ABSTRACT
The dual pandemic that started in 2020, COVID-19 and events revealing systemic racism, has increased awareness about violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities across the United States. This article describes how the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, a “museum without walls,” collaborated with a group of educators to co-create video resources for teaching and learning AAPI histories and stories.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center staff for their support in making this series possible, and to Expedia for their support. This series would not have been possible without its brilliant experts and speakers who generously shared their stories and wealth of knowledge and experience with us: Liz Kleinrock, Dr. Kiona, Takeru “TK” Nagayoshi, Soukprida Phetmisy, Levi Lovang, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Robert Kim, Rose Ann E. Gutierrez, Ashleigh Coren, Healoha Johnston, Tony DelaRosa, and TJ Simba-Medel. We also thank Lisa Sasaki for her leadership and support in the creation and careful launch of this series; Wendy Kennedy, Marynissa Pedroza, and Carol Youmans for their administrative support in the development of this series; Dr. Theodore Gonzalves and Dr. Sam Vong for sharing their content expertise; Nafisa Isa and Jessica Arce for their social media support; Sarah Froonjian, who helped with coordination efforts and the creation of the Smithsonian Learning Labs series; and finally, Nathan Kawanishi, who edited each video, created our landing page, created new animations, and so much more.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Jeung et al., “Stop AAPI Hate National Report.”
2 Ruiz et al., “Black and Asian Americans Have Experienced Discrimination.”
3 Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, “We Are Not a Stereotype.”
4 Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, “Addressing Anti-Asian Racism with Students.”
5 Luis, “The Public Puts Great Trust in Museums.”
6 Petersen, “Success Story, Japanese-American Style.”
7 Nguyen, “The ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype.”
8 Flanagan, “The Time Is Now,” 23.
9 White, Jacqueline, ed., MASS Action Toolkit.
10 Anderson et al., “Interpretation: Liberating the Narrative,” 100.
11 Lashaw and Orantes, “Sharing Authority,” 106–7.
12 Simon, The Participatory Museum, 274.
13 Ibid., 263–74.
14 The Wing Luke Museum, “What We Do.”
15 Waxman, “A ‘History of Exclusion, of Erasure, of Invisibility.’”
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Andrea Kim Neighbors
Andrea Kim Neighbors serves as the Manager of Education Initiatives for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC), where she collaborates with educators and AAPI content specialists on the development of APAC’s National Education Program. Andrea previously served as Manager of Community Partnerships at The Phillips Collection and Tour Manager at The Wing Luke Museum. Andrea was a Getty Leadership NextGen 2019 Fellow and a Board Officer for the American Alliance of Museum’s Diversity Professional Network. She holds a BA and MA in Cultural Anthropology.
Liz Kleinrock
Liz Kleinrock is an anti-bias and anti-racist educator of both children and adults and creates curricular content for K-12 students. She began her career as an AmeriCorps volunteer teacher in Oakland, California in 2009, and has since served as both a classroom educator and diversity coordinator. In 2018, Liz received the Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching, and is proud to share her 2019 TED Talk, “How to teach kids to talk about taboo topics” building foundations of equity with young learners has been viewed over 2 million times.