Workshops
ROUND 1 WORKSHOPS
Balikbayan Box: Unpacking the Root Causes of Forced Migration and Human Trafficking BY Anakbayan Silicon Valley (ABSV)
Have you ever seen a balikbayan box? This iconic symbol usually sent to families in the Philippines by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) is worth more than its contents. It is a product of the hard work, patience, and sacrifice of our hailed modern day heroes. However, not everyone knows about the many challenges and issues facing OFWs and their families. This workshop will take you on a journey that touches upon Philippine history and the systemic roots of migrant Filipino issues. This workshop aims to expose cases of human trafficking in order to “unpack” the root causes of forced migration, and organize to stop these injustices.
That’s Not Love: Understanding Teen Dating Violence BY API Legal Outreach Youth Advisory Council (APILO-YAC) x Asian Pacific Institute on Gender Based Violence (API-GBV)
“Nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. During one year, this equates to more than 10 million people” (NCADV). Our workshop explores the power and control dynamic behind these unfortunate statistics through interactive activities and thought-provoking questions. Throughout our presentation, we disaggregate the stereotypes associated with dating violence relationships and gender roles. We hope our participants leave with a greater understanding of teen dating violence and use what they have learned to spread awareness their own communities.
From Palestine to Mexico, Border Walls Have Got to Go! BY Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC)
In this moment, our communities are continuing to fight back against travel bans, white supremacists, warfare, and increased surveillance. This workshop will highlight the ways in which Arab and Muslim communities have organized to defend themselves and combat against racism, islamophobia, and state violence. With a particular focus on organizing immigrant communities, uplifting internationalist resistance, and cross movement building.
What is Activism for Palestinian Rights About? BY David Palumbo-Liu and Joel Beinin
Our workshop will set forth the main outlines of the current struggle for Palestinian rights—the historical background and the nature of contemporary efforts, especially by young people on college campuses. We will also speak to both the affinities it has with other struggles for justice, but also its distinct character and nature. After our presentation we will have considerable time for questions and comments.
#YesWeCan: Women in Leadership by Hmong Innovating Politics (HIP)
Despite the growing number of successful AAPI women in leadership today, gender roles and expectations still remain a large part of our community’s politics and daily interactions. In this workshop, participants will analyze gender roles in their family, higher education, communities and politics. Participants will break into groups and discuss gender role changes over the years and the impacts on our communities and political spaces/movements. We will present some examples of AAPI women leaders today doing phenomenal things across the country and challenge views of what leadership looks like. Participants will leave the workshop with a new understanding of gender and the importance of AAPI women leadership.
Shattering Silence: Examining the Adoption and Normalization of Silence within Asian and Asian American Communities BY Ian Zamora and Brandon Yanari
How has society shaped us to be passive in political situations, especially when ideas of success are often rooted in the exploitation of marginalized communities? In this workshop, students will be asked to reflect on their lived experiences by inserting their narratives in the session. Students will Critically reflect where they have adopted norms of silence through their intersectional background. Through the use of Critical dialogue and interactive activities, our hope is for participants to be more Critical of the norms around silence they have adopted that manifested themselves into behaviors.
All Nails That Stick Out Get Hammered: An examination of Japanese American incarceration in the era of Trump BY Japanese Student Union (JSU) x Nikkei Resisters
On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, effectively incarcerating 120,000 Japanese Americans without due process. This did not occur in a vacuum, but was a symptom of years of suspicion, surveillance, separation that mounted prior to the onset of WWII. This interactive workshop will feature artifacts, primary sources, and open discussion to help participants trace the United States Government’s legacy of xenophobia by taking a closer look at the experiences of Japanese Americans, and using them to understand parallels in the current political climate. By learning our history, we hope the lessons of the past will ignite and inspire the our communities to demand: Never Again!
Sustaining our Community Relationships - Conflict Resolution BY API Equality - Northern California (APIENC)
In this workshop, APIENC will guide participants to learn how conflict plays out in our work and relationships, including conflict styles. We will also explore ways to handle conflict so that we can build deeper and healthier relationships, in tangent with preserving and sustaining our community relationships. During this workshop, we will provide interactive ways for participants engage with a values-based framework for how our relationships are core to our movement building, as well as reference concrete examples from queer and trans Asian and Pacific Islander movement histories.
