This Fall, several AAST classes will be welcoming guest speakers into their classroom and selected AAST class sessions will be open to the UMD community. Learn more about the speakers below!
Fall 2022 at a Glance:
Tuesday, October 4, 3:30 PM
AAST394: Growing up Asian American: The Second Generation ft. Julienne Palbusa, Ph.D
Topic: “At some point, you are no longer faking”: From navigating college to informing higher education decision making
Tuesday, October 4, 6:30 PM
AAST363: Filipino American History and Biography ft. Eleonor Castillo, Ph.D
Topic: What are the Lived Experiences of Filipinx American Teachers?
Thursday, October 13, 9:30 AM
AAST351: Asian Americans and Media ft stef torralba
Topic: “Undocumented Queer and Trans* U.S. Filipinxs/as/os in Film”
Tuesday, October 4, 3:30 PM
AAST394: Growing up Asian American: The Second Generation (Instructor: Dr. Yeram Cheong)
Speaker: Julienne Palbusa, Ph.D
Topic: “At some point, you are no longer faking”: From navigating college to informing higher education decision making
Register to attend this open class on zoom: go.umd.edu/AAST394
Julienne Palbusa, Ph.D (she/they) is a Kankana-ey Igorot American/Filipinx American who grew up in Virginia Beach, VA. She earned her B.S degree in Psychology and Kinesiology from the College of William and Mary and PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of California, Riverside.
Dr. Palbusa is an Institutional Research Analyst in the Office of Institutional Research and Academic Planning at the University of California Office of the President. In this role, Dr. Palbusa reports on undergraduates and graduate students across all 10 University of California (UC) campuses. She has produced reports and public data dashboards on different UC undergraduate student populations, such as first-generation college students, students who are current and former foster youth, military- affiliated students, and Native American students as well as UC’s graduate and professional students.
In this presentation, Dr. Palbusa will present on her experience with mental health and navigating higher education as a first-generation college student. She will also share her experience providing analyses and reports that inform and shape decision making that impacts the student experience at the University of California.
Tuesday, October 4, 6:30 PM
AAST363: Filipino American History and Biography (Instructor: Gem Daus)
Speaker: Eleonor Castillo, Ph.D
Topic: What are the Lived Experiences of Filipinx American Teachers?
Register to attend this open class on zoom: go.umd.edu/AAST363
Eleonor G. Castillo, Ph.D., began her journey as a classroom teacher at a Title I, urban elementary school in the San Diego Unified School District. She has nineteen years of teaching experience in PreK-12 and higher education, which includes the areas of education foundations and policy, literacy, and special education. In addition to Dr. Castillo’s work in classrooms, her education policy experience includes serving as a Ph.D. Education Policy Fellow at the Maryland House of Delegates, where she provided critical research and policy work that led to the successful passage of the Maryland Dream Act. In California, she led a statewide grassroots coalition, working with lawmakers, toward the successful passage of Assembly Bill 420 - historic legislation which ensured the preservation of the teaching of Filipino Language and Culture classes in California PreK-12 public schools. Her research interests include the lived experiences of teachers of color, historical and social-cultural foundations of education, and teacher education. Dr. Castillo’s recent publication is the book entitled, The Lived Experiences of Filipinx American Teachers in the U.S.: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study (2022). In 2021, she was honored by the San Diego Union-Tribune as one of twenty-three Phenomenal San Diego Women in Education. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy degree in teaching and learning, policy and leadership, with a specialization in education policy studies and curriculum theory and development, from the University of Maryland. Dr. Castillo currently serves as an assistant professor in the School of Education at Westminster College.
Thursday, October 13, 9:30 AM
AAST351: Asian Americans and Media (Instructor: Dr. Binod Paudyal)
Speaker: stef torralba
Topic: “Undocumented Queer and Trans* U.S. Filipinxs/as/os in Film”
Register to attend this open class on zoom: go.umd.edu/AAST351
stef torralba (they/them) is a PhD candidate in English with a designated emphasis in Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Riverside and a visiting instructor in Gender and Women’s Studies at Pomona College. They research, teach, and write about contemporary queer and trans* of color art, media, literature, and performance, with focuses on works by Asian American and U.S. Latinx/a/o cultural producers. They have scholarly work published in or forthcoming from Alon: Journal for Filipinx American and Diasporic Studies, Pacific Coast Philology, and liquid blackness: journal of aesthetics and black studies. They are originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and currently live in Southern California. In this presentation, stef will talk about the 2019 narrative film, Lingua Franca, directed by trans Filipina filmmaker Isabel Sandoval. They will talk about how the film depicts everyday acts of imagining and the ways that these acts can create space for undocumented trans Filipinas to escape the stresses of day-to-day life.