GSEcret

last year, with a group of GSE students, i participated in a project called GSEcret. the goal was to get GSE's staff, students, and faculty talking about issues of race and racism in the academy. GSE folks were asked to submit anonymous postcards regarding their experiences with race and racism; these postcards were presented as an exhibit in the spring, and we gave some workshops around them to help keep conversations going.

starting last week and over the next year, GSEcret is going to be posting a postcard per week on its blog: penngsecret.blogspot.com/. the GSEcret project encourages everyone (both GSE folks and non-GSE folks) to use the comments section on the blog to take up, question, comment on, etc the issues that come up in these postcards.

my first workshop!

i just finished teaching my first 5-week workshop, "asian american experience," through asian arts initiative.  overall, i'm excited about how it went and i definitely want to keep teaching in this capacity.  at first, i was really nervous.  this workshop was something i felt i'd pulled out of thin air.  sure, my ideas were grounded in my interests, in my undergraduate studies, and in my community activism, but i felt so unsure of whether i could really do this.  still, teaching workshops is something i'd wanted to do for a long time and this summer, i knew i'd get my chance.

it started as just an idea.  i knew that i wanted to work with other asian americans in the city and teach asian-american history, literature, and experience.  when i met toni at asian arts initiative and talked with her about the possibility of doing a workshop, i found that it was work she felt was really important as well and that she wanted to help make this happen.  over the summer, she worked with other organizations like philly chinatown development corp (pdcd) to recruit interested youth and in the fall, we set up a date to get started.  i decided to design a 5-week workshop, did research in my own very small library, as well as at penn's library, and developed a syllabus.  then, toni found 6-9 high-schoolers who were interested in attending.

in october, we met for the first time as a group; we began talking and learning about asian american history, sharing our own histories, and making connections between the two.  over the course of the next few weeks, we covered a lot of history: early immigration, chinese and sikh railroad and mine workers' history, violence, anti-chinese immigration law, stereotyping, racial microaggressions, racism, violence, present-day struggle.  our workshop was held half in english and half in chinese, all guided by pcdc's xu lin, who acted as a translator, but also offered a lot of his own insights and experiences.  i don't think i could ever have imagined such a well-balanced dynamic as the one he created.  it felt as if not a single comment or idea was lost in translation and as if everyone was given opportunities to share their stories and ask questions.  i hope the students felt this way as well.

the last couple weeks of the workshop went kind of strange.  first, a storm and the flu prevented most of the kids from attending the fourth session.  the septa strike prevented our fifth meeting as well.  so, we postponed our last class to this past week.  still, the flu kept most kids from attending and the last meeting was just slightly anticlimactic.  only two students showed up, but the three of us (and my coordinator toni) had a great talk, focusing on the vincent chin case (and trials) and on present-day violence, including violence and misunderstandings that they deal with in their philadelphia schools (read more here: asian students under assault).  all in all, the workshop went well and i'm excited to continue this work in the future.

some things i'm involved in at GSE

1. asian american/pacific islanders in education -- we're a small GSE student group.  our meetings span a variety of interests from talking about what we're doing in school, to talking about issues important to the aapi community, to getting together and eating at a restaurant.  if you're interested in joining, contact me or look for listings in GSE's weekly newsletter 'InsideGSE.'

2. GSEcret -- this is a collaborative project between three GSE student groups: aaagse (the association for african american graduate students in education), aapie (asian americans/pacific islanders in education), and wscr (white students confronting racism).  the project spans this academic year and the goal is to get GSE folks in a dialogue about race and racism in their lives and at GSE.  this fall, we've posted posters that advertise the project.  each poster holds postcards that anyone can pick up.  the backs of the postcards are blank and we're asking people to draw or write stories, questions, and experiences related to race that they've had.  people can anonymously drop these postcards in the orange boxes around GSE.  this spring, we plan to exhibit these postcards as part of an exhibition/discussion event.  if you're interested in participating, you can contact postagsecret@gmail.com.

3. the teach-in project -- i guess this project is my baby.  ali michael and i are working together though to implement it.  the goal is to encourage out-of-classroom spaces of learning, examination, and discussion into issues that pertain to the lives of students, staff, and faculty both in the space of GSE and in our everyday lives.  anyone is welcome to facilitate a teach-in.  you can read more about this here: melissakapadiabodi.com/op.html.  if you have any questions, contact me!