Diaspora, Domestic Violence, and Deportation: How Violence Affects the Vietnamese-American Community BY Stanford Vietnamese Student Association (SVSA) x Thé Progressive Vietnamese American Organization (PIVOT)
In this workshop, we will discuss the intersections between immigration and domestic violence in Vietnamese-American communities. With research confirming that increased deportation exacerbates issues of domestic violence, this workshop will explore this intersection and potential solutions to combat these urgent issues. We will discuss how cultural norms and stigmas affect the Vietnamese-American community’s responses to immigration and domestic violence issues and policies. More recently, in response to new anti-immigration policies by the Administration, there have been progressive movements to combat violence on both micro and macro levels in our community. In collaboration, SVSA and PIVOT hope to shed light on these issues and explore solutions in our efforts to combat these urgent issues.
(Re)making History: Myth as a Tool for Decolonization by STATIC
Colonization is an act of historical erasure, and writers from communities who have experienced colonial scars often find themselves grappling for a disappeared past. How does one write history or historical fiction in a postcolonial time, when indigenous or local narratives are scarce, having been systematically eradicated by colonial oppression? In this workshop, we take a look at the ways Pilipinx and Pilipinx-American writers have grappled with this question, exploring the power of myth as a tool to rewrite, subvert, and even reimagine histories - ranging from the individual to the national/collective. We then invite workshop participants to use myth as a way to reexamine their own narratives.
I'm OK, Your OK by United Territories of Pacific Islanders Alliances (UTOPIA)
The workshop I’ll be showing a 3 minute Digital story and it addresses the struggles of growing up as a Gay Samoan in San Francisco and how it led me to organize the first LGBTQI march in 1982 for San Francisco Gay Pride, this was when the AIDS epidemic impacted San Francisco, many Pacific Islanders and people of color were left out of the dialog around AIDS and many felt forced back in to the closet in fear of rejection from family and friends and the stigma of the HIV/AIDS crises, this is why U.T.O.P.I.A became very important to the movement of Pacific Islanders and also gave us the opportunity to empower ourselves and the LGBTQI communities.
The Everyday Life of Transgenerational Trauma: Re-Imagining Suffering BY Yvonne Kwan
Although there has been research on the relocation and assimilation of Southeast Asian refugees, there remains a theoretical and substantive gap regarding our understanding of how first-generation experiences continue to affect the generations that were solely or primarily raised in countries in which parents sought refuge. This workshop will first explore theories of cultural trauma to ground later discussions about the ways in which violent family histories and difficult diasporic experiences can continue to affect subsequent generations. The workshop facilitator's ethnographic and survey research find that subsequent generation Asian American experiences are not simply a mirror of those of parents or elders, but rather, youth's navigation of ethnic and racial identity reveals that available discursive narratives are dismissive of their unique experiences. After establishing this theoretical and empirical background, the workshop will transition to a space of sharing and listening as well as exploration and reflection. Through guided facilitation, participants can engage their own family histories and genealogies of diaspora.
ROUND 2 WORKSHOPS
Emerging Voices of Undocumented Asian Pacific Islanders BY ASPIRE
Join ASPIRE, the first pan-Asian undocumented youth group in the country, to discuss how discriminatory immigration laws have historically affected API immigrants and criminalized communities of color . Learn more about the current political landscape and how directly impacted communities members have been resisting these policies. Take action and learn how you can actively be part of advocacy efforts and join the immigrant rights movement.
Untold Stories in the SEA: Detention and Deportation of Cambodians/Vietnamese BY Daniel Luu
This workshop will examine the deportation and detention narratives of specifically and Cambodians and Vietnamese. This will help unravel the complexity of trauma of Cambodians and Vietnamese from their past experiences with war and genocide. Consequently, past trauma connects with the current issue of deportation and detention of these refugees because this social issue triggers unaddressed trauma conditions. Through this workshop, this social issue will be explored with various mediums such as videography, physical movement, and discussion to stimulate the mind critically in different ways. Ultimately, students will learn about the intersectionality of deportation/detention with trauma and what steps could be taken to combat a sensitive and complex issue.
The Struggle for Land in Palestine and Kashmir BY GUPS x Students for Justice in Palestine
Stanford's SJP will collaborate with SFSU's GUPS to show the similarities in the struggle for nation, identity, and land between Palestine, a country that is facing settler colonialism from the Israeli state, and the Philippines, a country ravaged by decades of imperialism.
How to Make a Zine: From the Philippines to the Belly of the Beast by Kababayan x Migrante SoMa/TL
Draw, create, and express yourself in this fun and interactive workshop. Learn how to make a zine as we discuss martial law in the Philippines as well as the conditions for Filipino migrant workers. This workshop explores the use of art as a means of education and empowerment. Through group work, this workshop can also be a good exercise in collective working.
