Zach Anderson
Lecturer, California State University Long Beach
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Zach Anderson (he/him) is a CHamoru/Pinoy writer and journalist who was born on ‘Amuwu land (Lompoc, CA) and raised on Nisenan land (Sacramento). Before joining the Asian American Studies department, he was a contributor to AsAm Ne ws where he covered Pacific Islander communities both on the islands and on the continental United States. He was also the managing editor of the BIPOC literary collective Think in Ink and briefly served as a communications consultant for the 2022 Kylie Taitano congressional campaign. Zach’s research focuses on the relations between Asian American and Pasifika youth living in diaspora. When he is not reading, writing, or researching, he enjoys gardening, BBQing and birding. His writing can also be found at Eclectica magazine and an anthology of new CHamoru literature published by the University of Hawaii Manoa.
Mana to the Transfer: Expanding Access to Higher Education for Pasifika Community College Students
On Aug. 11, 2023, UCLA’s Center for Community College Partnerships (CCCP) held its first in-person Summer Intensive Transfer Experience for Pasifika community college students from across California since the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was an all-day affair that included ac8vi8es and talanoa for students to engage with Pasifika-centered resources for transferring to four-year institutions, as well as opportunities for participants to network and build community. The program was led and organized by a team of Pasifika and Indigenous staff and allies, many of whom are community college transfers, and are highly involved with UCLA’s Pasifika student organizations including the Pacific Islands’ Student Association (PISA) and Pacific Islander Education and Retention (PIER). This roundtable will include a review of the organizing process for the day’s activities, the importance of replicating similar programming at other four-year institutions, as well as how Pasifika-centered programming specifically for community college students can further develop a transfer-sending culture at community colleges, and a transfer-receptive culture at four-year institutions.
Asian America Breaks The Internet: Complicating Authenticity, Consumption, and Digital Communities
Since the birth of The Internet, Asian Americans have played a key role in content creation and community formation. Focusing on newer social media platforms, such as TikTok and Kumu, our panel’s speakers analyze creative content which spark socio-cultural debates within Asian American digital communities. We touch on issues of racialization stemming from gendered aesthetics, from the gatekeeping of the term ABG by Southeast Asian women against “appropriation” by East Asians, to the critiquing of Black masculinity used in Asian thirst traps by Himbos, Kevin Nguyens, and Swagapinos on Tiktok. Meanwhile, Asian #FoodTok demonstrates how cultural capital gets concocted not solely through cuisine but the narratives of authenticity conveyed in 3 minutes or less by both Asian and non-Asian creators. Finally, the Philippine-based social entertainment platform Kumu demonstrates implications for U.S.-based Filipino subject formation. While the novelty of Internet platforms is important to our analyses, we also ground our case studies in the historical contexts of Asian American racialization and gendered stereotypes, cultural capital and cuisine, and the geopolitics of the Filipino diaspora. Overall, we examine how The Internet, particularly newer social media platforms such as TikTok and Kumu, illuminates how Asian American GenZers and Millennials construct their understandings of Asian American identity and community formation.
Zach Anderson
Lecturer, California State University Long Beach
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