About Us

PURDUE

Patsy Schweickart is Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Purdue University. She is Intermim Director of the Asina American Studies Program and Chair of the Council for Asian American Studies. Her research focuses on theories of reading and interpretation, especially as these practices are shaped by gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other categories of social difference. She is co-editor (with Elizabeth Flynn) of Gender and Reading: Essays on Readers, Texts, and Contexts, and of Reading Sites: Social Difference and Reader Response.

 

* * *

 

Kate Agathon is a PhD student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Purdue University. Her research interests include using narrative inquiry to study issues relevant to multicultural education. Her particular focus is on Asian American identity issues including the portrayal of Asian Americans in the mass media and popular culture and also identity development of Asian American adoptees.

 

* * *

 

Lisa Hanasono is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication at Purdue University. Her research areas focus on prejudice, social justice, and supportive communication. She has taught a variety of undergraduate courses, including an Introduction to Asian American Studies, the Fundamentals of Presentational Speaking, Approaches to Interpersonal Communication, and Speech Communication of Technical Information. She also works with Purdue’s Graduate School to develop and present professional development workshops on topics like speed networking and delivering effective conference presentations.

Lisa is a proud member of the Council on Asian American Studies, a group of dedicated faculty members and students who developed the proposal and curricula for an Asian American Studies program, minor, and courses at Purdue University. She is an Editorial Board member of the Pacific Citizen, a national Asian American newspaper, and she is an active member of the Japanese American Citizens League, a national Asian American civil rights organization. Upon graduation, Lisa aspires to become a professor and advocate for social justice.

 

* * *

 

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

Joan Pong Linton. Associate Professor. “I have taught a range of courses, including courses on Renaissance/early modern literature, literary theory, introductory courses in literature and writing, and, from time to time, a course on community service writing. In my research, I am generally interested in the diverse ways literary and cultural productions relate to history and theory. I have written on gender and the literary formations of English colonialism, the romance, early modern women writers (especially the Protestant martyr, Anne Askew). My current research on trickster agency and trickster poetics in early modern England feeds my passion for narrative, storytelling, and the figural politics of cultural forms. And I’m still working my way back to the trickster that launched my critical imagination, the Chinese Monkey in its cultural diasporas. “

 

* * *

 

Kako Koshino is a Ph.D. candidate in literacy education and diaspora issues at Indiana University, Bloomington. Her research interests are centered around the following areas: school literacy and home literacy practices, issues of power and agency in the process of literacy learning and development, and diaspora experiences and culturally sensitive, competent instruction. In her most recent research, she is looking at the complexities of literacy experiences, identity development, and schooling problems related to immigration, acculturation, socioecomonic status, and structural issues and whiteness, of students of Asian and Pacific Islander ancestry.

She has taught a graduate level course called Critical Reading in Content Areas in K-12 and is committed to the preparation of teachers who truly enjoy teaching and appreciate diversity. She is also a certified fitness specialist and advocates for more active participation in sports and exercises by people from all backgrounds.

 

* * *

 

Jason Nguyen is a graduate student in Ethnomusicology in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University, Bloomington. His areas of interest include music and culture of Vietnam and the Vietnamese diaspora, Asian-Americans and popular media, and new technologies and global media flows. Related theoretical concerns include identity, representation, politics and power, cultural policy, and the production of meaning. Jason is also an active musician and blogger. [blog] / [twitter]

 

* * *

Nishiki Tayui is a Japanese artist currently working on her MFA in Painting at Indiana University in Bloomington.  She has been showing nationally and internationally and seeks to dialogue with the past and contemporary art of Western and Eastern cultures. She aims to reify invisible linguistic facets through art and challenges herself to visualize her cultural voyage. Her medium includes not only painting but also video, photography and music.  www.nishikitayui.com

* * *

Sophia Travis is a longtime community activist and musician rooted in Bloomington, Indiana. She serves on numerous not-for-profit organization boards and local government commissions. From 2005-2009 Sophia served on the Monroe County Council as the first Asian American elected to local office.  As a former Council President, she was at the forefront of workers’ issues, Futures Family Planning Clinic establishment, advocacy for services for people with disabilities, funding for community-centered justice victims’ assistance programming, and the creation of transparent processes for Community Services grant awards.  As the president of the Indiana University Asian Alumni Association, Sophia looks forward to lending her ability to connect people so that meaningful, relevant lifelong connections to IU will be vibrant and inspiring. Sophia lives in a historic country farmhouse with her one-year old son Finn, husband Gregory Travis, and a menagerie of adopted dogs and cats.

* * *

Mayumi Hoshino is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at Indiana University Bloomington, majoring 20^th century US history with minor in cultural history and Jewish Studies. Currently she is working on her Ph.D. dissertation project, “Strangers in the Heartland: Cultural Identity in Flux, Japanese Americans in Chicago, 1890-1950,” which explores the ways in which Japanese who settled in the city viewed themselves (and were viewed by others) in terms of race, ethnicity, and nationalism.  She argues that Japanese immigrants continuously redefined their identity in reaction to local, national, and international political events.  Her project aims to produce the first comprehensive history of the Japanese-American community in Chicago from its beginnings through the 1940s.  While being a passionate historian, she also enjoys working as a longtime international contributor for a Japanese jazz/fusion website, CyberFusion (www.jazzfusion.com), where she publishes her live reports, album reviews, and interviews with musicians in smooth jazz format in the United States.