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Friday, April 14, 2017 — 3
Continuing the conversations
started during the Asian and
Pacific Islander American Summit
in March, a panel on A/PIAs in
academia was held Thursday
evening, bringing together seven
panelists from across all levels
at the University of Michigan
to answer questions about their
experiences in the field from
moderator and event organizer
Paulina Fraser, a Ph.D. candidate
in the School of Education, and
from the audience.
Fraser
said
the
summit
inspired her to organize this event
as a capstone to A/PIA Heritage
Month.
“After going to the summit,
I wanted to do something that
combined
both
the
graduate
students, faculty, post-docs and
undergraduates and just get some
exposure, in terms of who are the
A/PIA students and faculty here,”
Fraser said. “Just to increase
awareness
to
undergraduates
or other community members
who might be thinking about
(academia) but have never seen
themselves represented here.”
Kalia Vang, a Hmong-American
and master’s student in the School
of Public Policy, came to the
event because one of her friends
was a panelist, but felt she could
relate to the stories of all seven
speakers and appreciated the
representation Fraser mentioned.
“As one of few Hmong students
here on campus … I think it’s a
huge accomplishment but also
a unique burden to be someone
with a background where your
community is not represented
in academic spaces,” Vang said.
“Coming here is sort of a great way
to learn about the experiences
of other Asian Americans from
similar backgrounds and just sort
of learn how to deal with some of
the microaggressions or unique
challenges that come with it.”
The
event
began
with
introductions from each speaker.
Though the speakers all came
from unique backgrounds, many
themes
appeared
throughout
each of their individual stories.
One of these themes included the
search for visibility and others
who looked like them in their
educational
experiences.
Nue
Lee, a Ph.D. student in the School
of Education, articulated this in
her introduction.
“What
led
me
to
the
(University’s) program was my
overall undergraduate experience
of being the oldest of seven from a
refugee family and being the first
to go to college,” Lee said. “When
I got to college … I didn’t see
myself reflected in the research,
whether it was in the textbooks or
in the scholarly research that was
being read.”
Amy Stillman, professor and
director of the A/PIA Studies
program, came to the University
in 1989 to help grow the A/PIA
Studies program. She, too, went
into academia because she felt the
need to advocate for herself in a
place where there was no one else
to do so.
“I had this wake-up moment
in an anthropology class about
Hawaiians, which was taught by
a non-Hawaiian … who made a
point of saying the real, traditional
culture of Hawaiians was dead
… contemporary Hawaiians had
moved so far away that we were
living in cultural degradation,”
Stillman said. “And I remember
thinking … if I want to talk back
to these people with any degree of
credibility, I need a Ph.D. too.”
After introductions, the panel
moved into a discussion on
mentorship. Many of the speakers
talked about an inability to find
mentors of A/PIA heritage in
their earlier education. Laura-
Ann Jacobs, a Ph.D. student in
the School of Education, said
while her dissimilar mentors
still provided her with valuable
assistance, there was something
important in having a mentor to
whom she could actually relate.
“When
I
was
choosing
graduate schools, there were
some programs where my adviser
would have been a man, someone
with a different identity from me,
and I thought there’s something
here that I’m not sure that you’re
going to give me what I need
and fulfill me personally on this
emotional journey of grad school,”
Jacobs said.
Other panelists talked about
the importance of not just finding
your own mentors, but also being
someone else’s mentor. Bernard
Ellorin, a lecturer from the Center
for Southeast Asian Studies, also
brought up the idea of support
groups between peers as a way to
cope with the challenges of being
a minority and graduate school in
general.
“(I’ve dealt with challenges) by
having a small group of friends
and individuals who are in the
same position as you, who know
the same struggles and who you
can actually confide in,” Ellorin
said.
The
panel
then
turned
to a discussion on imposter
syndrome — the idea that a high-
achieving individual might feel
like they don’t deserve their
accomplishments and are afraid
of being exposed as a fraud.
