Project Highlights
Class Zine: ROOTS
AAST498G: Asian American Women and Gender
Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Cho, Spring 2024
Roots are organic, regenerating, community ties, histories hidden until unearthed, life-giving,
To be uprooted and enrooted is the paradox Asian Americans have directly lived.
Roots are a complex system. This makes them unwavering and strong. When their stems are cut, they continue to nurture life.
This project is a collective effort from every student enrolled in the course, each contributing to a piece surrounding ideas exploring Asian American women and gender. From brainstorming the narrative arc and visual style of the zine to fine-tuning submissions through peer feedback and collaboration, this project mirrors the kind of real time, community-based work that can happen in spaces beyond the classroom.
Class Zine: R.A.G.E
AAST498G: Asian American Women and Gender
Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Cho, Fall 2023
This project is a collective effort from every student enrolled in the course, each contributing to a piece surrounding ideas exploring Asian American women and gender. From brainstorming the narrative arc and visual style of the zine to fine-tuning submissions through peer feedback and collaboration, this project mirrors the kind of real time, community-based work that can happen in spaces beyond the classroom.
The Asian American Foodways Cookbook: Student Recipes Across the Asian Diaspora
AAST298G: Asian American Foodways
Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Cho, Spring 2023
Food connects us all! As the final assignment, students collaborated in producing a class cookbook informed by personal experiences and connections to Asian/American foods. Each student contributed to the class “pantry” where students identified a key ingredient and offered an overview of its history and significance in Asian American communities, as well as a recipe utilizing this pantry item.
Class Zine: (UN)BECOMING
AAST498G: Asian American Women and Gender
Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Cho, Fall 2022
This project is a collective effort from every student enrolled in the course, each contributing to a piece surrounding ideas exploring Asian American women and gender. From brainstorming the narrative arc and visual style of the zine to fine-tuning submissions through peer feedback and collaboration, this project mirrors the kind of real time, community-based work that can happen in spaces beyond the classroom.
Gallery Project: Showcase of AAPI Figures
AAST394 Growing Up Asian American: The Asian Immigrant Family and the Second Generation
Instructor: Dr. Yeram Cheong, Spring 2021
For this semester-long project, students selected an Asian American figure (e.g., civil leader, community organizer, artist, actress/actor, musician, athlete, poet, academic scholar, etc.) who has made a significant contribution to promoting the wellness of the Asian American and/or Asian immigrant communities in the United States. Students researched about this individual, connected the information and stories to a theme/topic covered in this course, and crafted a “poster” (or other form of a visual aid, such as an infographic, video, or 3D interactive gallery) to present virtually to the class. The purpose of this project was to introduce their Asian American figure to fellow peers and share their findings by incorporating theories, concepts, terminologies they had learned in this course.
COVID-19 and Anti-Asian Racism: Contexts, Resources, Reflections
Created by students from AAST200: Introduction to Asian American Studies
Instructor: Dr. Terry K Park, Spring 2020
As their final project in Dr. Terry K Park's Spring 2020 AAST200: Introduction to Asian American Studies course, students explored the various contexts and responses to the current crisis of anti-Asian racism. They also submitted written and creative reflections on how COVID-19-fueled "medical nativism" has impacted them and their loved ones.
In partnership with the Asian American Studies Program (AAST) and Asian American and Pacific Islander Student Involvement in the Office of Multicultural Involvement & Community Advocacy (MICA), this website was created to share these student-centered resources to the broader University of Maryland community. We especially invite fellow UMD members--students, as well as faculty and staff--to submit their own reflections.
The hope is that a more critical understanding of the roots and routes of anti-Asian racism will enhance diversity/equity/inclusion efforts for Asian and Asian American Terrapins, and contribute to the ongoing reckoning over the past, present, and future un/wellness of the U.S.
Website: Covid-19 and Anti-Asian Racism: Contexts, Resources, Reflections
Memories of Militarism and War: Asian American Oral Histories From the DMV
AAST201 Oral History Exhibit, Hornbake Plaza, University of Maryland
Memories of Militarism and War: Asian American Oral Histories From the DMV is an interactive, multimedia oral history project co-created by students enrolled in AAST201: Asian American History (Fall 2017), taught by Dr. Terry K Park.
The project features the stories of eleven Asian American residents of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area (colloquially known as the “DMV,” an acronym corresponding to the District of Columbia and parts of Maryland and Virginia), as well as Howard County, Maryland and Richmond, Virginia. These residents all experienced and survived various manifestations of war in the Asian-Pacific region in which the U.S. played a direct or indirect role. These wars include World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Laotian Civil War (known in the U.S. as the “Secret War”), and the Cambodian genocide (otherwise known as the “Killing Fields”).
The exhibit is now housed in the main office at 2117 Susquehanna Hall. Please email aast@umd.edu if you would like to stop by and see the display.