Vanessa (she/her) is a fourth-year transnational UBC student living on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sʔəl̀ilwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.
She is graduating with a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies, focusing on the theme of (Asian) Migration and Postcolonialism. Having migrated from Singapore to Canada to New Zealand and back to Canada again, her experiences as a third-culture kid has brought her to this major/program. She is currently a Special Projects Coordinator at ACAM.
In her free time, Vanessa loves going to the cinemas, listening to hour-long interviews, thrifting crazy coats, fangirling over books, skiing, eating, and drinking bubble tea.
What connections and ideas were you able to foster through ACAM?
I have formed some of my deepest friendships through ACAM. I’ve truly met some of the kindest souls — ones who listen with compassion, seek to understand, and who can bond over shared joy (and trauma). ACAM also gave me the space to think about my identity and history and my relation to place / to the world / and to people in a way that I haven’t had the chance to before. For this, and for all my friendships, I am truly grateful.
Name an ACAM faculty whose class had a significant impact on you and share why.
ACAM300 Dis/Orienting Canada, taught by Dr. Laura Ishiguro, was a class that changed my life. This was my first ACAM class ever and remains one of my favourite classes that I have ever taken at university. This was a class that made me feel seen in a way that I have never felt before in university. It gave me and many others the space to think critically and openly about what it means to be Asian in Canada — not just on a surface level, but on a deep and wide, nuanced and relevant way. I learned so much in that class, not just about Asian Canadian history, but about what it means to listen well, to be a good classmate, to interrogate narratives, to ask good questions, and to think about one’s identity in relation to, and not against, other identities. If you haven’t taken this class, you absolutely must!
What is one piece of advice you would give your first-year self?
Continue to explore, ask questions, and take courses which interest you! Continue getting to know the people around you for you never know who you might meet. Also, everything is going to be okay! Your current interests might feel too broad and that might scare you now, but just know that you will find your way. There is room for it all!