Carmen Ye, a master’s student
in the School of Public Policy, said
she had a difficult time realizing
that she actually deserved many
of the things she’d earned in her
early academic career. She told
the story of working hard to be
accepted into a specific program
as an undergraduate, and feeling
like she wasn’t worthy when she
finally got in.
“I spent the whole summer
believing the program was going
to send me back to California,” Ye
said. “I’d already made it here, I
was in the classes, but I just felt
like something bad was going to
happen and that I didn’t deserve
to be here. One solution to that
is I need to keep telling myself
every day that I am here because
I deserve to be.”
Later on in the talk, an
audience
member
posed
the
question of when and how to call
out a superior’s microaggressions.
All the panelists acknowledged
the difficulty of this question and
said there was no one true answer.
Jacobs said when she encounters
a situation like this, she tries to
pose the statement as a question
back to whoever said it to make
them aware of how what they said
sounded.
“I’d say that’s a really difficult
question,
especially
being
conscious
of
relationships
of
power,” Jacobs said. “It makes
you want to silent yourself and
not speak up for yourself — girl,
I’ve been there. But just being
like, ‘What do you mean by that?’
and just repeat it like that, it
seems less threatening, like the
best advice for an in-the-moment
situation.”
Stillman built off that answer,
bringing
up
the
Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion plan the
University rolled out this fall. She
said the plan isn’t reaching the
department level, where many
of these microaggressions and
harmful actions are taking place.
“How can we close the gap
between what our experience is
in the citizenry and make sure
that those committed to the
principles of DEI are very, very
clear about what’s going on?” she
said. “Speaking up at the moment
of microaggressions, not letting
it go by, is an important personal
step … it also is a very important
step in this institutional journey
we’re on.”
The panel ended with each
speaker giving the audience a
piece of advice they try to live by.
Lee summed up the purpose of
the panel with her statement.
“I think it’s important to
remember your roots and see if
that can develop through your
research agenda or your studies
or the classes you want to take,”
Lee said. “That will help develop
growth and strengthen identity.”
Panel outlines experience of A/PIA
community in academic settings
The speakers also talked about importance of mentorship, handling microaggressions
MAYA GOLDMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
KEVIN ZHENG/Daily
Public Policy Masters student Carmen Ye and Education PhD student Laura-Ann Jacobs discuss the A/PIA commu-
nity in academia at the League on Thursday.
of Michigan Hillel for two
years, attended the event as a
culmination of his participation
in Hillel. Like Kalfus, all four
of Katz’s grandparents were
Holocaust survivors.
“For me, I have a regret
that I didn’t get more involved
in this group, because this
type of thing and Holocaust
remembrance is very important
to me,” he said. “So this last
event is a little of me still
getting involved even though
I didn’t take on a leadership
position in this group.”
Similar to the other students
who attended the event, Katz
emphasized the importance of
hearing stories from Holocaust
survivors.
“Many of them are old and
aren’t going to be here in a
couple of years, so that’s really
important to me, getting to
know them, because stories are
stories, but we if can actually
put them to a face, it means so
much more,” he said.
VIGIL
From Page 1
shooting at a mosque in Quebec
and the Boycott, Divestment,
Sanctions campaign.
IISS coordinator Saquib Ali
Usman, a doctoral student in
anthropology at the University
of Michigan, said it became clear
in planning the event the “era of
Trump” is incredibly pertinent to
Islamic studies today.
He
referenced
American
scholar Sherman Jackson, who
describes Islamic studies today
as Islamic studies 2.0. Islamic
studies 1.0, he said, refers to the
discursive study of Islam through
an academic setting, using the
tools and genealogy of studies.
Islamic studies 2.0 refers to
putting 1.0 into real-life political
situations in which an event is
unfolding.
“I think Islamic studies is
becoming much more tied to
social realities of Muslims living
in the world and in the U.S., as
opposed to some ideological
disconnected, disembodied study
of Islamic studies,” he said.
