ART & HATSUYE 2019 Debut Issue

A R T VOLUME 1 | 2019

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H A T S U Y E THE ANNUAL OF ASIAN AMERICANS AND PACIFIC ISLANDERS AT WILLIAM & MARY

From Hatsuye Yamasaki to Roselyn Buensuceso: Asian American Women Legacies at W&M

From the Director 2

Sustainability and APIA at William & Mary

By Francis Tanglao Aguas

Four days ago, APIA finally became a major! It took fourteen years and countless student leaders and faculty whose collaboration is now a model for other institutions who want Asian American Studies. Our efforts have also paved the way for our community to support APIA in the most material way, led by our alum Benming Zhang ‘16 and his family. It is my honor to introduce the Jinlan Liu APIA Faculty Research Endowment, a gift from the Han Zhang and Jinlan Liu Family Foundation. The endowment will provide research support to jointly appointed faculty in APIA. In this way, tenured faculty who contribute to the program are able to make their participation a formal part of their contract with William & Mary. The Zhang-Liu’s gift goes a long way in our efforts towards APIA’s sustainability. For our maiden issue of Art & Hatsuye, I wanted to feature Ms Jinlan Liu’s speech articulating their family’s rationale, in supporting APIA at W&M.

From the Founding Director: 14 Years in the Making................ 2 The Story of APIA’s Charter in 2016............................................ 3 Look Back to Move Forward........ 6 APIA & the World...................... 11 Why I Majored in APIA.............. 13

TA B LE OF CON TE N TS

Senior Valedictory..................... 14 Spotlight on Faculty.................. 16 Faculty-Student Collaboration... 20 Major Work By APIA First’ Minor................................ 21 API Alumni................................ 22 Graduation Scrapbook.............. 24 Banh Mi Events......................... 26

APIA Research Provides Solutions to Challenges Faced by Asian Americans By Ms. Jinlan Liu, The Han Zhang and Jinlan Liu Family Foundation I am deeply honored to establish a faculty research endowment for the Asian Pacific & Islander Studies. This endowment is a step towards providing greater opportunities for current and future research opportunities in the Asian American community. I have been here for almost 30 years. When I came here I only had a penny in my pocket. I never thought I would be standing here at William & Mary to set up a research endowment under my name. In 1988, my husband was part of a one year exchange visitor program at the Department of Pediatric Surgery at Johns Hopkins, sponsored by the United Nations Children’s Foundation. A year later his flight to China was cancelled because Tiananmen square massacre and then two years later I came here. We decide stay in America. He passed his medical examinations, and I passed the RN test. We set up our medical office in New York city. As an immigrant parent, I spend a lot of money and time in order to provide opportunities for my children, Ben and Maggie, because I see a lot of potential for their success . Since Ben and Maggie were born in the United States they mainly learned about American history. But, it is important for them and other Asian Americans to understand the historical and current experience of people of Asian descent. I hope this research endowment will further disseminate America’s complex history with Asian Americans and provide solutions for the challenges Asian Americans face today. Thank you.

MIDDLE PHOTO: Ms. Liu and Mr. Zhang are joined by Dean of Interdisciplinary Studies Teresa Longo and Vice Provost for Global Affairs Steve Hanson. BOTTOM: Ms. Jinlan Liu, Margaret Zhang and Benny Zhang with APIA Director Francis Tanglao Aguas at the gift ceremony of the Jinlan Liu APIA Faculty Research Endowment.

By Erin Zagursky | June 20, 2016 William & Mary has established a new interdisciplinary program for Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) studies, and students may pursue a minor in the discipline beginning this fall. The Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies Program received final approval with a unanimous vote at a Faculty of Arts & Sciences meeting May 3 – the same day that W&M student Benny Zhang ’16 became the first Asian American electedto the Williamsburg City Council. Francis Tanglao-AguasThe program will be directed by Theatre Professor Francis Tanglao-Aguas and coordinated through

the Charles Center, which has allowed students to pursue a self-designed major in APIA studies for nearly a decade. “To be competitive in recruiting the best students, William & Mary, like any other successful university, is required to demonstrate that it graduates not only skilled but competitive and highly desirable leaders in their respective fields,” said Tanglao-Aguas. “My hope is that APIA studies can contribute to the training and development of a highly skilled and competitive William & Mary graduate.”

Pedagogy, research, community To complete the minor, students must earn 18 credits in APIA courses, including nine credits in the core courses: Introduction to Asian & Pacific Islander Studies, Peoples and Cultures of Polynesia, Asian American Experience, Asian Pacific American History, and Asian American Studies. Faculty members in disciplines across campus – from anthropology and history to education and Africana studies – will teach in the program, and students will

Celebration: Student and faculty advocates for the Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies Program celebrate its approval after a faculty vote in May. Photo courtesy of Francis Tanglao-Aguas

“It’s important to think of APIA studies as a pedagogical tool, a research tool, a theoretical tool and a source of community for students – a chance to study community but also an expression of community on this coast and then across the country,” said R. Benedito Ferrão, Mellon Fellow in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Ferrão helped draft the original description of the program, making it broad enough to include the study of the indigenous peoples of these communities as well as current transnational issues affecting Asia and the Pacific Islands. He and TanglaoAguas also made sure that the program would include an exploration of the various identities within the Asian and Pacific Islander American communities, including people who are transgender or queer, Ferrão said.

TH E STOR Y OF A P I A’S C H A RTE R I N 2 0 1 6

W&M establishes program for Asian and Pacific Islander American studies

have the chance to engage in research so they can add to the existing body of APIA knowledge, including the history of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans at W&M.

For many years, similar Asian American studies programs have been primarily offered by universities on the West Coast, following the Third World Liberation Front strikes of the 1960s that resulted in the establishment of ethnic studies programs at universities around the country, Ferrão said. “What is important about it now being a minor here at William & Mary is it will perhaps shift the gaze, where we think about APIA studies from another coast. … There isn’t just one APIA story, and perhaps having an East Coast program will help us think more deeply about that,” he said. Another unique aspect of the W&M program is its inclusion of the Pacific Islander American component, but Tanglao-Aguas saw that as a natural fit. The people of the Pacific Islands and Asia not only share a similar genealogical pool, they also share similar histories, he said. Jenny Kahn, an assistant professor of anthropology, has worked in the Pacific Islands for many years, conducting archaeological research and working with students of French Polynesian and Hawaiian descent. She helped TanglaoAguas develop the curriculum for the new APIA program and teaches one of the minor’s core courses, Peoples and Cultures of Polynesia. “One of my roles in the minor will be to provide students with opportunities to visit the Pacific Islands and conduct archaeological research and cultural heritage management,” said Kahn. Although her work focuses primarily on archaeology, students interested in a wide

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they can add to the existing body of APIA knowledge, including the history of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans at W&M. “It’s important to think of APIA studies as a pedagogical tool, a research tool, a theoretical tool and a source of community for students – a chance to study community but also an expression of community on this coast and then across the country,” said R. Benedito Ferrão, Mellon Fellow in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.

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Teamo Maitia-Papa, a local Tahitian crew member, and Kelly O’Toole ‘14 excavate in French Polynesia under the direction of Jenny Kahn (photo courtesy of Jenny Kahn)

William & Mary has established a new interdisciplinary program for Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) studies, and students may pursue a minor in the discipline beginning this fall. The Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies Program received final approval with a unanimous vote at a Faculty of Arts & Sciences meeting May 3 – the same day that W&M student Benny Zhang ’16 became the first Asian American electedto the Williamsburg City Council. Francis Tanglao-AguasThe program will be directed by Theatre Professor Francis Tanglao-Aguas and coordinated through the Charles Center, which has allowed students to pursue a self-designed major in APIA studies for nearly a decade. “To be competitive in recruiting the best students, William & Mary, like any other successful university, is required to

demonstrate that it graduates not only skilled but competitive and highly desirable leaders in their respective fields,” said Tanglao-Aguas. “My hope is that APIA studies can contribute to the training and development of a highly skilled and competitive William & Mary graduate.”

Ferrão helped draft the original description of the program, making it broad enough to include the study of the indigenous peoples of these communities as well as current transnational issues affecting Asia and the Pacific Islands. He and TanglaoAguas also made sure that the program would include an exploration of the various identities within the Asian and Pacific Islander American communities, including people who are transgender or queer, Ferrão said.

Pedagogy, research, community

For many years, similar Asian American studies programs have been primarily offered by universities on the West Coast, following the Third World Liberation Front strikes of the 1960s that resulted in the establishment of ethnic studies programs at universities around the country, Ferrão said.

To complete the minor, students must earn 18 credits in APIA courses, including nine credits in the core courses: Introduction to Asian & Pacific Islander Studies, Peoples and Cultures of Polynesia, Asian American Experience, Asian Pacific American History, and Asian American Studies.

“What is important about it now being a minor here at William & Mary is it will perhaps shift the gaze, where we think about APIA studies from another coast. … There isn’t just one APIA story, and perhaps having an East Coast program will help us think more deeply about that,” he said.

Faculty members in disciplines across campus – from anthropology and history to education and Africana studies – will teach in the program, and students will have the chance to engage in research so

Another unique aspect of the W&M program is its inclusion of the Pacific Islander American component, but Tanglao-Aguas saw that as a natural fit. The people of the Pacific Islands and Asia not only share a similar genealogical pool, they also share similar histories, he said. Jenny Kahn, an assistant professor of anthropology, has worked in the Pacific Islands for many years, conducting archaeological research and working with students of French Polynesian and Hawaiian descent. She helped TanglaoAguas develop the curriculum for the new APIA program and teaches one of the minor’s core courses, Peoples and Cultures of Polynesia. “One of my roles in the minor will be to provide students with opportunities to visit the Pacific Islands and conduct archaeological research and cultural heritage management,” said Kahn. Although her work focuses primarily on archaeology, students interested in a wide range of disciplines – from public policy

to sociology – may find the region of academic interest because of its unique environment, which is now seeing the effects of climate change and sea-level rise, and its history, which has included colonization and an ongoing relationship with the United States government, Kahn said. “There are a lot of different ways that somebody could use the minor along with a different type of major that could be really beneficial,” she said.

