Dartmouth Student Activists Focus Photo Campaign on Asian-American Studies

Asian/Asian American Activists at Dartmouth, a group of student activists interested in learning “What Dartmouth Doesn’t Teach You,” spearheaded a photo campaign in May based on a similar project led by Yale’s Asian American Studies Task Force.

Asian/Asian American Activists at Dartmouth (4A@Dartmouth), a group of student activists interested in learning “What Dartmouth Doesn’t Teach You,” spearheaded a photo campaign in May based on a similar project led by Yale’s Asian American Studies Task Force. The project features photos of students holding up whiteboards with statements about what their respective universities lack in teaching them about Asian American topics and issues.

The campaign’s Facebook cites that while Dartmouth prides itself on “excellence in undergraduate education,” the lack of resources for Asian-American Studies undermines this supposed excellence. According to 4A@Dartmouth, at least thirty faculty of color have left campus since 2002; of these, at least five were professors who included Asian-American content in their courses.

In addition, the campaign says that a couple years ago, three faculty positions were reserved for Asian-American professors who taught Asian-American studies—funds were even set aside for this program. However, two of the three positions were given to professors who do not directly teach or research on Asian-American issues. 4A@Dartmouth says that the last remaining Asian Americanist who focuses on Asian-American Literature has classes which are consistently overfilled.

Moulshri Mohan, a Dartmouth ’15 and integral part of the campaign, believed social media would be a great platform to spread awareness about Asian American issues on campus and the impetus for the photo campaign.

[Mohan ’15 is a recent graduate of Dartmouth College. | Photo Source: Facebook/What Dartmouth Doesn’t Teach Me]

“I was really impressed by Yale’s similar photo campaign and thought a pan-Ivy collaboration would strengthen our [position],” Mohan said.

The Yale Asian American Studies Task Force has been in existence since the early 2000s, but the group experienced a revival in 2014 after students felt changes needed to be made with regard to Asian American studies.

Task Force Co-Chair and Yale student, Alex Zhang, cites a lack of permanence in faculty and quantity of courses in Asian American Studies as ridiculous. According to Zhang, there were more course offerings in Asian American Studies a decade ago at Yale than there are today.

“[The photo campaign] began in this year at Yale after [the Task Force] successfully organized an academic conference for Asian American Studies,” Zhang said. “We wanted to continue the momentum we built and thought that critiquing the university in such a way would reveal the dire state of Asian American Studies.

According to Task Force External and Intercollegiate Outreach Coordinator and Yale, Crystal Kong, the photo campaign was timed to ride the momentum of a February 2015 Asian American Studies Conference at Yale.

“The conference was attended by over 100 people and some of the most prominent scholars in the field.” Kong said. “And along with the Asian American Students Alliance, we created  a post-it note display of over 750 names at the conference, with each note representing a person who supports the creation of Asian American Studies classes.”

The title of Yale’s campaign, “No Lux No Veritas,” is a play on Yale’s motto “Lux et Veritas,” which means “Light and Truth” in Latin.

“The goal of the [photo campaign] was less so to directly confront administrators or demand more course offerings and more so to rally support among students, faculty and alumni, who may otherwise be unaware or uninformed about the state of Asian American studies at their schools,” Zhang said.

Dartmouth and 4A@Dartmouth member, Kevin Bui, the son of Vietnamese refugees was born in Texas and subsequently moved to Taiwan at the age of 10. He strongly believes the complexities of his Asian American identity have been essential to his Dartmouth experience.

“I have been constantly boxed into stereotypes and labels that I feel do not fit the person I am,” Bui said. “Explaining my Asian American background has been a struggle throughout my life, because of minor details, yet they are all essential parts of the person I am.”

[Kevin Bui is planning to double major in Sociology and Woman & Gender Studies at Dartmouth. | Photo Source: Facebook/What Dartmouth Doesn’t Teach Me]

According to Bui, the lack of academic study makes it difficult for [Asian and/or Asian American] students to understand and talk about their own experiences in the world of academia.

Currently, Dartmouth does not have an official program or department for Asian/American ethnic and cultural studies.

“I hope to see some sort of effort on the part of the administration in hiring faculty who specialize in Asian American studies and eventually implementing a program for this specific field,” Bui said.

[Emily Kong’ 16 is a double major in music and biology modified with economics and active member of 4A@Dartmouth. | Photo Source: Facebook/What Dartmouth Doesn’t Teach Me]

Mohan cites mixed reactions about the campaign at Dartmouth, with no response as of yet from the administration.

“Many people have liked and shared the project on Facebook, and about 40 people came to take pictures. There have been negative, often racist reactions, mostly on anonymous forums like Yik Yak and bored@baker,” Mohan said. “The Dartmouth wrote an article against the campaign’s points.”

Despite a range of reactions at both Dartmouth and Yale campuses, Mohan and Zhang encourage others to share the campaigns’ activities and efforts on social and news media.

“If there are Asian Americanist scholars or students at other universities, we’re really looking into collaboration with and learning from other campuses,” Mohan said. “If people at Dartmouth want to support [the efforts], they can work with us to acquire resources for Asian students.”

The Asian American Studies Task Force at Yale and 4A@Dartmouth have several new initiatives planned and under way.