Undocumented and Thrive: The Intersection of Health Justice and Immigrant Rights BY Latino Coalition for a Healthy California
In this workshop, we will focus on the need for unity and partnership to #RiseUpAsOne towards equity, justice, and collective health within our immigrant communities. We will also explore the intersection of health justice and immigrant rights by discussing concerns about immigration policies and safety, and the effect this has on the health of immigrant communities in California and beyond. By the end of this workshop, attendees will understand how to leverage community organizing, policy, and advocacy to create healthier communities for all.
Be Culturally Responsive while helping DV survivors! BY Maitri
By attending this workshop, students will know how to be culturally responsive while working with immigrant domestic violence survivors. Real Maitri cases will be discussed to introduce realistic situations that immigrant survivors face. An overview of South Asian culture and Maitri programs will be shared.
Pacific Islanders in Higher Education: Narratives and Adversities of the Polynesian Student by Polynesian Heritage Student Association
This workshop serves as an introduction to the basic foundations of Polynesian culture and how these foundations are manifested in the narratives of Polynesian Students. Within this workshop Polynesian students will share their immigration stories, or the stories of their families, and how those stories impacted the values they now hold and their paths to higher education. Ultimately this workshop will explore the nuance and uniqueness of the Polynesian immigration narrative and the impacts these narratives have.
Know Your Rights Workshop by Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network (SIREN)
Since the Trump Administration took office, immigrant communities have been concerned about changes in immigration policy and the increase in arrests, detention, and deportation of community members. In light of these actions by the federal government, it is important that for community members know that – regardless of their immigration status - they have certain rights when they come into contact with immigration enforcement agencies. During this workshop, participants will learn the latest about changes in immigration policy, how immigrant community members can exercise their constitutional rights, and how allies to immigrants can join the fight to protect communities currently under attack.
From farming to railways: Sikh migration to California by Sikh Students Association at Stanford
50 years before the Black Panther Party took root in the Bay Area, the Ghadar Party, led by Punjabi Sikhs, worked extensively to overthrow the British Empire in India. The leader of the Ghadar Party, Har Dayal, was based out of Oakland, California, and was a lecturer at Stanford before being forced to resign due to his activism. Punjabi-Sikhs have been present in California for over a century, yet their contributions are often forgotten or overlooked. For example, over 2000 Punjabi-Sikh men worked on the Western Pacific Railways between 1903 and 1908. Punjabi-Sikhs often fled turmoil in India, hoping to return when times got better, but were barred from returning home because of US legislation. So, they often turned towards farming, married Mexican women, bought land together and had children with names like Maria Singh. Punjabi-Sikhs also paved the path for Asian Americans in Congress through the election of Dalip Singh Saund to the US House of Representatives. Through an interactive lecture-style presentation, as well as questions and dialogue, the audience will walk away with knowledge and interesting facts, like those stated above, regarding the immigration patterns of Sikhs to California, as well as their contributions to the state through agriculture, activism, railways, and more, and learn about ways the Sikh community is impacted today.
How students can support workers on campus by Silicon Valley Workers Project (SVWP)
Students on campus are usually focused on their academics. It’s the day to day hustle to finish papers, study for tests and complete assignments. Stanford is full of these aspiring intellectuals taking the necessary steps to graduate and enter into the workforce. The other half of the campus population belongs to the workers, working just as hard to ensure that the campus runs as smooth as possible. People from all walks of life coexisting in one place, each with their own objectives to fulfill. We believe that while the worker supports three student, the student can also support the worker. Join us as we discuss the interactions between workers and students on campus and how we can better strengthen these relationships.
Asian Americans, Agriculture, and Environmental Justice by Stanford Asian American Activism Committee (SAAAC)
This workshop's goal is to reconnect Asian American folks with agriculture and the foods that we eat. There is an immense history of Asian Americans who have worked in the fields that is often untold when it comes to agriculture. This work shop will aim to retell this history, with a focus on ecological and racial injustice within agriculture. This workshop will additionally host discussions and activities on how we can decolonize the foods that we eat everyday while being cognizant of the food justice issues behind it. Join us to explore the immigration history behind agriculture and the way our histories are intertwined with the foods we eat every single day.
