ACAM Dialogues Podcast: Recent Episodes
ACAM Dialogues Podcast
The ACAM Dialogues is a series of student-focused dialogues events that began in 2017 and continues today. The Dialogues is hosted annually by student staff members of the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies (ACAM) program. With events and projects ranging from discussion events, symposiums, panels, multimedia productions, and social drop-ins, the Dialogues draws from topics that emerge in student discussions towards collective learning and community-building. // LEARN MORE: acamdialogues.arts.ubc.ca
To celebrate ACAM’s 10 year anniversary, this month we have a special conversation with Mary and Tosh Kitagawa - two Japanese-Canadian advocates who were instrumental in the creation of the ACAM program. Tune in as we speak with Mary and Tosh about fighting for recognition of the 76 interned Japanese-Canadian students, the necessity of speaking up, and how we might find community in the process.
Tune in now.
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Guest bio - Mary and her husband Tosh Kitagawa are educators and advocates, best known for their campaign to recognize the 76 Japanese Canadian students who were forcibly removed from the University of British Columbia during internment.
ACAM Welcome Back Party & Journal Launch
Health—whether physical or mental well-being—is a crucial focus in many of our lives. Yet, it becomes even more complex within the context of diasporic communities. This episode dives into these intricacies, emphasizing the transformative power of centering joy.
For this month’s episode, we sat down with Dr. Benjamin Cheung who teaches ACAM 320B: Health amongst Asian diaspora in Canada to talk joy, cultural psychology, and his experience teaching the course.
Tune in now.
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Guest bio - Dr. Benjamin Cheung is a Lecturer and Indigenous Initiatives Coordinator in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia.
Like many of us travelling for the first time, Isa’s first solo-trip to Asia brought about a lot of conflicting feelings, questions and thoughts — What privileges might our passports and accents afford us as we move through the world? What does it mean to be marked foreign or have to deliberately mark yourself foreign in places where everyone looks like you? What happens when we voyage to places and find ourselves caught in the middle of existing conflicts larger than ourselves?
Hoping to find some answers, this month she sat down with Chris Patterson, author of Stamped: an anti travel novel, and lead developer of “Stamped: an anti travel game” to discuss these hard questions around travel, privilege and identity.
Tune in now.
Guest bio - Christopher B. Patterson is an Associate Professor in the Social Justice Institute at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on transpacific discourses of literature, games, and films through the lens of empire studies, queer theory and creative writing.
This week is part 2 of our mini-series looking behind-the-scenes at the creation of "The Paper Trail" exhibit, featured at the Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver's Chinatown.
As a part of the exhibit for the in remembrance of the 100 year anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act, two documentary short films, "Remembering Chinese Bachelors" & "Stories of Repeal and Reunion" were produced to highlight the narratives of those who were affected.
In this episode, we sit down with Daniel Chen and Victoria So, two INSTRCC research assistants who worked on the films to the questions: What was the process of making films for the exhibit? And how did the exhibit spaces get designed?
Gavin Luke / At First Light / courtesy of
The Chinese Canadian Museum (CCM) opened in Vancouver’s Chinatown on July 1st 2023, 100 years after the passing of the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act (also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act). Its feature exhibit The Paper Trail to the 1923 Exclusion Act holds the identity documents that individuals of Chinese descent were forced to carry and the personal stories behind them.
This week’s ACAM Dialogues podcast episode is part 1 of a series of two mini-episodes where we do a deep dive into the behind-the-scenes of the Paper Trail exhibit. In part 1, we speak to Naomi Louie and Andrew Sandfort-Marchese, who worked as members of the Archival Biographies Team at CCM to explore the questions: What goes into the planning of something like the Paper Trail exhibit? And why does it matter?
Gavin Luke / At First Light / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
This episode is in remembrance of Y-Dang Troeung who was a beloved teacher, researcher, friend, mentor, advocate, colleague and community member in the ACAM orbit. Her first book, Refugee Lifeworlds: The Afterlife of the Cold War in Cambodia was published in August 2022, and her memoir, Landbridge: Life in Fragments was published posthumously. Prior to her passing in November of 2022, she also had been developing a course on public intellectualism with a few members of her cohort at the Peter wall Institute for Advanced Studies.