Student involvement With help from colleagues across campus, Tanglao-Aguas has been building toward the establishment of an APIA program since he started at William & Mary in 2005. However, he says that the groundwork began well before that, starting with the university’s first known Asian-American students, Art Matsu ’28 and Hatsuye Yamasaki ’37 (pictured below).

Heein Choi ‘18 in a photo from the FACES of Asian Americans project.

“Even before I came here, students were

Members of the Asian American Student Initiative pose for a photo with the shirts the group created. (photo courtesy of Francis Tanglao-Aguas)

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ART MATSU ’28: HERO AMIDST HATRED By Jack Powers | October 2, 2014 The College of William and Mary met its ancient rival Richmond on Thanksgiving Day 1926. Football Captain Arthur Matsu ’28 lined up under center in front of 7,000 spectators as the star of a school and state that would not fully accept him.

achievements were national news, as was his ethnicity. Born in Glasgow, Scotland to a Scottish mother and a Japanese father but raised in Cleveland, Matsu was the first Asian-American student admitted to the College.

Matsu, the College’s first alumnus to enter the National Football League, was a fouryear starter at quarterback. In 1928, 35 years after the founding of the program, The Flat Hat described Matsu as “the greatest quarterback that ever represented William and Mary and one of the best who ever played in the state.” Matsu’s athletic

Matsu’s race set him apart from the rest of the student body, as did his abilities both on and off the football field. Voted the “Student who has done the most for the College” as a senior in the 1928 Colonial Echo, Matsu was a member of the Seven Society and two honors fraternities, and presided over the Varsity Club his senior

year. In addition to football, Matsu played baseball and basketball and ran track for the College. Matsu was a star athlete, club leader and student scholar, but those titles disguise the extreme environment in which he lived and, astonishingly, thrived. While setting records and earning accolades both on and off the field, his state and school were actively denigrating mixedrace people. In 1924, Virginia passed the Racial Integrity Act, which divided the state into two categories — white and nonwhite — and legally forbade interracial marriage. The law read: “It shall hereafter be unlawful for any white person in this state to marry any save a white person, or a person with no other admixture of blood than white and American Indian. For the purpose of this act, the term ‘white person’ shall apply only to the person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian.” The law made it illegal for Matsu to marry any of his classmates and effectively criminalized his parents’ marriage. Prejudice in Richmond was mirrored on campus in school publications and organizations. Though the vitriol was directed primarily at African-Americans, all non-whites felt the brunt of white supremacist sentiments. An April 17, 1924 Flat Hat editorial ran near the end of Matsu’s freshman year, supporting the new law and railing against inclusive racial views. “We cannot overlook the teaching of social equality, which can have but one ultimate result — intermarriage — unless the whites of the country are taught the meaning and priceless heritage they possess in a pure white race,” the editorial reads. The editorial lambasted states that had not taken similar measures against miscegenation, which would “result in the lowering of the higher race to the level of the lower.”

All photos Courtesy of Earl Gregg Swem Library Special Collections

John Powell, a contributor and spokesman for the Racial Integrity Act, helped found a chapter of the Anglo Saxon Club of America at the College in May 1923. The club operated on campus for at least part of Matsu’s tenure. Twenty students attended the club’s first meeting. A 1924 Flat Hat article listed a section of the club’s constitution: “This organization stands … for the wise limitation of immigration and the complete exclusion of unassimilable immigration … for the preservation of racial integrity; for the supremacy of the white race in the United

Listed at 5-foot-7 and 145 pounds, Matsu was the heart and soul of the College’s offense. Campus publications commonly called him a “triple threat man,” referring to Matsu’s speed, kicking strength and throwing ability. Matsu’s teams played larger, more renowned northern squads and often threatened an upset. The cover story headline of the Nov. 1, 1925 New York Times sports section read, “Harvard wins 14-7; W&M surprises: Matsu Amazes Crowd.” The 1926 Colonial Echo detailed Matsu’s appeal: “Matsu has demonstrated his ability as one of the cleverest field generals ever at William and Mary. Aside from his precision and direction of the team on the field, ‘Art’ is a sensation in the passing medium.” While Matsu’s importance to the team was evident, his relatively reassuring biracial appearance may have contributed to the student body’s tolerance.

States of America.” All of this occurred while the College’s star quarterback was a mixed race AsianAmerican man who was routinely praised for his intelligence and athleticism. Though Matsu’s ancestry was unacceptable in an environment of rampant racial hysteria, his feet, arms and mind were celebrated. Football was a central part of life at the College in an era when games were dramatized as Homerian epics and cheering sections were vital to the reputation of the school. In a rule that defines the time, freshmen were required to attend all home games and stay the entire time. Students’ hypocritical acceptance of their team captain, at least as captured in records and publications, testifies to Matsu’s skill. A child prodigy, Matsu’s athletic prowess was noted early on. At age 13, Matsu was the subject of a nationally syndicated column by Bismarck Tribune sportswriter Paul Purman, who detailed Matsu’s early athletic accomplishments. His maturation set off a recruiting battle between Princeton and the College, an established northern power versus an upstart southern program. Matsu committed to the College and, in the course of his four-year tenure, helped build the Tribe — then called the Indians

Professor Francis Tanglao-Aguas, (now the fouding director of Asian & Pacific Islander American Studies) took inspiration from Matsu’s story in trying to build an Asian-American studies program at the College. He advances a theory for Matsu’s acceptance along this logic. “In a way, his excellence in sports coupled with good looks prefaced the notion of the model minority syndrome that many Asian Americans (and possibly other people of color) face today,” Tanglao-Aguas said in an email. “To be precise, yet without taking any of his achievements from him, Art Matsu may have been able to successfully navigate the racist period of American history because he presented an image closer to the likeness of the pervading identity coupled with his extraordinary athletic abilities in sports clearly deemed as ‘American.’ ” Later descriptions of Matsu portray a smart, tough and likable man. Matsu’s oncampus popularity was such that he even participated in a farcical ballet show with teammate Meb Davis ’28. Fifty-four years later, Davis recounted the scene in the April 1980 edition of the Alumni Gazette. “Bow-legged Art in white stockings and fluffy dress falling in my arms!” Davis told the Alumni Gazette. “I carried him offstage over my shoulder!” That “Art” became a hero for students, many of whom professed belief in the inferiority of his heritage, is undeniable and

helps explain why 800 College students cheered on their team against its rival in Richmond on Nov. 25, 1926. The College, under head coach Joshua Wilder Tasker, had become a state powerhouse by 1926. Matsu’s senior season was the finest campaign to date. The Indians came into the game against the Spiders with a 5-3 record, having dominated regional competition, falling only to national powers Harvard, Syracuse and Columbia. Matsu and go-to receiver Davis were selected to the all-state eleven by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Matsu had not lost to the Spiders in his first three years, flattening them by a combined score of 61-12 and reversing the College’s prior series record of 7-24-2. Matsu and the Indians were the heavy favorites over the Spiders in 1926. Richmond kept the game scoreless until the fourth quarter, when Matsu and company’s offensive firepower broke through for two scores in the final minutes. The Indians amassed 471 total yards on the day in a 14-0 victory. The win sent the College to a bowl match-up with Chattanooga, which had tied for first in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The Indians triumphed 9-6 thanks to Matsu’s decisive 47-yard field goal.

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— into one of the strongest teams in the South. The College enjoyed a 24-12 record against an improved schedule over Matsu’s four years. The Indians had compiled a 1619 record over the previous five seasons.

In covering the Richmond game, The Flat Hat reported, “It was just a case of a weaker team, with its back to the wall withstanding the attack of a more powerful machine for three grueling quarters only to be subdued and beaten in the closing minutes of the contest.” The article went on to state, “Captain Art Matsu, playing his final game on Virginia soil, was in a great way responsible for the Indians’ showing.” Matsu became a pioneer upon his entry into the College, and as he walked off the field victorious on Thanksgiving Day, he was a star in his own right. The College would not truly appreciate what Matsu did that day until decades later. A man of a “lower race” had beaten the Spiders and become a legend.

