As we close out the 2023-2024 academic year, we’re so excited to share with you all of the progress we’ve made in the first year of the Global Asias Initiative. Thank you to the Mellon Foundation for making this work possible. Here’s what we have been up to and what you can look forward to next year, including opportunities to directly impact the work.
Welcoming Priya & Mika to Global Asias!
Priya Bhayana joined us in March as the initiative’s Project Management Specialist, and got kicked off right away putting the finishing touches on our opening workshop in April. She brings 10+ years of non-profit and higher education program development and management work in Baltimore to our team.
Mika Thornburg will be joining us this fall as our Postdoctoral Fellow in Global Asias. She is currently finishing her doctoral degree in history from the University of California - Santa Barbara. Mika will be pursuing research, teaching public humanities courses, helping to develop the Global Asias conversation series and programming, curriculum development, and generally visioning the future of the initiative. Thank you to Meredith Power, Asian Studies Program Management Specialist, for your support with the postdoctoral hiring process!
Spring Opening Workshop
We officially launched the Global Asias Initiative on April 5, 2024 with our Spring Opening Workshop! We introduced students, faculty, and staff to the initiative and collaboratively visioned the possibilities of the program.
Thank you to our speakers and facilitators Dean Kimberly Moffitt, Meredith Oyen, Theodore Gonzalves, Fan Yang, Noor Zaidi, Emily Yoon, Tamara Bhalla, Tahira Mahdi and Robbin Lee for your contributions! And a special shoutout to Morgan Dowty, American Studies Project Management Specialist, for all of your work putting the event together.
(Abnet Shiferaw)
Thank you to our Advisory Board & Evaluator!
Our inaugural Global Asias Advisory Board has driven the vision thus far as we work towards fostering connections across disciplines, organizations, and communities and better serving Asian American students and faculty. Featured: Global Asias Advisory Board, AY2023-2024. (l-r) Tamara Bhalla, Noor Zaidi, Meredith Oyen, Fan Yang, Theo Gonzalvez, Robbin Lee, Emily Yoon, and Priya Bhayana, project manager for the Global Asias Initiative. (Abnet Shiferaw)
Tahira Mahdi is serving as our evaluator for this project, gathering collaborative insights from faculty, staff, and students about the future of Global Asias.
Launched Course Expansion Grants and Student Fellowships
We launched Course Expansion Grants for faculty looking to incorporate a public humanities or community-engaged component into existing courses serving Asian Studies program, Asian American studies minor that fit within the field of Global Asias. We’ll be offering one grant per semester during academic years 2024-2025 and 2025-2026. We also began offering the Student Research Fellowship in Global Asias to support a student project supervised by a UMBC faculty member working in the field of Global Asias.
What’s next?
Save the Date!
October 9-12, 2024: We’ll be welcoming Dr. Tina Chen, Associate Professor of English and Asian American Studies at PennState and Editor, Verge: Studies in Global Asias to campus as our first visiting speaker for the Global Asias Conversation Series! Please stay connected for information on public programming associated with her visit.
Follow us!
We have so much coming up to share with you and that we need your input on. Please join our myUMBC page and follow Asian Studies on Instagram, X/Twitter, and Facebook for upcoming programming, related research from faculty, and ways to engage.