This episode contains interviews with MV Ramana, Olivia Lim and Lindsey Palmer, and is meant to be a part of a larger on-going dialogue about Y-Dang’s legacy as a scholar and teacher as we continue to examine her work and remember her.
This week's episode is a roundtable discussion with the ACAM student staff: Emily Law, Kaitlyn Lee, Vanessa Lee and Victoria Sin. We discuss identity, our migration stories, and the work we do at ACAM. We also have a message left by Szu Shen, ACAM's Program Manager for our ACAM voicemails on joy segment!
Our first episode of 2024 is an interview with Jane Komori, a postdoctoral research fellow in UBC’s history department. This week we discuss labor history in Western Canada, migrant ecologies, and food systems. We also have two messages left by Victoria Sin and Emily Law for our ACAM voicemails on joy segment.
https://history.ubc.ca/profile/jane-komori/
This mini episode of the podcast is a collection of voicemails left by ACAM community members reflecting on Asian Canadian joy as 2023 comes to a close.
ACAM Voicemail is a new segment on the podcast. What’s bringing you joy? Do you have any recipes, stories, books, messages for other people you’d like to share? If you’d like to leave a voice message to be featured on a future episode of the podcast, email us a 1-2 minute audio clip at acam.program@ubc.ca.
This week we have another group interview!
So in 2018, Phebe Ferrer hosted ACAM447A, a student directed seminar exploring Filipino identities in diaspora. She and two of the participants in the seminar, Raphael Diangkinay and Jacqueline Sarvini sat down with Isa to chat questions of Filipinx identity, the student directed seminar format, and the real friends they made along the way.
Our guest this week on the podcast is Emi Sasagawa, author and Director of Communications at UBC Faculty of Arts. We sat down for a chat about her debut novel Atomweight, writing with empathy, and intersectionality within queer Asian womanhood.
Our guests this week on the podcast are 2023 ACAM grads—Moira Henry, Lindsay Mak, Divine Reyes, and An Xu. We sat down for a chat about their takeaways from the ACAM minor program, building community, and the power of storytelling.
Our guest this week on the podcast is Jocelle Refol, Events Coordinator and Campaign Lead at Sliced Mango Collective, as well as the previous Peer 2 Peer Summer Program Leader at Collingwood Neighbourhood House Society. We sat down with her to chat about strategies for community organizing, social media as a useful tool in advocacy, and the importance of accessible summer programs for youth.
Sliced Mango Collective
Collingwood Neighbourhood House
Our guest this week on the podcast is Wendy Yip, University Ambassador at UBC since 2016, President of the Pacific Canada Heritage Centre - Museum of Migration Society, and longtime supporter of ACAM. Alongside her husband, outgoing UBC President Santa Ono, Wendy will be relocating to Michigan, marking the end of her role with UBC. We caught up with Wendy to get her reflections on her work as University Ambassador, her involvement with PCHC-MoM, and her experience with community advocacy work.
Wendy Yip Twitter
Pacific Canada Heritage Centre-Museum of Migration
Our guest this week on the ACAM podcast is William Canero, organizer for the Joyce Street Action Network and board member for the Kathara Pilipino Indigenous Arts Collective Society & the Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage Society. We discuss the Joyce-Collingwood food hub, public engagement in city planning and the role of Filipino businesses within the community.
Buto/Buto: Bones are Seeds
Kathara Pilipino Indigenous Arts Collective Society
Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage Society
Joyce Street Action Network
The realities of being an indie musician, the conceptualization of queer sound and the use of music in building community, these are just some of the subjects we cover in episode 6 of the ACAM podcast! Our guest this week is Dr. Casey Mecija, musician, scholar of queer sound and Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at York University.
Dr. Casey Mecija's Twitter
Casey Mecija - Sounds That Mark Our Words [Official Video]
This episode is made possible by the Chan Family Foundation’s generous support.
Maximalist design, banana ketchup and Filipino food's connection with resilience, these are just some of the subjects we cover in episode 5 of the ACAM podcast! Our guests this week are Fyonna Laddaran and Kin Chua, designers and students at Emily Carr. Their project,* Bahay Natin *will be on exhibit at the Emily Carr grad show from May 10 to May 24.