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As the school year ends, so, too, does FACES, the Asian American Student Initiative’s social media campaign to promote and provide a platform for sharing the many stories and experiences of Asian American students at William & Mary. Inspired heavily by the work of Humans of New York and Humans of William & Mary, FACES used Facebook throughout April 2014 and April 2015 to feature the photos and stories of Asian American students at the university. According to the Facebook page, the goal of the project was twofold: “to get students to start thinking about their own identity through Asian Americans’ experiences with race and to also spread awareness of these issues to the larger William & Mary community.” Founded in spring 2014 as a grassroots organization by Paul Atienza ‘15, Max Nikoolkan ‘14 and Priscilla Lin ‘14, the Asian American Student Initiative (AASI) focuses on not only providing awareness of

FACES highlights the stories of Asian Americans at W&M by Sydney MaHan ‘16 | May 7, 2015

Asian American identity but advocating for educational and community programming as well. “This really had its beginnings when I met Max Nikoolkan ‘14, my [teaching assistant] for THEA 340: Acting Asian American taught by Professor Francis Tanglao-Aguasduring his office hours,” said Atienza. “He had an idea about starting an organization like AASI but wasn’t sure if its membership would be sustainable. I remember telling him that it would definitely grow; we just need to get out there.” Since its inception a year ago, AASI has grown from three to 20 members and, as of last month, has become an officially recognized student organization at the university. With its continuing growth comes the opportunity for the organization as a whole to further its goals of serving as a space to promote and discuss Asian American awareness by giving students a

“AASI’s goals are many, but the core is simple: We are working towards creating an Asian American and Pacific Islander studies major at William & Mary as well as getting a tenure-track professor in the field,” said Jin Ho ‘16. “These are longterm goals, but the small steps we are taking right now, and have taken, have been extremely successful. That being said, our first and foremost job is to create a community where people really care, love and understand each other. It is students that have the potential to make change, and it is our goal to foster an environment where that potential can manifest itself into full capacity.” Currently, Asian American and Pacific Islander studies is a self-designed interdisciplinary major. Four students have graduated as Asian-American studies majors since 2009, and, with the help of faculty such as Tanglao-Aguas, the number current majors has increased to nine. Through faculty outreach, the number of courses for Asian American studies has increased, as well. FACES, began as a final project for AASI co-founders Lin and Atienza for their class, THEA 340: Acting Asian American, last spring. “We believed Asian Americans aren’t really well represented through the stereotypes that the media portrays people of Asian descent,” said Atienza. “I, personally, decided to continue the project this year, 2015, because I felt like more can be done

with the project.” Now in its second year, FACES has received immense support from not only the William & Mary community but those outside of it as well, according to Atienza and Ho. “The reception to the project this year has been immense,” said Atienza. “I’ve been getting messages from people wanting to interviewed and from those outside of William & Mary, other schools and online, curious of the process of the whole project. There were a lot more reactions to one particular post, Hiba Vohra ‘16, who talked about her experience as a South Asian American and prompted a conversation on South Asian identity. Our posts reach have skyrocketed on the AASI Facebook page from last year.” With the support of students including Chris Cordova ‘15, Caroline Goh ‘15, Michelle Zhu ‘15 and Lauren Su ‘15, Atienza was able to interview over 50 students for the current installment of FACES, twice the amount of people from last year.

AASI through its initiatives like FACES will be able to further promote the goal of creating an inclusive community in which Asian American identity is celebrated on campus. “We want the William & Mary community to realize that the Asian American community needs to be further represented on campus not only through cultural organizations,” said Ho, “because a large portion of U.S. history and today’s society is constructed by Asian Americans. It’s time for marginalized stories to be placed on the center.” AASI encourages all members of the William & Mary community to learn more by attending AASI meetings, liking its Facebook page or checking out last year’s FACES documentary by Atienza and Lin.

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voice and a safe environment to highlight social as well as academic issues.

“FACES gives the opportunity for Asian American students to either begin to think about for underclassmen, or to synthesize for upperclassmen their thoughts on their identity and their experiences as an Asian American,” said Atienza. “Every time I hear from a participant [or] someone seeing the project that they really liked the project and that it got them thinking (about their identity and who they are), it makes the work that I and my fellow FACES team in AASI do very worth it.” Overall, both Ho and Atienza believe that Paul Atienza. Photo courtesy of AASI

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APIA Major Benming Zhang becomes second W&M student, first Asian American elected to city council by Erin Zagursky | May 4, 2016

Benming “Benny” Zhang ’16 was elected to the Williamsburg City Council yesterday, becoming the second William & Mary student and the first Asian-American to ever do so. Zhang was one of three people to win four-year appointments on the council, including W&M alumni Paul Freiling ’83 and Barbara Ramsey ’75. Elaine McBeth, associate director of W&M’s public policy program, and Greg Granger also ran in the election. “This was an especially challenging but rewarding experience,” Zhang said in a press release. “I ran an honest, positive campaign. I would like to thank the community for trusting in the experience and perspective I bring to city council. I look forward to serving all citizens for the next four years, and I am eager to get to work making Williamsburg a more inclusive and vibrant city.”

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According the City of Williamsburg’s communications specialist, Zhang is believed to be the first Asian-American to have ever been elected to the council.

Scott Foster ’10, J.D. ‘14 was the first William & Mary student, beginning his work with the council in 2010 shortly after his graduation – just as Zhang will. “It’s tough; it’s definitely a juggling act,” Zhang said of campaigning while finishing his senior year at the university. “But it really forced me to get as organized as possible. I can’t imagine what it’s like for candidates with families and a job to juggle, too. So it’s not all that impossible, but it definitely was a big challenge. I had to always remember that I was a student first and then a candidate.” Zhang has been involved in Williamsburg politics since his freshman year at William & Mary, when Mayor Clyde Haulman appointed him to the Public Housing Advisory Committee. In addition to his four-year term with that body, Zhang has also served as a member of the Greater Williamsburg Chamber & Tourism Alliance and the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Revolutionary Society. Zhang began his time at William & Mary as a Sharpe Community Scholar, and, in that

role, helped found the tutoring program Merrimac Mentors. He is a self-designed major in Asian-American studies, and his senior honors thesis focuses on Arthur Matsu ’28, who is believed to be W&M’s first Asian-American graduate. Zhang, who will graduate on May 14, plans on applying to W&M Law School following a gap year. Zhang’s campaign, “My Neighbor Benny,” was organized and run by current William & Mary students with additional help from alumni. According to a press release, more than 50 volunteers worked on the campaign, getting more than 1,000 people registered to vote since January. “These guys are just really motivated, and I’m very thankful to have them on the team because they really made this possible. … Most of the things that have been done were done by students, and it’s just a testament to how capable William & Mary students can be when it comes to this race,” Zhang said. Students were also responsible for a town hall meeting held at William & Mary on April 26. The event, organized by The Flat Hat and Student Caucus, allowed four of the five candidates (Ramsey couldn’t attend) to discuss their views on the various issues facing the City of Williamsburg. Zhang said that he decided to run for the council because of some issues he wanted to see addressed by the city, whether he won or not. “There were some ideas that I wanted to see the city move forward with, and I didn’t think the other candidates were going to pursue those ideas,” he said, “so I decided to jump into the race and at least get a discussion going – if nothing else amounted, I’d be happy.” Zhang’s first priority will be getting more familiar with the how the council operates, he said. However, he also hopes to begin work on making the government more inclusive of students and exploring redevelopment options such as the implementation of “tourism zones,” which provide economic incentives to businesses related to tourism. “It would be really cool to start a conversation there and see what kind of businesses we can attract to the area,” he said. Although originally from Long Island, New York, Zhang plans to stay in Williamsburg for the foreseeable future. “I think this will be a great place to invest some of my early years and see what I can do to be an active community member and make it a better place than when I first came to it,” he said.

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APIA & AMES Awarded $210,000 Grant to Fund Student Internships in Asia by Erin Zagursky | November 14, 2018

Inaugural interns: The inaugural group of interns pose for a photo with Stephen Sheehi, Sultan Qaboos bin Said Chair of Middle East Studies and director of the AMES program, and Freeman Foundation Program Director Juefei Wang during his visit to campus in November 2018. Photo courtesy of Francis Tanglao Aguas

William & Mary students majoring in any subject will once again have the opportunity to live and work in East Asia this summer, thanks to a grant from the Freeman Foundation. The organization recently provided the university $110,000 to support a second year of Freeman Foundation internships in Asia. The program is administered and supported by W&M’s Charles Center for Academic Excellence in coordination with the Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) Studies and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) programs, and with support from the Reves Center for International Studies. Last summer — with the support of another Freeman grant — 20 W&M students took part in the program, working in a multitude of industries in locations from Tokyo to Taiwan. This semester, they are participating in a COLL 300 class that allows them to share their experiences with one another and examine their time abroad from new angles. “The Freeman initiative exemplifies William & Mary’s deep commitment to intellectual, international and cultural openness,” said Teresa Longo, dean for interdisciplinary

studies and director of the Charles Center. “Through the Freeman grant, we have created real world work experiences for our students and challenged them to bring what they learn back home to the William & Mary classroom. This is an excellent example of the Liberal Arts at work.”

The Inaugural Year The Freeman Foundation has been instrumental in expanding Asian studies at W&M, according to Francis Tanglao Aguas, professor of theatre and AsianAmerican studies and founding director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies Program. Starting in 2002, grants from the foundation have helped the university increase its Asian studies resources and courses, leading to the creation of the APIA and AMES programs. With the recent implementation of the COLL 300 course requirement at W&M, which focuses on providing students with international perspectives and experiences, Tanglao Aguas saw a chance for another collaboration with the foundation. He partnered with Sheehi, Sultan Qaboos bin Said Chair of Middle East Studies and

director of the AMES program; Deenesh Sohoni, associate professor of sociology; Joel Schwartz, professor of government and former director of the Charles Center, and other colleagues to develop a grant proposal for the internships. Once approved, a number of faculty members used their personal and professional contacts in East Asia, including graduates of the AMES and APIA programs, to identify internship possibilities for students. The professors also worked with University Advancement to identify additional alumni who might be interested in providing students internships or supporting them while abroad. The result was a wide range of opportunities in fields from business to art with companies and organizations including Nippon Neuroscience, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the East Asia Institute, the Institute for Peace and Unification, Cocoon Capital Partners, Sekitani Lab and the Jing-A Brewing Company. “One of the wonderful facets of this internship program is the diversity of student interests, not only of location but what our students are able to learn,” said

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the internship as the soil, but branch out and sort of grow a new plant with it.” The students in the class rely on each other to workshop their project ideas, garnering insights from one another’s experiences and academic interests. Sheehi also provides the students with readings and other resources, including special visitors.

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“It’s a mutual going back and forth between the scholarship that he provides and our experiences without it being an echo chamber, and I really love that aspect of the class,” said Shainwald.