Samiah Haque, the interim
Islamic
studies
program
coordinator, said the purpose of
the symposium was to relate the
work of individuals to the current
political climate.
“Considering
the
political
climate, we thought it would be
a very timely seminar and really
this conference is about how
different people in the field of
Islamic studies are relating to
what’s happening right now in
terms of what they’re working
on,” she said.
She
emphasized
the
interdisciplinary nature of the
symposium,
which
includes
storytelling,
arts
and
music
performances,
among
others.
Presenters
were
graduate
students,
professors,
social
activists and scholars from the
University and other institutions
around the world.
Sara
Tahir,
a
graduate
student studying anthropology
at Michigan State University,
presented earlier in the day on
ethical labor with regard to
Muslim-American women after
the election.
Tahir
said
she
enjoyed
Spellberg’s lecture and the overall
opportunity to work alongside
students pursuing similar studies.
“It was really interesting,” she
said. “I’m so glad it was organized
because I got to meet people
from the University of Michigan,
especially people who are people
of color, and people who are
working … who have a similar sort
of process with respect to what
is going on in the world today,
globally as well. Of course, the
United States is included what is
happening in the United States
and how we’re projecting that to
the global scale.”
KEYNOTE
From Page 1
“Many inside and outside the
university had begun to refer
to the center as Mcity, not just
the test facility.”
Mcity
Deputy
Director
Carrie Morton believes this
name change will also help
connect the various projects
taking place across Mcity.
“We
are
now
uniting
two
separate
brands
that
represented the full breadth
of our work and what was
formerly the MTC, under one
very
recognizable
brand,”
Morton said. “This allows
us to really streamline and
elevate
our
voice
in
this
space by getting behind one
brand, and leverage the brand
of Mcity which was so well
recognized.”
The testing ground itself,
located on the University’s
North
Campus,
will
now
be called the Mcity Test
Facility.
The
test
facility
allows researchers to conduct
stringent tests that would
typically require thousands of
miles of public roads.
The Mcity Test Facility
is
one
of
Mcity’s
three
main initiatives, which also
include
funding
research
and partnering with other
groups, such as the University
Transportation
Research
Institute, to deploy connected
and automated vehicles on
the streets of Ann Arbor and
potentially beyond.
Right
now,
Mcity
has
partnerships
with
65
companies, spanning various
industries. Mcity has also
invested
approximately
$16 million in 30 research
projects such as studies on
the
interactions
of
motor
vehicles and bicyclists as well
as vehicle data collection for
cloud processing.
“Rebranding
as
Mcity
allows us to focus on one
brand rather than two, and
more effectively tell the story
of the work we’re doing to
advance the development of
advanced
mobility
vehicles
and
technologies,”
Carney
said.
According to Carney, the
renaming
of
the
Mobility
Transformation
Center
to
Mcity will have no effects on
Mcity’s funding or mission.
“In fact, I think having
everything
under
the
one
brand more completely shares
our mission,” Morton said.
In regard to future projects,
Carney and Morton said Mcity
plans to continue the research
on
autonomous
vehicles,
which they have spent the past
years on.
“I don’t think there are
any significant changes than
working really hard on our
plans to continue to execute
our deployment plans which
include automated vehicles,”
Morton said.
MCITY
From Page 1
Wadley said. “Part of it being a
therapy dog, you have to have
a really good temperament.
Every time you see him, it
seems like he’s always smiling
so that always puts people in a
good mood.”
With
about
25
teams
assigned
to
Michigan
Medicine,
Therapaws’s
therapy dogs can be found at
Mott, the medical procedures
unit, the intensive care unit
as well as the Cardiovascular
Center. The dogs typically
visit individual patient rooms
and interact with groups.
Lana Berry, a volunteer
supervisor
and
liaison
between
Therapaws
and
Michigan
Medicine,
has
been involved with canine
therapy for 15 years. Her
main responsibilities include
screening the therapy dogs
and scheduling dog visits to
medical units in need. Berry
emphasized the importance
of the canine-human bond in
the healing process.
