own education. The UCI Libraries played an important part by providing a space for the team to meet every week as well as providing many of the resources and materials which fueled the project.

For more information, contact please contact Thuy Vo Dang, Ph.D., Curator for the Southeast Asian Archive at: thuy.vodang@uci.edu.