Reframing Global Asias Conversation Series
The Reframing Global Asias Conversation Series invited speakers from universities, museums, digital archives, non-profit organizations, and sites of activism to present research and discuss key issues, possibilities, and challenges in relationship to “Global Asias” and the fields of Asian, Asian American & American diaspora studies.
Spring 2026
Fall 2025
- House of Mirrors: How Mis- and Disinformation Amplify Imperialist Histories to Shape Asian American Political Participation in California’s 45th Congressional District
- Language as personal and communal expression: an interactive zine-making workshop with Dr. Joyhanna Jung Yoo & Shengxiao “Sole” Yu
- Solidarity with Anti-Imperialist Struggles: A Creative Mapping Workshop with Shengxiao Yu, Binhi UMBC and Anakbayan UMBC
- The Semiotics of Skin: The Discursive Construction of Desirable Figures of Personhood in Korean Beauty’s Global Circulation with Dr. Joyhanna Jung Yoo
Student Research Fellowship in Global Asias
The UMBC Global Asias Initiative’s student research fellowship program is proud to have supported the following students & projects
- Fall 2024: Tazmira Sultana ’25 – MA in Public History. The fellowship supported Tazmira’s work conducting oral history interviews with Bangladeshi diaspora in New York as part of her thesis project “Between Two Shores: A Historical Analysis of Bangladeshi Diaspora, Identity, and Influence in the United States”
- Spring 2025: Grace Reeb ’25 – MA in Master’s in Texts, Technologies & Literature. This fellowship supported her thesis work on “Han and Disability in Korean American Women’s Memoir” which applies a Critical Disability Studies lens to Literary Analysis of Korean American Women’s Scholarly and Adoptee Memoirs.
- Fall 2025: Jenny Zhao – PhD Candidate in Clinical-Community Psychology. The fellowship is supporting Jenny’s qualitative research on the well-being of Rohingya women in the United States and their post-settlement adaption.
Faculty Conference Funding
The UMBC Global Asias Initiative supported the following faculty in presenting their work nationally & internationally
- Spring 2025: Fan Yang – UCI Global Asias Conference; Irvine, CA & Association of Asian Studies Annual Conference; Columbus, OH
- Spring 2025: Noor Zaidi, Conference on the Future Horizons of the Followers of Ahl al-Bayt; Baghdad, Iraq
- Spring 2026: Kyung-Eun Yoon, Popular Culture Association Conference; Atlanta, GA
- Spring 2026: Noor Zaidi, Universal Muslim Association of America (UMAA); Karachi, Pakistan
- Spring 2026:
- Emily Yoon, Association of Asian American Studies; Honolulu, HI
- Mika Thornburg, Association of Asian American Studies; Honolulu, HI
Course Expansion Grants
We supported the following faculty to develop curricular innovations, especially around the incorporation of a public humanities or community-engaged component into existing courses that serve the Asian Studies program, the Asian American studies minor and fit within the field of Global Asias.
- Fall 2024: Awarded to Tamara Bhalla (AMST) to organize a student field trip to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
- Spring 2025: Awarded to Kyung-Eun Yoon (MLLI) to screen the film, Chosen, which explores the political journeys of 5 Korean-American candidates in the 2020 US Congressional election
- Fall 2025: Awarded to Sharon Tran (ENGL) to mount the Asian American Children’s Literature Exhibition
- Spring 2026 Awarded to:
- Shuling Yang (EDU) to bring celebrated children’s book author, Andrea Wang, to campus and to speak to K-12 students;
- Zareen Taj & Fan Yang to screen “Made in Ethiopia” and Q&A with the filmmaker Xinyan Yu and Tracy TInga (MCS) and Guenet Abraham (Visual Arts)
Global Asias Symposium & Celebration
Monday, May 4
This daylong event showcased and celebrated the many accomplishments of the Global Asais Initiative, a three-year project funded by the Mellon Foundation that created a forum for engaging in conversations in the fields of Asian American Studies, Asian diaspora studies, and Asian Studies. The event featured a community and belonging dialogue, a keynote address on Asian American Public Humanities, a faculty dialogue roundtable, and a student exhibition. The day closed with a reception celebrating the student exhibition, a wish walk in partnership with National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP), a digital portrait studio, and an Asian American Children’s Literature poster exhibition, topped off with food from our partner Ekiben!!
For this symposium, we partnered with the Asian Studies Program, Mosaic: The Center for Cultural Diversity, Residential Life, McNair Scholars Program, and the Baltimore chapter of National Association of Asian American Professionals.