Social Work News

SU MSW Hosts: Activism is our Heritage

April 25, 2017

The Master of Social Work Program at Seattle University presents a public lecture and discussion, Activism Is Our Heritage: Celebrating Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month and Activism.

 Many do not realize that APA communities (especially in the West Coast and most definitely in Seattle) have a long and vibrant history of activism, and we focus on APA activism in honor of the APA Heritage Month. The stereotype of Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) as "quiet" is one of the most pernicious manifestations of the Model Minority Myth. It renders the needs of our communities invisible. It diminishes our political power. It isolates us from communities of solidarity we need to be building. And it results in the internalization of the traumas our communities are surviving.

Join us for an evening of loud-mouthed discussion about building an intersectional, progressive APA political movement with badass APA feminist leader, Miriam Yeung, the former Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF)!

Activism is Our Heritage: Celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and Activism

  • Monday May 15th, 2017
  • 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm with reception to follow
  • Seattle University, Pigott Auditorium

Opening Remarks: Dr. Hye-Kyung Kang; Director SU MSW Program

Keynote: Miriam Yeung, former Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum

Miriam Yeung

Raised in the projects of Brooklyn, Miriam Yeung is proud, queer, immigrant, woman activist. She is the former Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF), the nation's only national multi-issue organization dedicated to building power and winning reproductive justice, economic justice and immigrant rights for APA women and girls. She was named as the Activist-in-Residence at Smith College in 2017.

Dr. Hye-Kyung Kang

Hye-Kyung Kang, Ph.D., MSW, is an Associate Professor and Director of MSW Program at Seattle University. A first-generation immigrant Korean American social worker, Kang’s research focuses on cultural citizenship, postcolonial social work practice, and community organizing and activism. Her book, Cultural Citizenship and Immigrant Community Identity: Constructing a Multi-ethnic Asian American Community (2010), examined a discursive history of Seattle’s International District.

*This event is co-sponsored by Prof. Natasha T. Martin, J.D., Associate Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer (Office of Institutional Inclusion), Prof. Sharon Suh, Ph.D; Pigott-McCone Endowed Chair, and Asian Counseling and Referral Services.