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
May 4, 2026: Global Asias Symposium & Celebration: Stories of Displacement: Unearthing Submerged Histories and Engaging Multiple Publics
Please join us for a presentation by Dr. Anna Guevarra (University of Illinois – Chicago). Dr. Guevarra will be discussing the “Dis/Placements”: A People’s History of Uptown Project and its connection to the Global Asias in Chicago course and will explore the politics and ethics of involving students in community-engaged projects.Stay afterwards for some chai & samosas in the recital hall lobby!
Fall 2025
House of Mirrors: How Mis- and Disinformation Amplify Imperialist Histories to Shape Asian American Political Participation in California’s 45th Congressional District
Presented by invited speaker Shengxiao “Sole” Yu, facilitator, writer, and social justice educator; Creator, Nectar
In many Asian American spaces, we are witnessing narrative trends that contribute to tensions within, across, and about our communities. This research project seeks to more deeply understand these tensions through a case study of the California 45th congressional district where two Asian American candidates ran in 2024 in a race set against the backdrop of imperialism, war, trauma, displacement, grief, healing, identity-building, identity politics, electoral power, and most of all, our shared desire to be seen as who we are.
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Language as personal and communal expression: an interactive zine-making workshop with Dr. Joyhanna Jung Yoo & Shengxiao “Sole” Yu
Thursday, October 23, 2025
2-4pm
CADVC Gallery, Fine Arts 105
Dr. Joyhanna Jung Yoo and Shengxiao “Sole” Yu will lead participants through an exploration of their personal relationship to their heritage language(s). The workshop will ask participants to reflect on the relationship of language in their lives as it pertains to identity, family, thought, and more. The workshop aims to bring together students and broader community members to think about the connections between issues of language to broader community and social concerns.
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The Semiotics of Skin: The Discursive Construction of Desirable Figures of Personhood in Korean Beauty’s Global Circulation
Friday, October 24, 2025
12-1pm
Performing Arts & Humanities Building 216
Dr. Joyhanna Jung Yoo will discuss how Korean American entrepreneurs in the global K-beauty industry establish their expertise by sharing personal memories of Korean skincare traditions, positioning these practices as age-old beauty philosophies rather than mere trends. Through discourse analysis that focuses on the sensory and gendered aspects of these shared memories, the study reveals how K-beauty discourse creates aspirational identities for consumers while transforming traditional Korean skincare rituals into marketable expertise that circulates globally.
Spring 2025
Culinary Communities: Food and Asian American Identity in Baltimore and Beyond
Tuesday, April 22, 2025 1-2:30 PM in the AOK Library Gallery
As part of the Spring 2025 Reframing Global Asias Conversation Series, UMBC Global Asias Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Mika Thornburg will facilitate a conversation based on guest speaker Dr. Mark Padoongpatt’s book, Flavors of Empire: Food and the Making of Thai America, which examines the rise of Thai food and the way it shaped the racial and ethnic contours of Thai American identity and community. Steve Chu ‘12 of James Beard Semifinalist restaurant, Ekiben, will build on the book’s themes by drawing from his own experiences growing up in the restaurant industry in the Baltimore area and his journey and philosophy to now running the exceedingly popular Asian fusion Ekiben restaurants.
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Faculty and Staff Workshop: Public Humanities in Asian American Studies & Global Asias
Monday, April 21, 2025 · 10 – 11:30 AM
As part of the Reframing Global Asias Conversation Series, Dr. Mark Padoongpatt will give a public-facing talk (on 4/22) and to facilitate a Public Humanities-focused workshop (4/21).
Dr. Mark Padoongpatt will present on the Neon Pacific Initiative at University of Nevada – Las Vegas, and facilitate an assignment-creation workshop. Participants will brainstorm, share ideas, and talk through implementing public-facing components into their teaching in the fields of Asian and Asian American studies. UMBC faculty and staff are invited to join this workshop.
Fall 2024
October 2024: Dr. Tina Chen Student Breakfast; Faculty Workshop; Building Global Asias at UMBC
Tina Chen is Associate Professor of English and Asian American Studies at Penn State University, and author of Double Agency: Acts of Impersonation in Asian American Literature and Culture (2005). She is the Founding Editor of Verge: Studies in Global Asias, winner of the 2016 BEST NEW JOURNAL Award from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ) and the 2020 PROSE Award for Best New Journal in the Humanities from the Association of American Publishers (AAP). She is director of the Global Asias Initiative at Penn State and will be serving as the interim director of the Humanities Institute for AY 2021-2022.