The idea for the conference came about as a result of a recognition of the fact that Asian-Pacific Americans at the Five Colleges lacked a central community, despite the presence of APA-related organizations on each campus.
According to event organizer Hinlan Wong, a UMass senior, "Asian-Pacific American students make up the largest minority [group] of students in the Five College system. We're having these types of events, but one might be at Smith and the other at UMass. This will help us develop a network, a coalition."
Chairperson of the conference Phuong Vuong '09 said participants would benefit as they sought to "build friendships, educate themselves about the Asian American community and create networks to strengthen resources for Asian American students."
The conference featured workshops that discussed topics facing Asian-Pacific Americans. Topics included "Minorities within Minorities," "Police Brutality in Line with Identity Politics, Racism and Systems of Inequality," "Asian Fever: Asian Women and the Economy of Beauty," "Comparing Identities of Adopties" and "Asia: The Factory of the World-China's Race to the Bottom."
The conference's keynote address was given by Vijay Prashad, Director of International Studies at Trinity College and a Northampton native. Prashad authored "The Darker Nations" and "Karma of Brown Folk."
Professor Karen Cardozo remarked, "Because Asian Americans have often been rendered invisible in traditional curricula or subject to deforming stereotypes in the media, the conference workshops will provide an empowering and valuable education."
Mt. Holyoke senior Amelia Harris, born in South Korea and adopted by white Americans, said of the workshop on adoptees, "I didn't know much about the adoption procedures in Korea, and this was really eye-opening, quite sad, really."
Harris explained that some Korean women are forced to give up their children and have limited rights and protective services. "This made me want to do something, to look into adoption laws in Korea," said Harris.
UMass graduate student Edgar Chen led a workshop entitled "Asia: The Factory of the World-China's Race to the Bottom," which addressed the pervasive poor enforcement of labor regulations in U.S.-owned factories in China.
The conference was made possible by support from each of the Five Colleges. At Amherst, the benefactors were the President's Office, the Association of Amherst Students, Deans Rebecca Lee, Charri Boykin-East and Samuel Haynes, the Black Studies Department, the Anthropology-Sociology Department and the American History Department.