REPOST: March 5 "Made in Ethiopia" Screening and Q&A
Asian Studies hosts film and meet the filmmaker with us!
Original event posting and RSVP link on the Asian Studies myUMBC
here!
Join us in the AOK Library Gallery on Thursday, 3/5/26 at 4:30PM for the screening of Made in Ethiopia! Our event will also include a Q&A with the filmmaker herself, Xinyan Yu, along with discussants, Tracy Tinga (MCS) and Guenet Abraham (Visual Arts).
Learn more about the documentary that explores rapid industrialization and China's economic influence in Africa.
Food will be provided during this event.
This event has been organized by Asian Studies with support from the Global Asias Initiative's Course Expansion Grant.
This event is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's
nondiscrimination policy.
The Global Asias Initiative (GAI) at UMBC is holding a workshop to help support and curate an exhibit of creative works produced by students that relate and help illustrate understandings and relationalities to Asia as understood through a Global Asias framework. In the workshop, students will read and unpack a text written by Tina Chen (Global Asias: Method, Architecture, and Praxis) in order to better understand Global Asias, a theoretical, multidisciplinary framework that brings together the fields of Asian American and Asian Studies. We will work together to create an exhibit of student work that translates and explains Global Asias as an analytical lens to the campus and wider public.
Students will arrive to the first session with a project they have either completed in a prior class or with a project in mind as well as having read an assigned text on Global Asias. Together with faculty mentors, we will discuss the text and clarify any questions in order to strengthen our collective understanding of the Global Asias framework.
In the second session, students will work to hone their project and work on writing artist statements that explain to a public audience how their piece reflects Global Asias–what Global Asias concept(s) does their piece draw on? How can we see that concept or process illustrated or represented in the piece?
Participating in this workshop will help strengthen public writing skills, hone reading skills, and is an opportunity you can put on your resume/CV.
Please make sure to keep available 5/1 for the exhibition install date and 5/4 for the Exhibition Reception.
Applications are due Wed, February 11, 2026 by 11:59pm.
Application Process:
By 11:59pm on Wed., Feb.11, 2026: Submit responses via the following application form: https://forms.gle/3WBUUEA9NyrC16QU6
Make sure to include:
WORKSHOP TIMELINE:
Session 1 (Friday 2/27, 12:00-2pm): reading & activity that asks that helps guide the revision of their project and helps them brainstorming their "artist statement"
In between sessions: students send advanced drafts
Session 2 (Friday 4/10, 12:00-2pm): bring workshopped/revised project, share. finalize and create connections between pieces.
(lunch will be provided)
Exhibition Install date: Friday, 5/1
Exhibition Reception: Monday 5/4
PAYMENT DISBURSEMENT:
Participating students will receive a $300 stipend. Receiving the stipend is dependent on completion of both workshop sessions and installing their piece in the exhibition.
CONTACT INFO:
Please reach out to Dr. Mika Thornburg at mthornburg@umbc.edu, Dr. Tamara Bhalla at tbhalla@umbc.edu or Priya Bhayana at priyab@umbc.edu with any questions.
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The Global Asias Initiative (GAI) at UMBC is holding a workshop to help support and curate an exhibit of creative works produced by students that relate and help illustrate understandings and...
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Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:06:32 -0500
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Thank you for attending the Asian American Children's Literature Exhibition!
Thank you so much for attending the Asian American Children's Literature Exhibition organized by Dr. Sharon Tran! We had a beautiful evening engaging with work created by Dr. Tran's English 360 students and sharing in story time with Dr. Tamara Bhalla, Dr. Fan Yang, and their daughters.
Plans are in the work to host the children's books that students selected in an accessible location for people to visit. For now, please reach out to Dr. Fan Yang (Director, Asian Studies) at fanyang@umbc.edu if you would like to check them out!
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Thank you so much for attending the Asian American Children's Literature Exhibition organized by Dr. Sharon Tran! We had a beautiful evening engaging with work created by Dr. Tran's English 360...
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Reminder: Reframing Global Asias Conversation Series Events
Join us for this series of lectures & interactive workshops!
We're looking forward to seeing you at the Fall Reframing Global Asias Conversation Series events this week! Here's a rundown and event page links for each of our lectures & workshops. We can't wait to welcome our guest speakers and hope to see you there.
