We are thrilled to have five ACAM 390 students working to implement undergraduate research findings at the Burnaby Village Museum & Carousel this summer, after they return from Hong Kong and Kaiping, China.
“The Burnaby Village Museum (BVM) is pleased to announce a joint partnership with the UBC Asian Canadian &
Asian Migration Studies program (ACAM), the UBC Centre for Community Engaged Learning, UBC Go Global, the UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS), and St. John’s College, University of British Columbia(SJC).”
For more information about the partnership, please visit:
http://www.burnabyvillagemuseum.ca/EN/meta/whats-new/2018-archive/innovative-partnership.html
The Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program is pleased to offer ACAM 250: The Idea of ‘Asian Canadian’ in Popular Culture*, in September 2018. This course will be taught by Dr. JP Catungal.
This course will examine popular culture as a site in and through which Asian Canadian identities and collectivities are produced. The depiction of Asian Canadians in diverse realms of popular culture, including pop culture created by Asian Canadians themselves, will be used as an entry point into our examination of Asian Canadians’ socio-economic conditions, histories and political communities. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role of popular culture in producing Asian Canadians as racialized, gendered, classed and sexualized subjects, as well as the complicated agency in negotiating, contesting, consuming, reproducing, repurposing and otherwise participating in popular culture. We will also consider the transnationalisms of Asian Canadian popular cultures and their relationships to multiple nation-building projects, diasporic and migratory circuits, and global socio-economic and political formations.
Course information
Term 1, September 2018
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 12:30pm-2pm
This course is open to students from all faculties.
Dr. John Paul (JP) Catungal is a faculty member in the Social Justice Institute and Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies at UBC. His research concerns “for us, by us” community organizing, migration and transnationalism, queer of colour politics and Filipinx Canadian studies. He holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Toronto.
For more information or to register, please visit UBC Student Service Centre.
*Please note that ACAM 250 does not go towards the minor because it’s not a 300/400 level class.
What can popular culture – in the forms of memoirs, films, music, theatre, performance art, video games, and drag performances – tell us about the place of Asian Canadians in local, national, continental and transnational contexts? How and why has the cultural representation of “Asian Canadian” changed over time? What are the material implications of such changes?
ACAM_V 250 – Asian Canadians in Popular Culture examines popular culture as a site in and through which Asian Canadian identities and collectivities are produced. The depiction of Asian Canadians in diverse realms of popular culture, including pop culture created by Asian Canadians themselves, will be used as an entry point into our examination of Asian Canadians’ socio-economic conditions, histories and political communities. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role of popular culture in producing Asian Canadians as racialized, gendered, classed and sexualized subjects, as well as the complicated agency in negotiating, contesting, consuming, reproducing, repurposing and otherwise participating in popular culture. We will also consider the transnationalisms of Asian Canadian popular cultures and their relationships to multiple nation-building projects, diasporic and migratory circuits, and global socio-economic and political formations.
In 2024W, ACAM_V 250 will be taught by a new instructor, Allen Baylosis! Allen Baylosis (he/him) is currently pursuing a PhD in Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on contemporary aesthetic performances, popular art and culture, theorizing through the lens of performance studies, transnational queer mess materialism, and the Filipinx diaspora. He holds an MA in Performance Studies (New York University) and a BA in Speech Communication (University of the Philippines Diliman).
*Please note that ACAM 250 does not go towards the minor because it’s not a 300/400 level class.
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The faculty, staff and students of the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program are deeply saddened by the passing of Mary Shinko Kato (née Nagata) on May 1, 2018. Ms. Kato was one of the 76 Japanese Canadian students forcibly removed in 1942. Along with her sister Ruth, Ms. Kato was featured in the film “
A Degree of Justice,” which was produced for
2012 convocation at UBC for the Japanese Canadian students of 1942.
Ms. Kato and her sister’s interview describes some of their experiences following the events of 1942. We are grateful for her generosity in sharing her stories so that the injustices of the past would never be forgotten.
Ms. Kato’s biography can be found in the Degree of Justice Yearbook:
ACAM would like to extend our sincere condolences to Ms. Kato’s family and friends. She is deeply missed.
Angela is a second-generation Chinese Canadian graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography (Environment & Sustainability) and a minor in Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies. Angela’s enthusiasm for digital media, community storytelling and place-based learning has led her to produce projects such as the Chinatown Sound Map, a web based platform that showcases different experiences in and with Chinatown through the perspective of sound. During her time as an undergraduate student, Angela also co-authored the Vancouver Chinatown Food Security report, which examines the loss of cultural food assets in Chinatown between 2009-2016. After graduation, Angela will be supporting the delivery of ACAM 390: The History of Chinese Migration, while continuing to pursue her interests in filmmaking and community development.
Phebe is a student of Filipino heritage, graduating with a major in International Relations and minor in ACAM. Her research interests include studying migration policy, identity formation within Filipino diasporic communities, Indigenous-immigrant relations in Canada, and Philippine foreign relations. In line with these interests, Phebe ran a student-directed seminar this semester on the Filipino diaspora in Canada. She is also involved in the ACAM program as the Student Engagement Coordinator.
As a daughter of two former refugees, Mimi Nguyen bears witness to the disconnect within her Việt Kiều community. She later pursued an education in Sociology to strengthen her understandings of the social constraints found in diasporic communities. In the middle of her degree, Mimi was fortunate enough to find home in ACAM where she has been able to incorporate her creativity with academia. She hopes to expand her work from ACAM to help build connections and provide forms of advocacy for her own and other diasporic communities.
Mary Chen is a writer and artist of colour who lives and creates on unceded Coast Salish territories. Her writing has appeared in multiple Canadian literary magazines and in 2017 was anthologized in Currents: A Ricepaper Anthology. At UBC, she was heavily involved as the Editor-in-Chief of The Garden Statuary, the English department’s undergraduate literary journal, and also as the Editorial Assistant of Canadian Literature, Canada’s premier academic journal. In 2018, Mary graduated as a UBC Wesbrook Scholar with a BFA in Creative Writing (Major) and Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies (Minor). Find her work and get in touch with Mary at cymary.com.
Virginia Tina Ly is graduating with a BA in English Literature and a minor Asian Canadian and Asian Migration studies. As the queer daughter of first generation refugees, she is intensely passionate about illuminating personal and community histories through research and videography. In 2017, she co-curated the exhibit “Tasting History: The Travelling Tales of Tea” at the Roedde House Museum in Vancouver, and has been the Publishing Assistant at the academic journal Pacific Affairs since 2016. Tina is excited to graduate and continue to pursue her passion in community storytelling.
Faculty of Art