(Left to right) Teresa Longo, Dean of Arts & Sciences Kate Conley, Juefei Wang, Francis Tanglao Aguas and Stephen Sheehi pose for a photo together. Courtesy photo

Tanglao Aguas. Fifty-five students from 17 majors ranging from biology to international relations applied for 20 internships in locations throughout East and Southeast Asia, including Laos, the Philippines, South Korea and Cambodia. “I was happy but not surprised (about number of students interested) because I know that the William & Mary student is really curious about the world and that our prospective applicants come to William & Mary because we belong to the top tier of universities who really encourage our students to go abroad,” said Tanglao Aguas. All of the students received $5,000 to cover their travel expenses and were connected to internship supervisors, who were asked to help them find housing. Sheehi served as the program’s coordinator and checked in with the students several times throughout their internships. Emma Shainwald ’20 and Patrick Canteros ’20 were among the inaugural interns in the program. Canteros, a double major in finance and APIA studies, worked in Hong Kong for the business firm Contineo, formerly led by W&M alumnus Mark Munoz ’97, and Vectr Ventures, a venture capital fund where Munoz now serves as a partner. Shainwald, an APIA studies major, interned in Shanghai teaching English at Bement School and working at the Yuz Museum, helping with English translation for their publications and exhibits. Canteros said that he learned much from his internships. “I learned a good amount and am transposing that to what I’m doing now

academically,” he said. “I’m taking this class on equity and portfolio management, and it’s very similar to what I was doing at Vectr. So I think it was really good for realworld application. I think it was also good for providing a lens on the industry.” Shainwald said she was able to significantly improve her Mandarin language skills as the result of the experience, and she enjoyed working with the children and learning about art. “But aside from the internship, it was helpful for me to learn how to be alone and how to learn and develop on my own,” she said. “I really enjoyed being put in these situations you can’t anticipate and seeing where they can go from there.”]

A new plant Shainwald and Canteros are now part of Sheehi’s COLL 300 course with the other students who interned. For the first half of the class, the students explored aspects of East Asia they might not have encountered, such as LGBTQ life, women’s movements or Muslim history in East Asia, said Sheehi. And in the second half, they are workshopping ideas for their final project. Sheehi teaches the COLL 300 class. (Photo by Stephen Salpukas)“The final was kind of assigned to them partially during the orientation when I asked them to keep an eye open to things they experienced, things that strike them as interesting or original or thought-provoking, something they may want to bring back with them apart from their actual internship,” Sheehi said. “It may be sparked by the internship, but I want the project separate from that. So it’s one way to use their experiences in

As the class draws to a close in December, its students will compete with those in Sheehi’s COLL 100 course on the culture of Arab food as part of “The Great W&M Asia Cook Off.” The event — to be held Dec. 3 from 5 to 8 p.m. in the Integrated Science Center’s Elements Café — will be judged by Katsuya Fukushima, a celebrity chef, and Yama Juwayni, co-owner of several Washington, D.C. restaurants. Fukushima will also give a cooking demonstration at noon that day in the Sadler Center. Tanglao Aguas is coordinating the next group of interns, and he, Sheehi and their colleagues have once again been hard at work to identify internship opportunities. This year, Tanglao Aguas is hoping to expand the list of geographical locations available and to offer additional opportunities in the humanities and arts for students. He has already made progress on those goals, arranging for internships with the Masakini Theatre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; the Office of the Deputy Rector for Internalization and Global Affairs and the Department of English Language and Literature at the International Islamic University Malaysia; the Creative Writing Center of the University of Santo Tomas, in Manila, Philippines; and the Department of Fine Arts at Ateneo de Manila University. A full list of internship opportunities for the summer of 2019 will be available on the Charles Center’s website starting Dec. 1. The deadline for applications is Feb. 1, 2019. Students — from freshmen to juniors (seniors aren’t eligible because of the fall course requirement) — majoring in any subject can apply. For next summer’s interns, Shainwald has some advice. “Be really, really open and expect the unexpected,” she said.

By David Fernandez, ’20

W H Y I MA JOR E D I N A P I A

APIA as my Barangay: The Backbone of My time at William & Mary

Having spent no more than three years my life in a single country never really let me develop an identity tied into a group of people. In the Philippines, where I am from, emphasis is placed on the “barangay” or town/community one lives in and your “kaibigans” or group of friends. This sense of community and lasting group of friends has, therefore, been difficult for me to attain. Sure, there were the bi-weekly Filipino gatherings wherever we lived, however, the combination of a new culture and attending local Spanishspeaking schools made me feel like a complete stranger. Upon arriving to America, however, I felt something different. Was it because we were planning to be here for a longer period of time? Was it a more natural sense of belonging? I still got those weird looks and microaggressions, however, I felt a connection to the struggle of the Asian American community in the United States. From stereotyping to misconceptions about affirmative action, I felt that Asian Americans had a political power yet to be mobilized at a national level. My freshman year at college, I knew I wanted to do something related to Asian Americans, I just did not know how. The vision in my head was blurry. I had almost no curriculum like APIA to follow at Virginia Tech. Upon visiting William & Mary and meeting Professor Francis Tanglao-Aguas, the vision became a little clearer. A major and classes that interested me and had a focus on my identity--the closest thing to an answer to what I want to study. APIA was one of the deciding factors for why I transferred to William & Mary, and although the process of transferring was tedious, I have not regretted the move for a moment. The community I have found at the college through APIA has been the backbone of my time here. The faculty and students in the program are incredibly passionate about our studies and sincerely care for one another in a manner I have not seen in any other major department. I now know that incorporating APIA to my studies has expanded my knowledge and concepts of what it means to be not just an Asian American, but a person of color living in America.

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Synthesizing My Liminality: Claiming My Space as a Community Mobilizer By Roselyn Buensuceso, ’19 I came into college very unattached to everything around me. Unlike my peers, I did not have a dream school. I chose William & Mary because it was financially the best option. I did not have a dream career in mind and I had no idea what I wanted to major in. My Ate (older sister) was the first to receive her Bachelor’s degree and I knew that college was the path I was meant to be on, not only for myself - but for my family. I could stress about the other details later.

SE N I OR VA LE DI CTO R Y

Following Ate’s advice, I joined the Filipino American Student Association at W&M, hoping to find a sense of familiarity. Norfolk is a very diverse city and I grew up surrounded by middle- and lowincome Filipinos, Blacks, and Hispanics in the public school system. As I joined the International Baccalaureate program at my high school, I noticed my spaces becoming increasingly more white. However, once I came to William & Mary, I had a complete culture shock of being at a PWI (predominantly white institution.) My peers came from six figure income homes, multimillion dollar empires, families in the Supreme Court, boarding schools in New England: the full ivy picture. For many of them, I was their “first Filipino friend.” I found myself yearning for a community of people that looked like me and could relate to my experiences, and FASA was the perfect outlet for me to start my journey. Through my involvement with FASA and my COLL 100 class, “Critiquing the American Dream” with Professor Riofrio, I was introduced to Professor Aguas, who at the time was the only Filipino faculty member at W&M. After taking “Acting Asian American” with him my freshman spring semester, he convinced me to take more classes in APIA...and the rest is history! Next thing I knew, I had accumulated enough credits to declare a minor in APIA. During my sophomore year, I went to Professor Aguas’ office hours aiming to minor in APIA - and came out of the meeting an official APIA major.

Majoring in APIA was instrumental not only in my academic development, but in my personal life as well. I embraced my identities as a Filipino American, first generation college student, and woman of color at a PWI. Now, I am deeply involved in activism in my many interests: reproductive rights, sexual health, human trafficking and sexual violence prevention, issues in diversity, and immigration. I love seeing how my APIA and Kinesiology majors connect and being able to channel my learning through community mobilization. The knowledge and skills I gained from APIA also landed me an internship last summer with Amnesty International. I had the opportunity to work down the street from Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court – symbols of institutions who have historically oppressed AAPI communities – and participate in grassroots activism on a macro level. There was even a day where I found myself standing at the foot of the Supreme Court with my co-workers as we were protesting the Trump v. Hawaii decision. The Court also cited Korematsu v.

to minor in APIA - and came out of the meeting an official APIA major. Majoring in APIA was instrumental not only in my academic development, but in my personal life as well. I embraced my identities as a Filipino American, first generation college student, and woman of color at a PWI. Now, I am deeply involved in activism in my many interests: reproductive rights, sexual health, human trafficking and sexual violence prevention, issues in diversity, and immigration. I love seeing how my APIA and Kinesiology majors connect and being able to channel my learning through community mobilization. The knowledge and skills I gained from APIA also landed me an internship last summer with Amnesty International. I had the opportunity to work down the street from Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court – symbols of institutions who have historically oppressed AAPI communities – and participate in grassroots activism on a macro level. There was even a day where I found myself standing at the foot of the Supreme Court with my co-workers

as we were protesting the Trump v. Hawaii decision. The Court also cited Korematsu v. United States, a case that I studied heavily in my APIA classes. This decision justified and defended the President’s choice to intern Japanese Americans during World War II. It was surreal to witness the history I studied on W&M’s campus being reappropriated in one of the country’s most powerful institutions. Furthermore, I produced a play this year for FASA’s Culture Night, “Sa Pagitan.” It was W&M FASA’s first political show and it touched on immigration, DACA, xenophobia, and mixed race identity. I believe that “Sa Pagitan” is the synthesis of my learning in APIA. Watching this play connect with theory in my classes made me realize that this show was my praxis. The responses to “Sa Pagitan” were historic and overwhelmingly positive. I couldn’t be more grateful for everyone’s support along the way, especially from Professor Aguas. After I graduate, I hope to be working in the non-profit sector advocating for some of my many interconnected interests. As I write this essay, just after eating dinner with my APIA family and getting frozen yogurt with Professor Ferrão on a Friday night, I am so filled with love and gratitude for my friends in APIA who continue to inspire and motivate me - and to all of my professors who supported me from the very beginning of my journey. I am leaving this university comforted by the fact that even though APIA made so many groundbreaking waves during my four years here, we are only getting started. I cannot wait to see what the next generation has in store for this incredible program.