TSENJOL - The Effects of Exile on Tibetan Americans by Tibetan student union (tsu)
This workshop will look at the effects of Chinese occupation and exile on the Tibetan diaspora throughout history. We will be specifically focusing on the experiences of first generation Tibetan Americans. Through this workshop we hope to explore what it means to be Tibetan American, and how our families' refugee pasts in exile play into Tibetan American identity. We will also be looking at the movement of exiled Tibetans in two waves - the first taking place in India/surrounding countries and the second being the move to Western nations (specifically the US.) In doing so, we hope to give context and draw attention to the events that led to modern Tibetan American issues.
ROUND 3 WORKSHOPS
AAPI Organizing Against Mass Incarceration and Deportation by Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC) x Stanford Khmer Association (SKA)
SKA + APSC will lead a workshop about issues of mass incarceration, deportation, and the migration-to-school-to-prison-to-deportation pipeline. The workshop will include personal stories from formerly incarcerated AAPIs and facilitators from the San Quentin ROOTS program. The workshop may include brief video clips from the documentaries, BREATHIN’: THE EDDY ZHENG STORY, and LIFE AFTER LIFE—featuring APSC staff. The workshop will include strategies on how to mobilize as students against new deportation threats facing the Vietnamese American and Cambodian American communities.
Strengthening Mental Health in Asian American Communities and in our Schools- Come learn about CPA's Youth MOJO's Youth Wellness Campaign! by Chinese Progressive Association - Youth Movement for Justice and Organizing (Youth MOJO)
The purpose of this workshop is to engage high school aged youth of color in decriminalizing and de-stigmatizing mental health needs in order to address the serious mental health resource shortage in schools. Additionally, we will connect with our personal experiences and perspectives on mental health and disability justice, reflect on what influences personal, family, and societal views of mental health and the impacts of that, and explore how stigma within Asian American students can influence our willingness to reach out for support. We will lastly introduce Chinese Progressive Association's Youth Movement of Justice and Organizing (Youth MOJO)’s wellness campaign, including our summer 1000+ survey collection among San Francisco Unified School District high school youth to assess what mental health curriculum, practices, or services are needed in schools, and for young folks to imagine what ideal school could be like- when students’ emotional, physical, & mental health care needs are holistically met.
Chinese Exclusion, Japanese Concentration, and Muslim Bans: Histories of Regulation/Resistance and Contemporary Solidarity by Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (CAIR-SFBA)
On January 27, 2017, President Donald Trump signed “Executive Order 13769: Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” thereby attempting to make good on his repeated campaign promise of a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Since then, his administration has issued two additional Muslim Bans, as well as dramatically slashed the total number of refugees to be admitted into the U.S. in 2018, from 110,000 to 45,000. This recent effort by the United States government to target peoples deemed undesirable or dangerous is not a new phenomenon, but rather continuous with a history of similar actions that have been directed at numerous ethnic, racial, and national groups. This workshop will consider two examples of this trend – the “Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882” and “Executive Order 9066,” which made possible the incarceration of Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II – as well as their relationship to the Muslim Bans of today. Furthermore, it will examine contemporary forms of allied and intersectional solidarity and resistance, as affected communities fight back against racist discrimination and white supremacy.
Spirituality and Culture for Asian Americans : How they affect our Well-being and Success by edward kim
As Asian-Americans, we grow up receiving a lot of mixed messages. We get caught between ideas and values like filial piety (the duty of a child towards the parent) and individual success, and it's not hard to see how we could feel a little lost. Our wellbeing and success (especially in academics) can suffer from this internal conflict that we carry with us. By understanding and perhaps re-evaluating our values of spirituality and culture, perhaps we can begin to heal and empower ourselves. This workshop aims to investigate and deconstruct the many paradigms in spirituality and culture from an Asian-American perspective, and to equip students with the tools to begin seeking a more integrated, positive, and powerful identity on the journey to wellbeing and success.
Bumoto Tayo! Building AAPI political power through youth civic engagement by Filipino Advocates for Justice
2018 is an election year, and although we aren't yet electing a new president, the midterm elections provide an immense opportunity for our communities to get out the vote and fight back. This workshop will discuss how and why local issues on the ballot can both deeply impact AAPIs and build AAPI electoral power. This workshop will also invite participants to get involved in FAJ's robust civic engagement programs, which use issue advocacy, voter registration, and voter contact to galvanize voters at the high school and college level. Lastly, we will discuss how increasing AAPI youth and young adult civic engagement in the East Bay contributes to the regional growth of political power of people of color and working families in the greater Bay Area.
