Events

The Asian American Experience and the Craft of Writing with Jenny Zhang  

ASAM invite you to join us for a series of events during the week of February 15th-19th, 2021 with Jenny Zhang, acclaimed writer of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, to Penn for an intensive, two-day workshop: an experimental space, fostered by Zhang, which will combine her expertise in the craft of writing with live concerns about contemporary Asian American identity and experience.

Asian American Studies’ Undergraduate Advisory Board played a major role in selecting Jenny Zhang to be a visiting artist in the program. In their words, "Her writing is as much an exploration of the transition from Chinese immigrant girlhood to Chinese American womanhood, and by broader extension, Asian American identities in the U.S., as it is a consideration of the language of the human condition, capturing moments of small but not insignificant joys and mundane sorrows." (cover of Jenny Zhang’s Sour Heart)

Zhang is currently completing a screenplay based on her acclaimed 2017 short story collection, Sour Heart. Her latest collection of poetry, My Baby First Birthday, continues to explore basic human emotions, but through raw, gendered, and unsettling paths. Zhang’s visit provides a unique opportunity for students to combine research interests and the arts. In addition to this workshop, Zhang will give a reading at the Kelly Writers House and host an event with  Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies.

February 16th, 2021 at 6 PM Writing & Dreams: A Writing Workshop with Jenny Zhang

February 17th, 2021 at 6 PM ASAM & Kelly Writers House Reading with Jenny Zhang

February 18th, 2021 at 6 PM ASAM and GSWS in conversation with Jenny Zhang

February 19th, 2021 at 5:30 PM Work + Magic in Writing: A Writing Workshop with Jenny Zhang

Join ASAM for an experimental writing workshop with acclaimed poet and essayist Jenny Zhang.

To find your true, authentic writing voice, you gotta go inward, face illusions, overcome delusions, and be more interested in learning than being perfect. You gotta be alive to the world and you gotta have fun. We'll write and discuss and question and see if there's a way to put in the work to get to the magic.

Registration Required and open to first 12 students only.  Must be Penn Undergraduate.

Please join us on February 19th at noon EST for a conversation with Stacey Abrams, moderated by Benjamin Todd Jealous and with remarks from President Amy Gutmann. 

The event is sponsored by the Annenberg School for Communication, the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program, and the Penn Provost's Office.

The Asian American Studies Program and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program in conversation with Jenny Zhang.

Jenny Zhang is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her writing is as much an exploration of the transition from Chinese immigrant girlhood to Chinese American womanhood, and by broader extension, Asian American identities in the U.S. Her latest collection of poetry, My Baby First Birthday, continues to explore basic human emotions, but through raw, gendered, and unsettling paths.

Moderated by Erin O'Malley, senior majoring in Comparative Literature and Gender, Sexuality, Women's Studies and minoring in Asian American Studies and Creative Writing.

Project supported by The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation Grants for the 2020 year and ASAM.

The Asian American Studies Program and the Kelly Writers House Reading and Conversation with Jenny Zhang.

Jenny Zhang is an acclaimed writer of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Zhang is currently completing a screenplay based on her 2017 short story collection, Sour Heart. Her latest collection of poetry, My Baby First Birthday, continues to explore basic human emotions, but through raw, gendered, and unsettled paths. Zhang’s visit provides a unique opportunity for students to combine research interests and the arts.

Jacob Dlamini, Assistant Professor of History, Princeton University, will present a talk titled “The Apartheid Psychiatrist: Individual Guilt and Collective Responsibility in South Africa.”

Jenny Zhang is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her writing focuses on her Chinese American identity and growing up in New York City. Sour Heart, a collection of short stories, is one of her most acclaimed works for her expression of the raw emotion of adolescence and the immigrant experience.

Writing & Dreams

Join Jenny as she discusses the process of writing and the imagination.

Have your dreams been wild lately? The veil between the unconscious and conscious particularly thin? Perhaps we can use it to our advantage as writers. In this workshop, we'll embark on some writing exercises that tap into the subterranean realm of dreams and wild imagination.   

Registration Required. Open to all interested in creative writing.

"With uncommon brilliance and humor, Stain Removal decimates liberal fantasies of unmarked reciprocity: that we might be evaluated for the content of our character, that we all begin as innocent subjects, that race is prior to judgment, and that ethics is prior to value. Instead, Miller argues that race and ethics cannot be separated, and neither term will cede to the other. This tour de force brings critical race theory and philosophy together without the possibility of divorce." - David L. Eng, University of Pennsylvania

Asian America Across the Disciplines Series Spring 2021 presents Stephanie Sun

Stephanie Sun was appointed the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (GACAPAA) in June, 2020. She had been serving as a Commissioner on GACAPAA beginning in April 2018. Prior to joining the Office of the Governor Tom Wolf, Sun served as the Associate Director of Partnerships, Philly Counts, for the City of Philadelphia, responsible for developing engagement strategies with diverse communities to promote participation in the 2020 U.S. Census. In 2020, she was also assigned to work on COVID-19 and the election.

Sun worked for government diplomatic agencies in both China and South Korea, and for 3 Fortune 120 international corporations in 3 countries, China, South Korea, and the U.S. She also has experience in corporate philanthropy as a grant analyst working on both international and domestic grants and has also written grant applications. She previously worked as the Marketing Manager for the Greater China Region for SK Group, a Global Fortune 100 company, with a staff of 400 salespeople reporting to her through their sales managers.

Sun serves as an active board member of multiple non-profit organizations including the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians, Working Families Partnership (AFL-CIO), Keystone Progress Education Fund (KPEF), Asian Mosaic Fund Giving Circle (AMF), United Chinese Americans (UCA), and Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra (LSO). In addition, she serves on several advisory boards, including the College of Public Health, Temple University.

Sun is a journalist, and served as the senior director of the main local Chinese language newspaper based in Philadelphia, informing and being a voice for the immigrant community, and serving as an advocate for grassroots and marginalized people.

In 2016, Sun collaborated with Philadelphia City Council to organize the first-ever City Council public hearing concerning the Asian Pacific American (APA) community in the history of Philadelphia. And she has been constantly advocating for the rights of crime victims in the APA community, and facilitating their interaction with law enforcement.  
Stephanie earned a Master's degree in Journalism and Media Management in China. She studied for her Ph.D. in International Relations in South Korea.

Hosted by Dr. Fariha Khan, ASAM Associate Director in ASAM 104-401Asian American Communities.

Asian America Across the Disciplines Series Spring 2021 

Nguyen, Chief Executive Officer of SEAMAAC will talk about Fieldwork, Research Strategies; Census, Asian Americans in Pennsylvania.

SEAMAAC's commitment in serving people regardless of race or national origins has inspired our mission and vision in building a stronger society based on the principles of justice and equity for all. SEAMAAC provides a wide array of direct services and takes an active approach to build community leadership through education, organizing and advocacy. SEAMAAC's mission is to support and serve immigrants and refugees and other politically, socially and economically marginalized communities as they seek to advance the condition of their lives in the United States.

Hosted by Dr. Fariha Khan, ASAM Associate Director in ASAM 104-401Asian American Communities.