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W&M professor’s exhibition celebrates the complexity of Goan identity by Kristen Popham ‘20 | December 11, 2017

As students begin departing for their winter holiday break, R. Benedito Ferrão will spend his new year in Goa, employing the power of art and remembrance to actualize a modified understanding of the region’s cultural identity. “I think art is so important because it literally illustrates the kinds of things that get forgotten,” said Ferrão, enthusiastically explaining the significance of one octogenarian artist — Vamona Navelcar — who represents the complexity of a hidden culture and serves as the subject of Ferrão’s research initiative. R. Benedito FerrãoFerrão, an assistant professor of English and Asian & Pacific Islander American studies at William & Mary, will be presenting an exhibition in Goa from Dec. 12, 2017, to Jan. 12, 2018. Titled “Goa/Portugal/Mozambique: The Many Lives of Vamona Navelcar,” the event will feature and celebrate Navelcar’s artistic work, complex story and cultural legacy. Ferrão emphasized that Vamona Navelcar’s story embodies the multiplicity of experiences and cultures that constitute the Goan identity. Having become indirectly “embroiled” in the historical and cultural consequences of decolonization, Navelcar “speaks to a forgotten time and place in the world.”

SP OTL I GH T ON FACU LTY

Before fully addressing the value of Navelcar’s story, Ferrão articulated the importance of understanding the world Navelcar inhabited as a Goan artist during the period of decolonization. Navelcar grew up in Goa, what Ferrão termed “a very tiny part of the world” that was colonized by the Portuguese in 1510. In 1961, India invaded Goa, seizing control from the Portuguese. Shortly before this claim to power, Ferrão explained that the young artist, Navelcar, became unexpectedly enmeshed in the region’s political affairs. He received a scholarship from the then-Portuguese-dictator to travel to Portugal and practice his art.

An artist in action: Vamona Navelcar’s story embodies the multiplicity of experiences and cultures that constitute the Goan identity. Courtesy Photo

“I think the dictator was doing a little bit of ‘PR’ here,” said Ferrão with a laugh. “These are the waning days of colonialism. British India has already disbanded. The Portuguese are holding on as steadfastly as they can to these few dominions they have left around the world.” Following Navelcar’s travel to Portugal and the 1961 Indian takeover of Goa, Navelcar found himself in a precarious situation: “He is a Portuguese citizen of Goan origin, but now Goa is no longer Portuguese,” Ferrão said. Instead of returning home, Navelcar traveled to Mozambique, where the newly decolonized government places him, among other artists, into a hard labor camp. When he is freed, Ferrão said, “He’s so heartbroken from what happened to him that he decides to leave and return to Portugal. He gets to [Portugal], but his suitcase doesn’t. In one fell swoop, he loses everything. His suitcase is never found.”

In a few years, when the artist returns to Goa, then under Indian control, he finds “the aesthetic, the way of thinking about art, does not include him.” The artistic mores of India, having “communicated themselves to Goa,” had developed into the “dominant strain of culture and heritage,” Ferrão explained. “There’s a push towards the fixity of Goan identity as it must only mirror Indian identity — I call it a push because that’s not what Goan identity is, it is these multiple things,” he said. At the time, Ferrão said, Navelcar’s art doesn’t “fit into the larger imaginary of the way in which India thinks of itself and the world thinks of India,” which had become intertwined with the global understanding of Goa. As a result, Navelcar’s art, which embodies a distinct cultural complexity of his own life, and the Goan experience, becomes largely unappreciated.

When Ferrão first learned of Navelcar’s story while residing in Goa, he was captivated. He recognized an overlap with his own personal history, his mother having been born and raised in East Africa, and his father having lived in Portuguese Goa. “These stories were not foreign to my own existence, but they seemed to be rapidly forgotten in the contemporary moment,” he said. “Here is a man from that past who is still living, but yet seemed to be forgotten. To this day, he continues to produce art that speaks to these multiple strands of Goan history, and also world history at the same time.” Ferrão is encouraging more people to stand up and pay attention. As a member of the Al-Zulaij Collective, working in conjunction with the Fundação Oriente to host the event in Goa, Ferrão is offering the exhibition to “resurface not only [Vamona Navelcar,] but a kind of heritagethat’s still living.”

Asked to articulate the implications of the exhibition for the Goan, and global, community, Ferrão explained, “There’s a Portuguese word, saudade, which means loss, yearning and nostalgia. Even in saying that, there’s no direct equivalent in English. The condition of saudade could be taken to mean ‘loss,’ but the word is both ‘loss’ and ‘nostalgia.’ There’s that small space in this strange word that tells us just because something is not seen, it doesn’t mean it goes away. “Navelcar’s very presence, his art and life story are a reminder that even though the politics of place or the dominant heritage of a place might represent one thing, there are several things on the margin that don’t go away. By not paying attention to them, we’re doing them a huge disservice.” Ferrão’s month-long exhibition will tell a story about Goa that corrects this disservice by connecting the region to multiple paths

of the world, addressing the intricacies of Goan identity, and bringing back to life that which has been forgotten, but will never go away.

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Finding faces: Led by Joanna Schug (right) and Monika Gosin, researchers examined photos in six popular, American magazines. The faces were coded for perceived gender (male and female) and perceived race in the categories of East Asian, black, white or other. Altogether, researchers coded 8,124 individuals in the 30 magazine issues. Photo by Stephen Salpukas

Study finds Asian men, black women underrepresented in magazines by Erin Zagursky | MISSING YEAR

SP OTL I GH T ON FACU LTY

Although publications in recent years have been paying closer attention to diversity, gender stereotypes related to race are still apparent in the pages of U.S. magazines, according to a recent interdisciplinary study conducted by William & Mary faculty and student researchers. Led by Professors Joanna Schug and Monika Gosin, the researchers examined photos in six popular, American magazines and found that Asian men and black women were underrepresented, potentially due to stereotypes that associate femininity with Asian people and masculinity with black people. The study is the first to show that not only are black women rendered “invisible” in media depictions, but Asian men are, too, said Schug, an assistant professor of psychology. “I think we’re showing evidence of genderbased stereotypes on a cultural level and not just a psychological level,” she said.

The study, “Gendered race in mass media: Invisibility of Asian men and Black women in popular magazines,” was published online by the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture on Aug. 24. Along with Schug and Gosin, it was coauthored by Nicholas Alt, a graduate student in psychology at W&M; Jennifer Fay, a 2015 graduate of W&M; and Philip Lu, a graduate student in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Proportional underrepresentation The idea for the study originally came from research that was done on interracial dating and marriage, which found that, statistically, “black women and Asian men are generally not the preferred partner in interracial couples,” said Gosin, assistant professor of sociology. For instance, added Schug, couples with black men and white women are much more common than couples with white men

and black women, and marriages between Asian women and white men are much more common than those between Asian men and white women. “The effect is even more pronounced for Asian and black couples, which are much more likely to be between an Asian woman and a black man,” Schug said. As Schug considered those findings, she began paying attention to depictions of black women and Asian men in the media and decided to reach out to Gosin, who teaches classes on race and media and media and society. “I needed an expert who knows about media studies and knows about research on intersectionality, and so she brought in a lot of citations from Asian-American studies, which I had no idea about, and it just kind of blew my mind away that there’s all this research that had been done,” said Schug. Armed with that knowledge, Schug gathered a group of undergraduate students to begin the study. Led by Fay, the students coded all

of the faces that appeared in five issues each of GQ and Vogue (fashion magazines), Men’s Health and Women’s Health (fitness), and Maxim and Cosmopolitan (sexual themes). “They just went through page by page, and they had a paperclip about a quarter of an inch in height,” said Schug. “They’d just hold that up, and if the face was bigger than that paperclip was, they would have to code it.” The faces were coded as for perceived gender (male and female) and perceived race in the categories of East Asian, black, white or other. Altogether, the students coded 8,124 individuals in the 30 magazine issues. “Overall, we found that when blacks were depicted, they were more likely to be men, and when Asian were depicted, they were more likely to be women, proportionally,” said Schug. “Whites were in the middle. Overall, there were, of course, a lot more whites in general, so there was not a lot of diversity, which is unfortunate but is something that has been found in dozens and dozens of studies.”

Asian men. In another study, 326 people (including male, female and black, white and Asian participants) were asked to write a short story about a typical college senior taking a trip. Overall, participants were more likely to create a male character. Asked to create a black character, the participants often thought of a man, and, asked to think of an Asian character, they were more likely to think of a woman, compared to people who wrote about a white character. Both of Schug’s studies align with the theories of gendered race and intersectional invisibility, the professors said. Intersectional invisibility is the tendency for people who have overlapping marginalized identities to regularly get ignored, said Schug. For instance, she added, black women, who belong to two marginalized groups, were often overlooked both during the civil rights movement – which focused more on black men – and the feminist

Controlling for magazine type, the results were the same, meaning that black women and Asian men were again underrepresented proportionally regardless of the genre of the publication.

“With Asian masculinity not being represented, it kind of gives the message that Asian men are not as masculine as the men who are represented, and similar with black women,” said Gosin.

Intersectional invisibility and gendered race The study builds on previous research conducted by Schug and published in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology earlier this year. In one part of that study, Schug showed that, as in previous studies with black women, people (in this case, a group of non-Asian undergraduates) were less likely to remember statements made by

The stereotypes regarding Asian men and black women that the researchers found reflected in their study have roots in centuries-old power struggles, said Gosin. “In both cases, it was always about maintaining a particular power differential, and to do that, not only is race used but sex, too,” she said. “So the intersectionality aspect has been a way to keep marginalized groups marginalized, to say, ‘Their sexuality is deviant so they could never be where we are. Their men are not as masculine as we are, and their women are hyper-masculine’ – those types of things.” Many of the stereotypes that people hold manifest themselves in the media, said Schug, “and that’s how a lot of people learn stereotypes.” “Because it’s so normative to see these images, they aren’t questioned,” added Gosin. “People don’t really say, ‘There aren’t that many Asian men in this magazine.’ They don’t ask that question.” Gosin and Schug (Photo by Stephen Salpukas)Although people in the United States – including those in the media business – are now making an effort to pay more attention to diversity, they are not likely paying attention to intersectionality, said Schug.

