Dr. Catherine Ma

Incorporating Aspects of Asian American Studies as Tools for Teaching about Race and Discrimination

In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Dr. Catherine Ma, associate professor of psychology at Kingsborough Community College, will be hosting a discussion: Incorporating Aspects of Asian American Studies as Tools for Teaching about Race and Discrimination on May 7 from 5:30 – 7:00PM sponsored by the Asian American/Asian Research Institute.

When asked about her motivation for organizing this discussion, Dr. Ma says, "I wanted to use my skills as a professor to address the slew of hate and anti-Asian sentiment that has been brewing the last few years. I have an upcoming chapter with the academic publisher, Palgrave Macmillan in their series on Teaching for Social Justice and Equity."

Dr. Ma went on to share the benefits of this discussion. "This presentation details how the struggles and triumphs of Asian Americans can provide undergraduate college students with a multicultural perspective to better understand systemic racism and offer examples for professors to engage their classes with difficult concepts related to racism and discrimination. The incorporation of aspects of Asian American Studies can be a valuable tool in transforming not only how students learn but also how professors teach. Helen Zia was our keynote speaker at the CUNY Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Conference a few weeks ago and she coined the term, Missing in History or MIH."

MIH is used to keep people ignorant, divided, and makes it impossible to address systemic racism, white supremacy, etc. Senator John Liu has petitioned for a new bill to teach Asian American history and its civic impact in public schools. The state of Illinois already passed a similar bill. This is a critical step forward in addressing the growing anti-Asian sentiment that has plagued our communities because it has been far too long that the history of Asians has been ignored and that is a direct result of white supremacy. Dr. Ma wants to offer some tools for faculty to begin to use aspects of Asian American Studies to teach about racism and discrimination because these are important discussions that need to be addressed in and out of the classroom. She strongly believes that we can all do our part in fighting racism and this is just one of her contributions.

Presentation Description

Many students of color have become fearful of what the future holds in the aftermath of the Trump presidency, and as a result, professors need support to facilitate difficult classroom discussions that address the heightened racial tensions incited by the Trump administration. Dr. Catherine Ma will present on how the struggles and triumphs of Asian Americans can provide undergraduate students with a multicultural perspective to better understand structural racism, and offer examples for professors to engage their classes with difficult concepts related to racism and discrimination. Incorporating aspects of Asian American Studies (AAS) can be a valuable tool in transforming not only how students learn but also how professors teach.

In addition, Dr. Ma’s own personal reflections on teaching about racism and discrimination will be shared to help educators become cognizant of the emotional labor and stress of promoting critical thinking and challenging resistant belief systems in students. The incorporation of these aspects of AAS provide a complex scaffold in which students build upon each assignment to broaden their understanding of structural racism, the social hierarchy in race, misconceptions about the Black Lives Matter movement, and the origins of xenophobia to give them a solid foundation upon which to critique how race, ethnicity, class, and language diversity affects the lives of immigrants and people of color.