“A lot of people, when
they are in the hospital, are
missing their own pets, so just
being able to hug or touch or
pet a furry dog makes them
more
comfortable,”
Berry
said. “Studies have shown
that it reduces blood pressure,
reduces
anxiety
and
just
overall (promotes) well-being
for the patients.”
Wadley,
who
refers
to
himself as the dog whisperer,
has found the patients at
Mott respond to visits from
Legend. He added the patients
gravitate
toward
Legend’s
gentle side.
This is especially the case
for a young girl who suffered
from a traumatic dog bite.
She initially felt uneasy with
the idea of petting Legend, so
Wadely suggested she start
petting
Legend
from
the
back, working her way up to
his head. Eventually, she felt
comfortable enough to give
Legend a treat.
“She started smiling and
she felt better,” Wadley said.
“Before we left, she gave him
a hug. That just reconfirms
what therapy is all about,
especially
for
kids,
just
making sure they have really
good experiences.”
Wadley
has
found
volunteering
at
Mott
to
be
especially
impactful
because
of
the
anxieties
that accompany being such a
young patient.
“A lot of times when we see
some of these kids, they are
going into surgery, so they are
feeling a little bit nervous and
apprehensive about getting
the procedures that they are
having, so bringing a dog there
calms them down a little bit
and provides a distraction,”
Wadley said.
The main goal of Therapaws
is to bring comfort and joy to
those young and old, in the
form of canine therapy. Karen
O’Connor, the president of
Therapaws of Michigan, has
been in the business of therapy
dogs for nearly 20 years.
“I think canine therapy
is special because it takes
(the patient’s) mind off of
whatever is going on in their
life and in their illness,”
O’Connor said. “I think it’s a
huge stress reliever. The dogs
are entertaining, they remind
them of their pets.”
DOGS
From Page 1
I think having
everything under
the one brand
completely shares
our mission
Native American artifacts and
cultural references, such as
headdresses and statues, and
performing Native American-
like rituals.
“There were many protests
held by Native students around
10 years ago that led to the land
grant plaque and the removal of
support for Michigamua,” Gant
said.
Michigamua has since been
renamed Order of Angell, an
organization which focuses on
honoring senior leadership at the
University.
An exhibit on the history
of student protest on campus,
which is located on the sidewalks
of Angell Hall, highlights the
periods
of
student
activism
during World War I, the civil
rights movement and Vietnam
War, but doesn’t discuss Native
Americans.
LSA
freshman
Maitland
Bowen, who is of Native American
heritage,
discussed
how
the
exhibit shows the University
has made significant progress
over the years, but also pointed
to how the University neglects
to
recognize
the
profound
significance Native Americans
have had in the University’s
history.
“The fact that this pop-up
plaque seems so novel points
to a real problem,” Bowen said.
“The Native land grant should
not be something we remember
once every 200 years, it should
be something the University
consciously
acknowledges,
respects and appreciates every
day.”
She described how, due to the
small population of students who
identify as Native American —
0.2 percent of enrolled students
as of 2015 — the University does
not feel a sense of urgency to
fully recognize the University’s
history with Native Americans.
“The University doesn’t have
to answer to a large Native
student population because they
don’t have a large Native student
population,” Bowen said.
Referring to the ways in which
the University represents Native
American students, Bowen stated
that the University still has a long
way to go.
“They must make a conscious
and
consistent
effort
to
acknowledge Native Americans’
roles in the history of the
University and to support their
roles in its future,” she said.
Philip Deloria, professor of
American culture and Native
American studies, spoke about
the significance of the pop-up art
exhibit.
“It’s a great gesture, but it’s
a gesture that also reveals the
invisibility of Indian people
kind of in general on campus
and in American society as a
whole,” Deloria said. “They
make up about 1.5 percent of
the population, they’re easily
ignored and that’s been the case
on the campus for a while.”
BICENTENNIAL
From Page 1