The researchers also found many more women in women’s magazines and more men in men’s magazines, with the exception of Maxim, a leading men’s lifestyle magazine known for its annual “Hot 100” list of women. “Some people say that women are portrayed in a sexualized manner for the eyes of men, but that’s not the case,” said Schug. “If anything, the women in the women’s magazines, well there’s a lot more of them and they’re very sexualized. So it’s kind of showing women ideal forms of femininity: This is what you should be, this is how women should be. The same thing happens in the men’s magazines, which show ideal forms of masculinity.”

Longstanding stereotypes and the way forward

movement – which centered mostly on white women. Gendered race theory, which is primarily based on research focused on the United States, is a more recent idea that says that people can have “stereotypes about stereotypes,” Schug said. “You can have a stereotype about race, and that stereotype can actually have a gendered component,” she said, “so you may think of certain groups as being more masculine or feminine.” Although Asian men, being male, may not necessarily belong to two marginalized identities as defined by intersectional invisibility, gendered race theory shows that they may still be rendered invisible because of the gender stereotype attached to their race, making them non-prototypical. “Asian-American scholarship has pointed out that they don’t benefit from male privilege in the same ways as white men because there’s a stereotype that their maleness is not enough, that they are more feminine,” said Gosin.

“So they say, ‘We have a black person. We have an Asian person here. We have the colors represented.’ But they’re not looking at subtle things that matter in terms of these intersections,” said Gosin. The researchers hope that their study will help bring to light the topics of intersectionality and gendered race, even as they continue to explore it. One question that was raised by the study, they said, was how these media depictions impact selfimage. “So do Asian men suffer because of this? Do black women suffer because of the fact that they’re not represented in the media? What does that look like today?” said Gosin. Whatever the next step, the two professors look forward to continuing to work together across disciplines. “That definitely was a great thing in terms of the collaboration, just being able to look at topics from a different disciplinary point of view,” said Gosin. “It helps you broaden the way you do your own work and think about your own work.”

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Student actress takes on complex lead role in provocative ‘Asuncion’ By Jennifer L. Williams | February 23, 2017

Warnings come with William & Mary theatre’s upcoming production of “Asuncion” advising of explicit language and content, including drug use, sex and race. Lead actress Jolene Mafnas ’17 smiles knowingly as she talks about the challenge of playing Asuncion. The title character’s name tellingly means Our Lady of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Spanish. “Asuncion,” written by Jesse Eisenberg, opens Feb. 28 at the Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall Studio Theatre and runs through March 3 and March 15-18. “Hopefully it gives people feelings, no matter how uncomfortable they may be,” Mafnas said. The role is well outside her comfort zone as well. She isn’t a theatre student, has only taken Introduction to Beginning Acting and been in one play, and is well aware of the complexities of the characters and material.

FACU LTY – STU DE NT CO LLA BOR AT I ON

The plotline is the reaction of two “openminded” young men when a young Filipina woman suddenly becomes their roommate. It is a comedy designed to raise questions about stereotypes, gender, race and sexuality. Both Mafnas and director Francis TanglaoAguas, a W&M theatre professor and founding director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies Program, are of Filipino descent and had met before she came to the university. He was a judge and she a contestant in the regional Miss Teen Philippines pageant when Mafnas was in high school in Northern Virginia, and she said his encouragement to check out W&M led to her enrolling. Mafnas’ ties to the Filipino community include her mother’s active involvement with the Filipino American organization in Northern Virginia, where she coordinates social appearances involving its members and the Filipino Embassy. Acting after college isn’t on the horizon for Mafnas, who said there are few roles for Asian-Americans and she considers herself very green. She will graduate in December with a double major in kinesiology, with

a concentration in public health, and environmental science and policy. She is considering a future career in sustainability, and though it is very global she said it’s important to take care of issues here in the U.S. as well. She is most interested in agricultural food system issues, and is also passionate about writing. Mafnas took on the role of Asuncion, she said, because an Asian-American actress was needed and her boyfriend, a theatre major, encouraged her to try out. She read the script and said she “sort of” liked her character, who though thoroughly maligned by the men is not without her own foibles. Mafnas’ portrayal of Asuncion is challenging, she said, because TanglaoAguas wants a more nuanced and complex character than the originally-written role. Mafnas said she felt she was cast for it because of her capability to do that. “What I enjoy the most working with students on shows is how invested and impassioned they are no matter how far their majors seem to be on the surface from theatre,” Tanglao-Aguas said. “Jolene, for instance, has been relentless and fearless in tackling the role of Asuncion. She has this innate ability to translate the intellectual points we want to make into believable character actions. “That’s why I am not surprised how much she wants our message to come across to the audience. Theatre major or not, she definitely has the instincts of an artist educated in a liberal arts university such as William & Mary.” Mafnas said that Eisenberg, best known for his role as Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network,” uses Asuncion as a prop to get his message across. “And I guess I like his message given that I’m a minority, which is basically how neoliberal college students tend to exploit cultures for their own self-gratification of trying to prove themselves to be a good person or trying to prove themselves to be open and understanding, or trying to show that they’re educated because they care about this minority,” Mafnas said.

“But at the same time, they automatically make a minority or a different culture a victim in order to play up the fact that, oh, I’m being their savior.” She added that Eisenberg himself talked of traveling to Cambodia and making assumptions about people living there that were inherently racist. The show is designed to make the audience uncomfortable and aware of the things it’s laughing at, TanglaoAguas said. In “making fun of everyone and everything,” its intent is to provoke awareness. The set is purposed for that as well, with all the action taking place in a tiny apartment. The audience’s proximity to the characters in the small Studio Theatre will put them close to the cramped quarters. Mafnas is concerned about how it will all come across, but hopes people will come to see the show. “It’s a controversial topic,” Mafnas said. “But I think given the type of campus we have, it’s important to be discussed.”

“Asuncion” opens Jolene Mafnas ‘17 plays the lead role in Jesse Eisenberg’s “Asuncion,” opening Feb. 28 at Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall. Photo by Stephen Salpukas

to exclusion laws prohibiting Chinese women from coming to the United States, these Chinatowns largely consisted of only Chinese men. More so, outsiders generally viewed Chinatowns as disease-ridden, crime-filled and opium-addicted (Nakamura 216-217). This perception of Chinatown further isolated Chinese American men from the rest of America, and thus, they had to come up with their own forms of entertainment.

The modern rules of 9 man are fairly similar to normal volleyball rules with a few notable exceptions, the most obvious difference being that 9 man is played with nine players on a team rather than six. The most important rule is that 9 man is restricted to Asian males. More specifically, out of the nine players on each side, at least six of them have to be of 100% Chinese descent, and the other three players must be of Asian descent. This rule is taken very seriously; as seen in Liang’s 9-Man, tournament supervisors and coaches often challenge the ethnicity of other players, forcing these players to prove their heritage with official documentation.

In addition, Chinese men were often feminized by American society, partly due to their living conditions in “bachelor community” Chinatowns. “Oriental sexuality was constructed as ambiguous, inscrutable, and hermaphroditic,” and Chinese men were usually restricted to traditionally feminine jobs (Lee 85). Following the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Chinese immigrants were “increasingly limited to cleaning the clothing or houses of the middle class” (Tchen xxii). In the documentary 9-Man, an older Chinese American man recalls how white people would come into Chinese restaurants and harass the Chinese American waiters by making disparaging remarks about their manhood and sometimes even refusing to pay the bill. Feeling as if they could not go to the police for help, Chinese Americans at the time simply had to take the abuse. These circumstances made it necessary for the Chinese American men of the time to create a unique way to demonstrate their masculinity.

In order to fully understand the sport, 9 man volleyball must be put into historical context. In 9-Man, John Tchen notes that during much of the 19th and 20th centuries, American society and laws were hostile towards Chinese Americans, causing them to form isolated Chinatowns. Due

Therefore, Chinese American men in the early 20th century needed a way to pass the time due to their isolation from the rest of American society, but more importantly, they needed a way to reclaim their masculinity from a society that forced them into traditionally feminine jobs and only

9 Man: Defining Asian American Masculinity By Jacqueline Chan

saw them as sexually ambiguous. 9 man volleyball was the answer; many of these Chinese immigrants were from Toishan and already knew how to play (Liang). As a game that involved diving onto the filthy concrete streets and slamming a ball 6080 miles per hour into the ground, 9 man was the epitome of a masculine pursuit. In 9-Man, Tchen hypothesizes that 9 man and other street sports would have been a way for the Chinese American men in Chinatown to get some physical release after a long day working in traditionally feminine jobs such as the laundromat. Therefore, 9 man volleyball became a way for Chinese American men to both entertain themselves and validate their masculinity in a society that isolated and feminized them.

MA JOR W OR K BY A P I A F I R ST M I N OR

Angry Cantonese curse words mixed with volleyball lingo. Men throwing themselves on a scorching-hot concrete court. This is 9 man volleyball, the street sport that has become a crucial aspect of the Asian American male identity and community. It began when missionaries and Chinese immigrants returning home from America introduced volleyball to the Chinese city of Toishan during the 1920’s, where the sport was eagerly accepted and adapted into a street sport. 9 man volleyball gradually became popular within Chinese American communities as more Toishanese began immigrating to the United States; by the early 1940’s, it had become a common fixture in Chinatowns across America. Currently, the sport is played almost exclusively in Chinese American communities in North America.

