East Meets West Symposium: “Immigration”

This signature event in our annual calendar brings guest speakers and Asia Program faculty together with students for an interdisciplinary exploration of a larger topic, in a lecture and workshop format. The spring 2018 symposium will explore local and global issues surrounding immigration.

Also Available as a One-Credit DIVR Course!

Students may enroll in the symposium as a one-credit course, ASIA 301: East Meets West [DIVR] (SLN 05103). Since themes and topics change each semester, ASIA 301 can be taken up to three times for credit.

The class consists of three days of lectures and activities. Students receive a letter grade based primarily on attendance and the quality of two brief required papers (précis) due in early April. Students must attend all course activities February 22–24, 2018.

Print flyer for public symposium events »
Print full schedule of events for students enrolled in ASIA 301 »

Symposium Schedule

Participation in events marked “course-specific” is limited to students enrolled in ASIA 301 and scheduled presenters. All other events are free and open to the public. Schedule is subject to change.

Thursday, February 22 | 6:00–9:15 p.m. | Todd Hall 276

• 6:00 p.m. — Course-specific
  Lydia Gerber (Asian Studies) | “Introduction to the Course”
• 6:10 p.m. — Course-specific
  Shawna Herzog (History) | “Introduction to Our Blackboard Course Space”
• 6:20 p.m.
  Katy Fry (History) | “Persistent ‘Outsiders’: One Hundred Years of Asian Immigration”
• Short Break
• 7:15 p.m.
  Documentary: Kam Wah Chung (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
• 7:45 p.m.
  Keynote Speaker: Don Hann (US Forest Service, John Day, Oregon) | “Re-Imagining Historic Landscapes: Immigrant Chinese Miners and Merchants in the Southern Blue Mountains of Oregon”
• 8:50 p.m.
  “Visiting Kam Wah Chung, October 2017: Student Perspectives and Questions”

Friday, February 23 | 6:00–9:15 p.m. | Todd Hall 276

• 6:00 p.m. — Course-specific
  “Introduction to the WSU Asia Program”
• 6:20 p.m. — Course-specific
  Language Workshops: Arabic (Manal Shaheen), Chinese (Weiguo Cao), Japanese (Kayo Niimi), Korean (HyunGyung Lee)
• 7:15 p.m.
  Keynote Event: Documentary – Good Neighbors: Legacy of the American Chinese in Lewiston, Idaho (2017), by Patricia Keith
• 8:30 p.m.
  Roundtable Discussion with Filmmaker Patricia Keith

Saturday, February 24 | 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. | Todd Hall 276

• 8:30 a.m.
  Morning Meditation
• 8:45 a.m.
  Charles Weller (History) | “Western East Meets Eastern East: Early 20th-Century Russian Tatar Muslim Émigrés and the Islamization of Japan”
• 9:30 a.m.
  Short Break
• 9:40 a.m.
  Lipi Turner-Rahman (Libraries) | “Quotas, Links, and Chains: South Asian Muslim Immigration to the UK and USA”
• 10:25 a.m.
  Short Break
• 10:35 a.m.
  Mohammad Ghaedi (Ph.D. candidate, Politics, Philosophy, & Public Affairs) | “Restrictions on Scholarship in the 21st Century: The Implications of a Travel Ban for Academics”
• 11:20 a.m.
  Short Break
• 11:30 a.m. — Course-specific
  Interactive Workshop: “Interviewing Immigrants from Asia” (with Sisouvanh Keopanapay, Lipi Turner-Rahman, Roger Chan, Mohammad Ghaedi, and Xinmin Liu)
• 12:30 p.m. — Course-specific
  Catered Lunch
• 1:00 p.m.
  Awards for Best Team Solutions to improve the immigration experience for immigrants and the communities welcoming them
• 1:10 p.m.
  Lydia Gerber (Asian Studies) | “Trying to Get It Right: Refugee Resettlement in Hamburg, Germany, Since 2015”
• 2:00 p.m.
  Lydia Gerber (Asian Studies) | “Wrapping It Up: What Do We Take Away?”