Links:
Fyonna Laddaran
Kin Chua
Emily Carr grad show
Legal writing vs. creative writing, diasporic fusion foods, and ghost stories from Southeast Asia, these are just some of the subjects we cover in episode 4 of the ACAM podcast! Our guest this week is Jamie Chai Yun Liew, writer, lawyer, law professor and podcaster on Migration Conversations.
Stories that Haunt Us: A Conversation with Jamie Liew and Lindsay Wong
Our next guest for the ACAM podcast is Lindsay Wong, author of the #1 bestselling debut memoir The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug-Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family. We sat down for an interview to chat about the memoir writing process, language learning, and immigrant ghost stories.
Stories that Haunt Us: A Conversation with Jamie Liew and Lindsay Wong
In January of 2021, ACAM launched a new mini-podcast series to accompany our ACAM Dialogues podcast "Flow of Thoughts". The mini-episodes encourage dialogue with people in the ACAM community to facilitate conversations of their past and present during this new era of working.
Our next guest is Laura Ishiguro, historian and associate professor in the Department of History at UBC. We sat down for an interview to chat “the everyday” & “the local”, being a history sleuth, and tips & tricks when it comes to research.
In January, ACAM launched a new mini-podcast series to accompany our ACAM Dialogues podcast "Flow of Thoughts". The mini-episodes encourage dialogue with people in the ACAM community to facilitate conversations of their past and present during this new era of working.
Our next guest is Mila Zuo, filmmaker, film scholar and assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC. We sat down for a chat in advance of the ACAM Halloween screening on October 28th to talk migration, horror, and womanhood.
Transcript: acamdialogues.arts.ubc.ca/acam-podcast/
Carnal Orient: https://youtu.be/eYLVGQ4HU3M
In January, ACAM launched a new mini-podcast series to accompany our ACAM Dialogues podcast "Flow of Thoughts". The mini-episodes encourage dialogue with people in the ACAM community to facilitate conversations of their past and present during this new era of working.
Our next guest is Jeanne Sakata, renowned actress and playwright. Our host, Leilan Wong, speaks with Jeanne about her family's migration story, the inspiration and relevance for her play, Hold These Truths as well as her new radio play produced during the pandemic, For Us All.
Transcript: acamdialogues.arts.ubc.ca/acam-podcast/
Flows of thoughts surrounding film, and the filmmaking process with Natalie Murao and Thea Loo, the writer-director/producer duo behind No More Parties, as well as Alejandro Yoshizawa, filmmaker and professor at the University of the Fraser Valley.
Hosted and Produced by Moses Caliboso
The UBC Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies (ACAM) program is excited to announce a new podcast series to accompany our ACAM Dialogues podcast "Flow of Thoughts". The mini episodes encourage dialogue with the people of the ACAM community to facilitate conversations of their past and present during this new era of working.
Our first guest is Winnie Cheung, Executive Director of the Pacific Canada Heritage Centre (PCHC). Our host, Olivia Lim, speaks with Winnie to learn about her experience with migration and her time at UBC. They discuss the new PCHC initiative and how their work changed during this time. "From Far and Wide: Pacific Canada Stories" is a new virtual story gathering project to better understand migrants and descendants of migrants who arrived through western portal to live on the territories of Indigenous peoples. To learn more, visit pchc-mom.org/
Produced by Katie Hoang
Hosted by Olivia Lim
[Re-release from Soundcloud]
EPISODE 1
ACAM's inaugural episode of Flow of Thoughts is written and hosted by ACAM alumni Jackie Sarvini.
Created out of her experience processing emotions surrounding the global pandemic, Jackie returns to the music of her youth. In this return, she comes across the album SAWAYAMA by British-Japanese artist Rina Sawayama, an artpop extravaganza of colliding identity crises and reconciliations amidst a sonic palette of early 2000s pop music. What follows is Jackie’s exploration within her own relationship to Rina Sawayama and the ever shifting landscape of racialization in pop music. A talk that is equal parts memoir, equal parts cultural analysis, ACAM is proud to present Jackie’s work as the first episode of the ACAM Podcast.
Hosted by Jackie Sarvini
Produced by Moses Caliboso