The origins of 9 man are still present today, as 9 man volleyball players use the sport to defy the model minority myth that continues to haunt Asian Americans. According to the model minority myth, Asians are physically weak, passive, and quiet. In contrast, the 9 man players featured in the documentary, 9-Man, are overtly athletic and masculine to the point of overcompensation. They call normal volleyball “sissy ball,” and claim that the sport requires a “warrior mentality.” One young player, Mike Anderson openly admits “it’s a masculinity thing, cause everyone thinks Asian guys are little guys that should become super computers” (Liang). Because the model minority myth excludes Asians from spaces of physical activity, Asian men continue to use 9 man as a way to prove their strong, athletic, masculine qualities. In creating 9 man, a faster, street version of normal volleyball that only Asians can participate in, Asian American males have also created their own version of Asian American masculinity centered on power, speed and aggression while simultaneously defying the model minority stereotype that classifies them as timid, weak, and academically minded. One of the most intense moments of the documentary 9-Man is when a brawl breaks out between two teams at the traditional national tournament banquet, complete with broken glass and thrown chairs. In a way, this brawl is the ultimate culmination of sport, where the need to show masculinity through physical action prevails above all else. At its core, 9 man was, and continues to be, a self-segregated space for Asian American men to prove their masculinity in a society that continues to stereotype them as physically weak and un-athletic.

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Alumni pioneers: Before W&M had an APIA program, they created their own majors

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By Erin Zagursky | June 20, 2016 Although the Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies Program was just established at William & Mary at the beginning of May, students have been pursuing degrees in the discipline for nearly 10 years with self-designed interdisciplinary majors.

Professor Francis Tanglao-Aguas. “I was very much into that because I was very much an advocate for these ethnic studies courses, whether it be a Latino American major or black studies major,” Hong said. “By having the selfdesigned major and making it a reality, it was definitely a way for other students to follow.” And follow they did. A total of 13 students have graduated from W&M with a selfdesigned major in the discipline, each tailored to the interests of the individual student. “APIA is always training community leaders, people who can build communities, who are proactive, innovative,” said Tanglao-Aguas, “people who bring wit Abhay Ahluwalia ’12h them a process of creation and innovation. … We graduate people who know how to create their own opportunities based on the knowledge base that is APIA studies, and we’ve proven this.” After Hong, Hasan Ali ’12 and Abhay Ahluwalia ’12 were the next students to pursue self-designed majors in Asian

A P IA A LU M N I

Edward Hong ’09 was the first student to receive such a degree, focusing his work on the history of Asian American performers. Now an actor in California, he is not only using what he learned to inform his craft, but to also contribute to conversations about race in TV and film in a time when the “whitewashing” of Asian or Asian American roles has garnered national attention. Edward Hong ‘09“I’m really glad I did it because when someone knows the history of things, you have a better understanding of where things need to get better,” he said. Hong decided to pursue the self-designed major in Asian American studies during his junior year under the guidance of Theatre

American studies, focusing on theatre and cinema. Ali also majored in process management consulting, and Ahluwalia studied business consulting with a concentration on marketing. “I was interested in pursuing a degree in APIA because no other major allowed me to take the classes I was truly interested in,” said Ahluwalia, who, like Hong, is now an actor in California. “I would also add that I probably learned the most I have ever in my life about East and South Asian cultures by really diving into their histories through storytelling, performing, and watching historically relevant videos as well as modern pieces of art and film. Having Francis as my professor also helped a lot because he was so interested in everything he was teaching that it was hard for the energy to not rub off on his students. ” Ali, who founded his own K-12 tutoring company in the Washington, D.C., area after forgoing an acceptance to medical school, said that the major helped give him the confidence to make bold choices with his life. “It will give you this set of resources and equip you with this sense of individuality and uniqueness,” he said. “… I think the value of it is immense. I definitely loved it, thought it was a fantastic experience, and if I had to do it all over again, I would, and this time around I might start even sooner.” Arya Espahbodi ‘15Arya Espahbodi ’15 was among the fourth group of Asian American studies majors at the university, along with Jonathon Hsu ’15 and Paul Atienza ’15. He focused his major on Asian American diaspora studies while also majoring in applied mathematics with a scientific concentration. As someone who is half Iranian, a quarter Indian and a quarter Hispanic, Espahbodi was interested in learning about his own identity, he said.

PHOTOS FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Edward Hong ‘09, Abhay Ahluwalia ’12, Arya Espahbodi ‘15

“Furthermore, I was curious to learn about the identities of others with similar/different backgrounds and how our identities are similar/different,” said Espahbodi. “Outside of my family unit, I did not know much about Iranian, Indian and Asian Pacific Islanders in general.” Pursuing the major allowed Espahbodi, now a high-school teacher in Baltimore, to learn about his similarities and differences with those peoples and others, he said. “It connected the plight and struggles of Asian Americans with other minorities such as African Americans and Hispanics,” he said. “It truly gave me insight to my life and how it was similar/different to other minorities.” For example, in a Asian Pacific American history class that Espahbodi took, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and History Chinua Thelwell asked the students to make personal connections to the classroom topics. “One topic was Japanese internment,” said Espahbodi. “A direct result of widespread fear of Japanese Americans during World War II, internment is very similar to the issue of Islamophobia today as some political figures are willing to categorize and marginalize an entire group of people because of irrational fears of others.”

like me and my peers did,” said Ahluwalia. “Until we had approval from William & Mary, we simply did not know whether these classes we were taking would count toward anything. It was a relief to get the approval letter back when I submitted my Asian American theater and film major for consideration.” Ahluwalia thinks it’s important that William & Mary expand its APIA studies offerings as well as similar ethnic studies programs so that students get a better understanding of “what it means to be human in different parts of the world,” he said. “The students in these classes will someday be the leaders of the world, and the more we learn and understand in college not only makes us love and appreciate people from various parts of the world even more but also allows us to realize that they too are human like us,” said Ahluwalia. “They experience happiness, sadness, hunger and pain. They may have different ways of dressing and expression than us, but they are equally as human. It is that understanding which I believe allows us to respect one another and ultimately live in peace and harmony without feeling the need to press upon others our way of living or beliefs.”

Espahbodi and the other Asian American studies alumni were delighted to see a program for Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies established at the university earlier in May so that current and future students can more easily pursue their interest in the field.

As Hong pursues his acting career, what he learned through Asian American studies is always on his mind – whether he is discussing the historical context of modernday “whitewashing” (white actors being cast as Asian or Pacific Islander characters) or deciding whether he should take a stereotypical part – even if he could really use the money.

“I think the new APIA program will allow students to easily access the program of study they are interested in without having to put together their own major

“There have been times where I’ve turned down auditions, I’ve turned down roles because of that, despite my agent going, ‘It’s not that big of a deal,’” Hong said.

“I’m like, yeah, but I think it is because there is nothing of value to come from this role. It’s just going to make people look at Asians in a very negative light, and that’s not something I want to play.” Although Hong has several roles coming up on the big screen and TV – including a part in the upcoming Dakota Fanning movie “Please Stand By” and a recurring role on the series “Devious Maids” – one he will always be known for at William & Mary is the university’s first Asian American studies major. “It’s weird to see anyone who is part of history. When you think you were the first, you were the benchmark, the pioneer, it’s always a weird feeling that you are part of something much greater,” he said. “At times, I’m like, I’m just an actor, I don’t really see how I pioneered or contributed to history in any way, but when I see this Asian American minor be official now, it’s like I played a part in that, and it led to so many things to come. “My reaction was kind of disbelief, but once that went away, it was sheer happiness that this is becoming an official path for students to take.”

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APIA Milestones 24

2008 | APIA’s first ever major, Edward Hong ’09 (in yellow shirt, top row) posing here with spoken word duo, YELLOW RAGE, on their visit to William & Mary on October 12, 2008. Hong was producing director of IPAX: International Performance Arts eXchange, a performance troupe with a view to diversifying the creative landscape of William & Mary. IPAX was instrumental in educating the college community on the importance of an academic program in Asian & Pacific Islander American Studies.

GR A DUAT I ON SC R A P BOO K

2015 | Jonathan Hsu’s original one man show honors thesis earned Highest Honors in APIA in 2015.

2016 | The founder of AASI: Asian American Student Initiative Max Nikoolkan, APIA Class of 2014 (seated, second from the right) visited the current members during homecoming 2016.

2015 | APIA’s Class of 2015 joined their peers from Africana Studies’ Class of 2015.

2015 | Mrs. Jinlan Liu of the Han Zhang-Jinlan Liu gifted APIA $30,000 towards retaining Professor R. Benedito Ferrao on the faculty in 2016. Top photo: Professor Ferrao, Professor Aguas, Ms. Liu, and alum Benny Zhang. Bottom photo shows Professor Aguas turning over the gift to William & Mary’s Advancement Office.

2016 | Jin Hyuk Ho, ’16 and So Dam Hong ’16 were awarded the Art Matsu ’28 Prize for Excellence in APIA. So Dam wrote a thesis and pedagogical project on teaching North Americans about North Korea. Jin produced a documentary film entitled “Why We Need APIA Studies.” Both Jin and So Dam co-created and team taught the course Korean American Diaspora Studies with Professor Francis Tanglao Aguas.

2017 | Norfolk State University Professor April Manalang (8th from the right) presented a talk on religion, politics and the Filipino American community of the Hampton Roads. 2018 | APIA faculty and students hosted newly appointed William & Mary President Katherine A. Rowe with a lunch reception on October 28, 2018. Top Row, L-R: Professor Joanna Schug, Professor Andrea Wright, Professor Francis Tanglao Aguas, President Rowe, David Fernandez ’20, Professor Deenesh Sohoni, Sylvia Greer ’19. Bottom Row, L-R: Maggie Chu ’20, Patric Canteros ’20, Jamelah Jacob ’21, and Roselyn Buensuceso ’21.

