Research
My book project, tentatively entitled A Touch of Danger: Southern California's San Fernando Valley and the Racial Politics of An American Dream, explores how communities of color claimed and contested that iconic post-war space. The rest of my publications focus on three major areas -- comparative race studies of Los Angeles, Asian American communities, and the (inter)discipline of Asian American Studies -- and cover topics as varied as the genesis of boba cafes, student activism for Asian American Studies, the evolution of Shin Buddhism in Los Angeles, and various flash points in San Fernando Valley history (from Cold War civil rights activism to the secession movement to the place-based politics of historical memory and preservation). Teaching Currently, I am a faculty member in the Department of History and Social Sciences at Windward School where I work closely with the junior/senior advisory program and the Asian, Pacific Islander, Desi American affinity groups. At UCLA, I am a lecturer in the Department of Asian American Studies and the Race and Indigeneity Cluster, and previously taught in the History, Chicanx Studies, and Honors departments. I have taught and mentored a diverse set middle school, high school, undergraduate, and graduate students in spaces that range from the research seminar to the 250+ person lecture, from the independent school (Windward, Pinecrest) to the large public university (UCLA, UCSB, CSU Long Beach). My pedagogy focuses on project-based learning and requires students to become engaged scholars adept at using historical analysis to understand themselves and the worlds around them. In addition to executing traditional research papers, my undergraduate students have excavated and built a digital archive of a nearly century-old local Buddhist temple, created an ongoing catalogue of interethnic spaces in Los Angeles on Instagram, and, several successive Asian American history “pop-up” museums in the rotunda of the UCLA Powell Library, which I wrote about in the peer reviewed pedagogy journal, The History Teacher (the companion digital archive is available here). In collaboration with other campus faculty and the school makerspace, my middle and high school students have staged exhibits on the social, cultural, political, military, and gender history of the Civil War and the diasporas of refugee populations in Southern California. Community Beyond academia I helped found the Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition, advised the Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources, organized with the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, and have served on the board of a local civil rights organization for over 15 years. I have been interviewed on various NPR affiliates and have spoken to non-academic audiences that range from grassroots community organizations to Google Asia-Pacific. Most recently, I've become an active member of the Buddhist Churches of America - the oldest and largest extant Buddhist organization in North America - serving on the Archives and Historic Preservation Committee and as a minister's assistant at the San Fernando Valley Hongwanji Buddhist Temple. I was also an early member of the Young Buddhist Editorial's Social Justice Committee. |