What does it mean to be Asian Canadian? How can we shape our future by using the connections between our past and present? Join us on Wednesday, May 4, for “Re-Imagining Asian Canadian Futures,” the first of many ongoing conversations with communities on the Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement.
This panel will discuss the role of community engaged research in the pursuit of more socially just futures for Asian Canadian communities. Panelists will speak from their various positions as organizers, academics and cultural producers and draw on their involvement with community engaged research on Asian Canadian issues. Panelists will reflect on the kinds of principles and commitments that make for meaningful community based research, as well as how ethical, reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationships can be crafted and sustained among Asian Canadian academics and community members. They will also consider what kinds of challenges exist in the pursuit of research “for our communities, by our communities”.
Get to know the panelists
Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra
Dr. Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra (Sharn) is Coordinator of the South Asian Studies Institute and sessional faculty in the Department of History at the University of the Fraser Valley, and co-curator of exhibits at the Sikh Heritage Museum, located in the National Historic Site Gur Sikh Temple in Abbotsford, BC. Sharn’s PhD looks at the affective experiences of racialized museum visitors through a critical race theory lens. She’s a passionate activist, building bridges between community and academia through museum work.
Laura Ishiguro
Dr. Laura Ishiguro is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and affiliated faculty with Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies at UBC. She is the author of Nothing to Write Home About: British Family Correspondence and the Settler Colonial Everyday in British Columbia (UBC Press, 2019). Her current work is primarily focused on reimagining how we might tell and teach histories of Nikkei or Japanese Canadian people in northern North America.
Belle Cheung
Belle Cheung 張芷彤 is a cultural worker with a focus on equity and anti-racism in institutions. Belle’s work spans the arts & culture and heritage sectors, cultural development, and urban & community planning. Her approach emphasizes artist- and community-led collaboration, and a belief that decolonizing arts & culture is critical to community well-being.
Belle is currently a Senior Cultural Planner and co-lead for the City of Vancouver’s Chinatown Transformation Team, an initiative focused on centering cultural heritage in all aspects of neighbourhood planning for Vancouver Chinatown. Her previous roles as a cultural planner have included strategic and policy work in: establishment of the Chinese Canadian Museum, area planning and cultural infrastructure projects, and co-leading the City’s COVID-19 equity-related emergency response work. Belle is also an independent equity and arts & culture consultant, with experience spanning the higher education and the cultural sectors. Belle holds a BA Honours in Theatre Studies and an MA in Geography from UBC.
Y Vy Truong
Y Vy Truong (she/her) is a second-generation Vietnamese settler born and raised on the lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), skx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səlílwətaʔɬ/sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and Qiqéyt (Qayqyat) First Nation. Pursuing her Masters of Library and Information Studies at UBC, her research interests include developing community interventions to archival records and narratives of refugee histories. In 2020 she co-founded Bảo Vệ Collective with Mimi Nguyen and kathy thai, an online community resource to aid language barriers on COVID-19 related information and aid programs.
UBC COVID-19 CAMPUS RULES
Guests attending this event are invited to review and adhere to UBC COVID-19 Campus Rules. As such, please note that face coverings are required on UBC premises.