2017 | APIA Class of 2017 pictured here in delightful glee at the completion of their capstone presentations. L-R: Matthew Nguyen-Ngo, Julian Iriarte, Felicia Wong, Woo Chan Nam, and Pallavi Rudraraju.

2019 | Dean of Interdisciplinary Studies Teresa Longo and Vice Provost for Global Affairs Steve Hanson join Ms. Jinlan Liu and Benny Zhang, APIA Class of 2016 for the gift ceremony of the Jinlan Liu APIA Faculty Research Endowment. 2019 | The University of Virginia invited Professor Francis Tanglao Aguas and APIA majors Maggie Chu and Patrick Canteros as guest speakers for a panel on UVa students’ efforts to expand Asian American Studies. To the right of Professor Aguas are Maggie Chu, Patrick Canteros, Mitchell Kim, and Jamelah Jacob.

25 2017 | President Taylor Reveley awards CNN Editor Leezel Tanglao the 2017 Hatsuye Yamasaki Award for Visionary Leadership in honor of William & Mary’s first ever woman student of color. Pictured here joining them are Professors R. Benedito Ferrao and Deenesh Sohoni.

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‘Buffalo Soldier’ exhibit highlights role of black service members in Philippine-American War By Justin K. Thomas | February 23, 2017

Filipino civilians dying from violence, disease and famine. According to official records of the Presidio of San Francisco, the military garrison charged with housing companies from black infantry units before deployment to the island nation, many black leaders and black-owned newspapers like the Indianapolis Freeman supported the inclusion of African-American soldiers in the war.

BA H N M I E VE N TS

Group Photo Officers and men also called “Buffalo Soldiers” of the U.S. Army’s all-black 9th Calvary Regiment take a group photo prior to deploying from San Francisco to participate in combat operations in the Philippine-American War. Photo Courtesy of U.S. Army Center of Military History

Photos and illustrations illuminating the lives of Buffalo Soldiers during the Philippine-American War are currently on display in Swem Library’s Botetourt Gallery as part of an exhibit organized by the William & Mary Asian & Pacific Islander American Studies program.

“We are thrilled to welcome this exhibit into the library,” said Carrie Cooper, dean of university libraries. “It is especially timely as the university is preparing to mark the 50th anniversary of African-American residential students.”

Hidden Virginia History: The Connection between the Buffalo Soldiers and the Philippines will be on display until May 15.

The Philippine-American War

The exhibit is a collaboration between the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Norfolk State University, the Filipino American National Historical Society – Hampton Roads Chapter and W&M to promote the actions of African-American service members — or Buffalo Soldiers — participating in combat operations in the Philippines between 1899 and 1902. Research, writing and fabrication for the exhibit was conducted by members of the Filipino American Historical Society – Hampton Roads Chapter led by Dr. April T. Manalang of Norfolk State University. The lead historian for the project was Jeffrey Acosta an adjunct instructor of U.S. History at Tidewater Community College and vice president of FANHS-HR chapter.

Following its defeat in the SpanishAmerican War of 1898, Spain relinquished the control of its colonies located in the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States at the Treaty of Paris on Dec. 10, 1898. In the following year, Filipino nationalists under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo sought independence from their colonial rulers, according to Francis Tanglao-Aguas, professor of theatre and Asian and Pacific Islander American studies. On February 4, 1899, the U.S. government ordered the U.S. military to conduct combat operations against the Filipino soldiers. According to the U.S. Department of State, the war lasted three years and resulted in the death of over 4,200 American and over 20,000 Filipino combatants with as many as 200,000

However, the records also state that many prominent African-American political activists of that time like Ida B. WellsBartlett condemned America’s government as hypocritical for using black soldiers as tools to enlarge its territory. “Negroes should oppose expansion until the government was able to protect the Negro at home,” Wells-Bartlett said in an account to the Cleveland Gazette in January 1899. But according to Acosta, as the war raged on the island, the U.S. Army had to shift its military strategy to face counter-insurgency tactics conducted by Filipino soldiers. The Filipinos fighters used methods like blending in with the civilian populace and directed quick attack skirmishes against patrolling U.S. Army infantry units. Filipino revolutionaries noted the black soldiers’ ability to adapt to the new mission parameters, and therefore the Filipinos had a different opinion of their American adversaries with darker skin, said Acosta. “Filipinos had a mixed view towards African American soldiers based on researched history provided by the accounts of Filipino soldiers and civilians,” he said. “African Americans did not share the racial prejudice of their white counterparts towards Filipinos in that war. But, Filipino soldiers did notice that the black soldiers fighting were at times relentless in their pursuit of Emilio Aguinaldo’s army of the 1st Philippine Republic.”

was advanced to full general by former President Bill Clinton in 1998.” However, if it had not been for influential black journalists and African-American newspapers such as The Richmond Planet, the world may have never known more about the Buffalo Soldiers’ sacrifices and contributions to U.S. and Filipino history, according to Acosta. “The hardest part of our research was identifying African-American soldiers from Virginia who fought in this war,” he said. “But if it had not been for John Mitchell, Jr., the publisher of the Planet who published letters written to his newspaper by black soldiers serving in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars, we may have never known what truly went on. The hunt for and locating of primary and secondary source materials concerning Americans and Filipinos who participated in the PhilippineAmerican War was the most rewarding aspect of this project.” Acosta stated that all soldiers of the six allblack regiments serving in the Philippines came from every state in the union, but he pointed out that Captain William A. Hankins, Private Rienzi Lemus, and chief musician Walter H. Loving came from Virginia and helped set the bar for future black soldiers to achieve. TOP: Extra! Extra! A photo illustration of an American newspaper hanging in the Swem Library’s Botetourt Gallery conveys information about African-American soldiers serving in the Philippine-American War. Photo by Justin K. Thomas BOTTOM: Job Well Done. A photo illustration of Walter H. Loving (left in uniform) hanging in the Swem Library’s Botetourt Gallery depicts the accomplishments of Loving’s career as an African-American soldier and musician that served in the Philippine-American War. Photo by Justin K. Thomas

Turning point Although African-Americans have served in the U.S. military since the Revolutionary War in some form, Acosta noted that the Philippine-American War was quite possibly the critical turning point for future military service of African-Americans. The U.S. Army began to commission black officers from the ranks of the enlisted who had distinguished records. Acosta said that the level of success and aggressiveness of African-American soldiers in the Philippines was dependent on the quality of their leaders. Of those leaders to be commissioned, one later became the U.S. military’s first African-American general officer, said Acosta. “Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was one of these men,” he said. “Davis Sr. was the first African-American promoted to the rank of major general in the history of the United States Army. His son, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. went on to become an officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps and helped to establish the Tuskegee Airmen who flew and fought with distinction during World War II. Davis Jr. retired at the rank of lieutenant general in the U.S. Air Force in 1965, but

“Lemus became a prominent African American labor leader as the president of the Brotherhood of Dining-Car Employees and co-leader of Dining Car Cooks and Waiters Association after he left the army,” he said. “Hankins went on to become the co-founder of the all-African American Mechanics Savings Bank of Richmond, Virginia in 1901. And Loving helped organized the Philippine Constabulary Band that went on to tour the world.” Tanglao-Aguas believes that the exhibit will help bring light to the experience of African-Americans during the war, which is often overlooked in the American narrative. “Seeing that Buffalo Soldiers were used in helping to grow the very same nation that did not even treat them with equal protection under the law is worth examining, particularly at this current moment when we see the leveraging or weighing of American citizenship based on religion, race or nationality,” “This analysis is at the forefront of what we explore with our students in Asian & Pacific Islander American studies, as well as Africana studies.”

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Snapshots from APIA Open House and BANH Mi Lunch Lecture Series

Professors Aguas, Pineda, Ferrao, and Sohoni welcome students to the 2018 APIA open house.

Professor Andrea Wright makes a point.

BA H N M I E VE N TS

Professor Deenesh Sohoni who was Interim Director in 2017-2018 welcomes the APIA community.

Alum Benming Zhang ’16 and Professor Jon Pineda listen to Professor BenÊ Ferrao.

Professor Mejdulene Shomali of the University of Maryland lectured for the Banh Mi Series in October 2018.

TOP: Professor Shomali addressed a full capacity audience at Blow 201 BOTTOM: Professor Shomali with the APIA community of faculty and students.

Oberiano poses with APIA major Patrick Canteros and student Taylor Paul

APIA Pre-Doctoral Banh Mi Lunch Lecture premiered with a lecture by Harvard University Ph.D. student Kristin Oberiano in November 2018.

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Dr. Sriraman poses with William & Mary students .

Dr. Natasha Sriraman of Eastern Virginia Medical School lectures on cultural competency in the medical profession.

BA H N M I E VE N TS

Dr. Natasha Sriraman of Eastern Virginia Medical School lectures on cultural competency in the medical profession. TOP: Full capacity audience enjoys the reading by Professor Pineda. The reading and book signing launch was co-sponsored by the Department of English and Swem Library.   BOTTOM: Professor Jon Pineda reads from his latest novel, “Let’s No One Get Hurt” to a full house of over 100 attendees.

Professor Clutario with the members of APIA 444: Filipino American Diaspora Studies. Harvard University Professor Genevieve Clutario visited APIA in April 2019 on the formation of unjust labor practices in American occupied Philippines in the early 1900s.

Cosmo Fujiyama Ghaznavi, ’09 Vice President of The Future Project visited with with the Class of 2021 in February 2019. L-R, David Fernandez, Patrick Canteros, Emma Shainwald, Fujiyama Ghaznavi, and Maggie Chu. Professor Stephen Sheehi and APIA students hosted Professor Clutario for lunch.

31 Professor Gosin and Schug lecturing on the differential treatment of African American women and Asian American men in mass media. APIA major Emma Shainwald asks Professors Gosin and Schug a question while APIA major Maggie Chu looks on.