I was able to continue this truly wonderful journey of exploring and learning and sharing APIA Studies and Pedagogies and Identities because my friend Serena reached out to me about this class. I appreciated the opportunity to have dedicated space and time to actively think about and discuss all these issues that have so much meaning to me like what it means to be part of an APIA identity, how to continue with activist work, how to study APIA identities/stories, and how to build community.
I don’t think I can ever truly learn everything, but this class helped me understand more about the histories behind the APIA/Ethnic Studies movements in the United States and how they’re intricately tied to the long legacies of Third World Liberation movements globally. I also learned a lot about what other really smart minds here at Swarthmore (everyone in this class!) thought about in terms of what their identity means to them and what kind of justice work they hope to do/see in the community. One thing that will really stick with me is something that Anna brought up when everyone in class was going around sharing the different readings they had done. She said, “How would classes be different if at the top of every syllabus, they said, ‘You must share this knowledge’?” Blew my mind. It’s something I definitely want to hold with me going forward in every encounter I have where I feel I have learned something new or where I feel I could help others learn something new as well.
Throughout this semester, I have definitely shared with my other friends about the amazing readings/books we’ve done in class, the discussions we’ve had, and the fun activities we’ve done as a group because all of it is so enriching to my life and the way I go forward thinking about who I am and want to be. I also find it inspiring that we were able to do so much with a very much student-run course. I really appreciate all the classmates who made this class a reality (shoutout to Anna and Serena, especially!). I think we had high hopes, and I hope we can also share those with others who might want to take a similar route as us in the future.
It is for these reasons that I would define APIA futures as us. We will carry and pass on the things we learned and the relationships we made, and this will sustain the APIA community. Just like this class, our futures must be collective, our futures must be meaningful, and our futures must be joyful. Thank you to everyone for such a wonderful semester. I can’t wait to continue our work!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some of my favorite memories, in particular:
- Reading The Magic Fish, Messy Roots, The Best We Could Do
- It was so nice to read graphic novels for class, and ones about APIA identities at that! It felt like I was reading for fun again, and the stories all made me cry (very cathartic). They really made me think more about the ways we can share our stories and histories.
- Making zines
- I love arts and crafts! A way to have more tactile ways to engage with the readings I have done was so fun, and not something that I normally get to do in my other classes. Again, this was another time that I felt I was able to think more about ways to share things — in this case, share what I have learned.
- The field trip to the Asian Arts Initiative (and all of our different meanderings along the way!)
- This really solidified how awesome and wonderful it was to build in “kiki time” to our class this semester. I really felt like I got closer to all the people in this class and enriched my mind with the ways I could see community work in the community itself.
by Dorothy <3