Wednesday, October 22
10:30am-11:45am
Library Gallery
House of Mirrors: How Mis- and Disinformation Amplify Imperialist Histories to Shape Asian American Political Participation in California's 45th Congressional District
Light breakfast, coffee & tea provided
Thursday, October 23
2-4pm
CADVC Gallery (Fine Arts 105)
Language as personal and communal expression: an interactive zine-making workshop with Dr. Joyhanna Jung Yoo & Shengxiao "Sole" Yu
6-8pm
Commons 331
Solidarity with Anti-Imperialist Struggles: A Creative Mapping Workshop in collaboration with student groups Anakbayan UMBC and Binhi FFPS
Friday, October 24
12-1pm
PAHB 216
The Semiotics of Skin: The Discursive Construction of Desirable Figures of Personhood in Korean Beauty's Global Circulation
Lunch provided
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About our guest speakers:
Shengxiao Yu, known by her nickname Sole, is a speaker, facilitator, writer, and social justice educator. She is the creator of Nectar, a space where she provides political education for the community through giving keynote speeches, facilitating workshops, and providing thought leadership. In 2024, Sole served as the activist-in-residence at the Asian American Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. In this capacity, Sole conducted research to more deeply understand the AAPI electoral landscape and the role of mis- and disinformation. Sole is a writer for the Xin Sheng Project, a platform combating misinformation in the Chinese diaspora community by publishing in-language, progressive articles that shift perspectives and build intergenerational power. As a generation 1.5 Asian American, Sole is also working to build community among her fellow Asian Americans in order to build socio-political power and to lift up her lineage. Sole is inspired by BIPOC activists, grassroots community leaders, and all the intersectional movement ancestors who have paved the way.
Joyhanna "Joy" Yoo (she/they) is a linguistic anthropologist whose work examines the circulation of Korean popular cultural genres with fieldwork based in Seoul, Mexico City, and Los Angeles. Their research examines the meanings generated by language as it pertains to race and gender when cultural genres circulate. Joy has also published on Asian American racialization and linguistic appropriation in mediatized contexts. Her newer work examines the relationship between language loss, grief, and Korean diasporic belonging. They are especially passionate about student-centered teaching, mentorship, and student advocacy.
We invite abstracts for chapter-length essays that will contribute to a new anthology in South Asian American studies, tentatively titled, "Power and Privilege in South Asian American Studies." The anthology will focus on issues of privilege and power in South Asian American representation, community, and identity. Scholars in South Asian American Studies in particular have noted that systems of class and racial capitalism mediate racialization processes, and that South Asian Americans have accrued disproportionate access and control over political, social and economic capital. This privileged status remains understudied. This volume will examine power and privilege as both a defining and under-examined feature of South Asian American identity and community formation. As a starting point, we ask: What does South Asian American studies mean now, and what can or should it evolve into? The anthology will begin by discussing the boundaries and analytical frameworks that define the field of South Asian American studies now, and how they could and should evolve.
We are particularly interested in the intersections of caste and class privilege, racial hierarchies (especially anti-Black racism), Indocentrism, Hinducentrism, heteronormativity, cis privilege, diasporic mobility, and able-bodied privilege, as these factors impact the future of South Asian American studies. The anthology will also examine praxis from a position of power and privilege in political and activist spaces. We hope to include both new and emerging scholars as well as established scholars who have helped shape the field. By placing these voices in conversation, we aim not only to build on the foundational work of the field but also to push it in new directions. This cross-generational dialogue will also put into practice a guiding ethos of the anthology: by providing opportunities for mentorship, support, and the co-creation of new frameworks for understanding South Asian American privilege.
The anthology will consist of three sections, each examining understandings of privilege through different lenses. The first section will focus on structures of power within the South Asian American community, including caste, masculinity, Indocentrism, Hinducentrism, and ableism. The second section will explore South Asian American privilege in relation to other racial groups -for example, how the model minority myth operates in South Asian American communities and upholds anti-Blackness. The third section would focus on SAA privilege in relation to institutional power, including the state and media, and how SAAs leverage their political and economic power.
We seek submissions of chapter abstracts (< 500 words) and a 1-page CV/Resume/or list of relevant experience by December 15, 2025. We have been in conversation with Temple University Press as a potential publisher for this volume. We welcome contributions from a range of disciplinary and methodological backgrounds—including, but not limited to literature, sociology, history, anthropology, cultural studies, and media studies—as well as from scholars engaging theoretical approaches such as critical ethnic studies, postcolonial studies, diaspora studies, feminist and queer studies, and other related frameworks that ground and advance South Asian American studies. Please send your submissions to Naomi Joseph (njoseph@ucsb.edu) and Tamara Bhalla (tbhalla@umbc.edu) with the subject line "Power and Privilege Anthology Submission." Naomi and Tamara will also be available at the 2026 AAAS conference in Hawaii to meet with potential authors and answer questions.
Possible topics include but are not exclusive to:
- The role of Indo-centrism in the SAA diaspora and/or in the discipline
- The role of Hinducentrism and/or the Hindutva
- Class privilege; the million and multi-millionaire class
- Work on upper caste people
- South Asian American masculinities, cis privilege and/or heteronormativity
- South Asian American and disability justice, able-bodied privilege
- South Asian Americans within Asian America - South Asian American privileges in relation to East Asian, Southeast Asians
- South Asian Americans in relation to Black, Latinx, and other racial identities
- South Asian Americans in relation to whiteness
- South Asian Americans on the Right, e.g. Kash Patel, Vivek Ramaswamy, Usha Vance
- South Asians on the "Left" e.g. Pramila Jayapal, Kamala Harris
- South Asian American interactions with the state, e.g. diasporic mobility, citizenship pathways
- South Asian Americans in the media
Abbie Fakoya leads faculty, staff, and students in the choreography for the song "Golden," from Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters film. (All photos by Brad Ziegler/UMBC)