'Telling Our Stories' empowers high school students to write creatively

On May 6, 2010, several Madison-area high school students presented their creative writing pieces at the UW Memorial Library as part of the Telling Our Stories project.

Telling Our Stories, coordinated by Sociology Ph.D. student Mytoan Nguyen, connects UW-Madison graduate students and community educators with high school students to empower the youth to creatively write about their families' histories.

The intention is to help the students of immigrant and refugee backgrounds to learn about and document how their families came to Madison, Wisconsin, and the daily challenges and rewards that they experienced.

For many youths, the journey toward uncovering their unique family history helped enrich their sense of place in the world and enhance their tools to critically construct their own version of history and events.

A printed anthology of the students' work will be released this summer.

The creative writing pieces were composed on seven Saturday morning workshops where youths learned the components of storytelling and about the different creative techniques they could use to present their stories.

Telling Our Stories is supported by the Humanities Exposed Program, and has partnered with after-school youth programs such as GEAR UP and the PEOPLE program as well as a Room of One’s Own Foundation, the Madison Children's Museum, the Mess Hall Press, and the UW Departments of Sociology, Educational Policy Studies, Asian American Studies, and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

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Lecturer's topic stirs students, brings story of UW student killed in WWII relocation camp to light

A big round of applause goes to Victor Jew, lecturer in the Asian American Studies Program.

Jew organized "Reclaiming Our Past: The Untold Stories of Asian America: A Three-Day Series of Arts, Academic Scholarship, and Commemoration."

Through his course on "Asian Americans in the Midwest", Jew introduced students to James Wakasa. Wakasa was a student at UW-Madison in 1916 who was later killed in a Japanese American relocation camp during World War II. 

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Choy wins UW-Madison Oustanding Women of Color Award

Congratulations to Peggy Choy for receiving the UW-Madison Outstanding Women of Color Award.

Choy, a long time academic staff, will join the Asian American Studies Program as an assistant professor in the Fall. Her appointment is joint with the Department of Dance.   

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Asian American Studies showcased Hmong American courses, events in '08-09

The Asian American Studies Program hosted several courses and events on Hmong American experiences and scholarship.

During 2008-2009, a visiting assistant professor in Hmong Studies taught three courses about Hmong Americans, including a service learning course. 

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