Between the Here and There: Contextualizing Korean American Experience Through US Colonialism by Hella Organized Bay Area Koreans
Readings of Asian American presents and pasts all too often overlook the significance of homeland politics in shaping the lived reality of the diaspora, and end up presenting Asian America as essentially separate from Asia. This workshop seeks to bridge this separation through an examination of Korean and Korean American his/herstories, and how US and Western colonialism and empire structure the (re)formation of Korean American communities in terms of immigration policy, lived experience, and political economy. Participants will be invited to reflect upon how these forces contextualize their own ethnolinguistic US communities in an end-of-session group discussion.
Not Our Policies, Our Movements by MEChA
How have historical immigration policies affected our current immigration landscape? How have our communities responded to these policies in the past? In this workshop, we will center the impact of immigration policy on immigrants from Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands including, but are not limited to: Chinese Exclusion Act, Immigration Act of 1924, Hart-Celler Act of 1965, and DACA.Through role-playing, presentations, and discussions, we will learn about important policies that have affected and continue to affect our communities, as well as how our communities have responded to, and fought against them. By collectively learning together from the past, we will gain a deeper understanding as how to move forward as communities in solidarity in our current political landscape.
Know Your Rights Workshop by Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network (SIREN)
Since the Trump Administration took office, immigrant communities have been concerned about changes in immigration policy and the increase in arrests, detention, and deportation of community members. In light of these actions by the federal government, it is important that for community members know that – regardless of their immigration status - they have certain rights when they come into contact with immigration enforcement agencies. During this workshop, participants will learn the latest about changes in immigration policy, how immigrant community members can exercise their constitutional rights, and how allies to immigrants can join the fight to protect communities currently under attack.
Perspectives on the Indian Immigrant Experience Throughout the World by Sanskriti
Sanskriti will host a workshop in the form of an Unconference (panel presentation with interactive elements). The aim of this presentation is to discuss the experiences of Indian immigrants in the UK, the US and Singapore, and discuss issues ranging from acculturation to cultural bereavement. As first generation immigrants to these countries, the presenters have found similarities in the immigrant experience across the Indian diaspora, alongside significant differences--this workshop aims to touch on central points of congruence and divergence. We also hope to provide a comparison of how first generation immigrants who migrated from India 50 years ago have acculturated to the British, American and Singaporean culture --while preserving their parent culture and adapting to new norms-- and how their experiences may differ from those of first-generation immigrants today.
Cultural Sensitivity in Immigrant Health by Stanford Premed Asian Pacific American Medical Students Association (APAMSA)
We will begin by sharing the narratives of both a doctor and a patient in which the doctor faced an aspect of the patient's API culture unfamiliar to them in the health setting, the patient in turn faced cultural insensitivity, and how this overall negatively affected the quality of care the patient received. We will then open up a discussion by first presenting our own experiences in which we have faced doctors who were unaware of certain cultural health topics and have poorly addressed them, and then allowing participants to share their own stories on insensitivity in the health setting with regards to their own culture. We will also talk about ways we can help promote awareness of these issues and topics, and how we can work to promote cultural sensitivity. This will be integrated into our next activity, in which we will break out into groups and present scenarios of cultural insensitivity, discussing how doctors and patients can both act in order to be conscious of various aspects of culture and result in the best quality of care.
Understanding Chinese Emigration through the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen Square Protests by Undergraduate Chinese American Association (UCAA)
The Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen Square Protests are two historically significant events that have heavily impacted the narrative of Chinese emigration, yet very little of it gets taught or discussed. In part, this is partially because of government censorship laws and China’s denouncement of anyone who speaks out about them, but also because speaking about the trauma suffered by the generation that went through is difficult. This workshop seeks to provide a background to Chinese emigration through the teaching of historical events and the sharing of stories that provide deeper insight into the many reasons for Chinese emigration in the late 20th century.
Lampposts Are Not For Lynchings: Reclamations of 2nd Class Narratives by Urban x Indigenous
The prestige of the American Illusion lies in the erasure of its origin stories, the silencing of its migrant narratives, & relegating the people impacted as 2nd class citizens. The result of this violence is long-standing enmity between Black & Asian communities across the nation. However, when the descendants of Native Sons & Paper Sons unite to build bridges by reclaiming & elevating shared narratives, the divisive cracks between can be filled with gold. This workshop explores the function of erasing origin stories for the Melting Pot myth; how white supremacy lives by inserting anti-otherness within communities; and how cultural exchange through the creation of art can visibly undermine & dismantle these toxic paradigms - allowing our communities to heal & thrive. Through sharing their experiences of diaspora, participants will co-create stories around commonalities, shattering the deafening silence of the mainstream.