Pan-ethnic Student Organizing: the History of the
Association for Asian American Graduate
Students at Madison
Mytoan Nguyen
Dept of Sociology PhD Candidate
Co-Chair AAAGS 2008-2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
“Our Campus, Our World”
Conference
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Outline
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Mission and history of AAAGS
Membership and alumni profiles
Events and Activities
Panethnic Organizing: Challenges and Rewards
Broader themes to be addressed
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Mission of AAAGS
• Improve the quality of the graduate school experience
for students who self-identify as members or allies of
the Asian American community;
• Outreach to important agents within the Asian
American community on the University of WisconsinMadison campus, the University of Wisconsin system,
and the general Madison and Wisconsin community;
• Increase awareness about issues concerning the Asian
American community through education
Source: AAAGS Bylaws
Adopted Dec 2008
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Formation of AAAGS
• AAAGS was formed during the mid-1990s by a
group of Asian American graduate students
including Sharon Lee (now on faculty at UrbanaChampagne), Kevin Kumashiro, and Joy Lei
• Re-chartered in Spring 2006 by Linda Park and a
few other graduate students
• Listserve which was 17 individuals now reaches
over 130 individuals, not including past alums
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Who are
AAAGS
members?
Email roster
reaches 130
individuals
Dept/School
English/Creative Writing
Law
Education
Pharmacy
Sociology
History
Human Development and Family
Studies
Medical School
Southeast Asian Studies, MA
degree
Math
Nursing
Political Science
Population Health
Public Affairs
Statistics
Toxicology
Zoology
TOTAL Active Members
No.
8
8
7
3
3
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
45
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Defining what it means to be Asian
American in Wisconsin – an ongoing
dialogue!
• Processes of group identification produced at the microand macro-sociological level of interaction and structures
(Omi and Winant, 1986; Lowe 1996; Espiritu 1993)
• This is a category assigned to U.S. graduate students by the
UW graduate school, and if you are identified as part of a
“targeted Southeast Asian” group, there are other
meanings attached to your experience here
• It is a self-identification invoked by some individuals in
addition to other affiliations such as gender, class, ethnicity,
sexuality, and academic discipline
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“Asian American” . . .
Continued
• This identity has varied salience at different moments in an
individual’s life course
• Not everyone self-identifies with this racial category as
strongly as identifying with an ethnic heritage (such as
Hmong, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc.)
• Defining who is part of the “Asian American” community
depends on previous experiences of the individual and
their needs
• History of the Asian American crystallization of a group
identity dates back to the Civil Rights Movement, panethnic
struggles, and an the interpretation of historical exclusion,
discrimination, construction of subjectivities and a fluid
drawing of the boundaries of Asian American in Wisconsin
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Member Profile
Vanessa Merina
Creative Writing/Fiction MFA
•Of Filipina and Caucasian heritage
•Moved here from San Francisco Aug 2008
•Previously worked in public policy, arts volunteering, and
publishing
•Volunteer Coordinator of the Asian American Film Series at
the Wisconsin Film Festival 2009 on behalf of AAAGS
“AAAGS provides community and support outside my
department/discipline, helps me to explore Asian American
identity in an academic context and see where these intersect,
and provides opportunities (leadership, social, academic,
cultural) to gain skills, meet new people.
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Alum Profile
Nancy Vue
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Hmong American from Northern California
Previously worked as a Judicial Fellow in
Oakland, CA, and earned an MA from SF State in
Ethnic Studies
Graduate from University of Wisconsin Law
School, JD 2008
Currently is Assistant Public Defender, Criminal
Defense at Wisconsin State Public Defenders
‘Office
Handles 40-50 human cases per month
Nancy was the guest speaker at the AAAGS
Mentorship Mixer Feb 2009
“Professionally AAAGS has helped expose me to
different academic perspectives that I would not
otherwise hear … being from California, AAAGS
has helped me feel more committed to working
for the community at large in Madison.”
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Signature Events
• Monthly general meetings
• Social Mixers on/off campus
• Asian Am Faculty, Grad, Staff dinner and
Dialogue
• Asian American Voices – highlights a theme
and brings together scholars, community
leaders, and artists/performers
• Mentorship mixers and skills trainings
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Faculty, Staff, and Graduate
Dinner
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Undergraduate Mentorship
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Graduate Social Mixers
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Panethnic Student Activism:
challenges and rewards
• Collective solidarity based on perceived group
identification
• Tensions between demands of Graduate Student
professional life vs. volunteer capacity
• Funding through grants and collaborations
• Coalition building with staff, faculty, other
student groups
• Knowledge diffusion to/from the local community
• Leadership renewal each year
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Some challenges for AAAGS
“A significant challenge to AAAGS (both past and
present) was that members had different needs.
There were some students interested in building
an intellectual community concerning Asian
American issues, some interested in social justice
issues surrounding Asian Americans, some
interested in mentoring undergrads, and some
who wanted to meet other Asian Americans on
campus and have more social activities. In some
ways, it’s been hard to keep up the momentum.”
(Linda Park, HDFS grad, Nov 2008)
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Some broad themes
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AAAGS’ existence challenges the existing
norm that graduate student development
and professionalization is limited to just the
academic discipline and training.
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Other aspects of graduate student life
matter for success, including networks across
different depts and schools and with the
broader campus community.
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Challenges of how institutional memory of a
student-led group be transmitted when the
leadership changes each year – more
formalized bureaucratic procedures? Staff
affiliates?
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As future scientists and intellectuals, academic
faculty/staff and public/private employees,
there is a constant need to reflect on the
connection between knowledge production
and social justice/social interventions and
what our role is during our time at Madison.
What is the potential of a group such as AAAGS
to do social justice work? (Pierre Bourdieu
2004; Michael Burawoy 2005)
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Questions/Comments welcome!
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Thank you!
Email: uw.aaags@gmail.com
Blog: www.aaags.blogspot.com
Check us out on facebook: “UW Association of
Asian American Graduate Students”
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