Director's Report

Over the past year and a half, APA studies has initiated some exciting collaborative programming. In February 2011, we organized a series of events under the umbrella theme of “Re-thinking Hmong American Culture.” This programming aimed to encourage students from a variety of backgrounds to more critically evaluate conceptions of cultural difference. In 2012, we collaborated with the Office of Cultural and Academic Transitions to start an Asian Adoptee Mentoring Program that paired MSU students with local adoptees from Asia. The program was designed to expose adoptees to aspects of Asian American culture as it is celebrated and practiced by today’s youth. Rather than viewing Asian American culture as fixed in an authentic Asian past, it was our hope that mentees and their families would see it as a “modern” and ever-changing form of cultural production that is tied into how Asian Americans view their own identities and their relationships with others. These two initiatives are discussed in more depth in separate articles within this newsletter.

The APA Studies program was sad to see our devoted program coordinator, Dr. Joe Cousins, retire in May 2012, after having worked for six years for the program and thirty for MSU. Joe has been instrumental in mentoring students and supporting the director in carrying out various programming activities. He will be missed, but will be staying on as an honorary member of the program advisory board.

The program also would like to extend our thanks to Markus Dodd, a Professional Writing major who came on board this past fall as Program Assistant. Markus has shown himself to be extremely efficient and professional in his work. He has been making good use of his skills as he works on redesigning our website, creating multiple flyers, and producing this newsletter! We look forward to continuing to work with him.

We would also like to acknowledge Meaghan Kozar, who is an APA Studies Board member and Office of Cultural and Academic Transitions (OCAT) Coordinator. Meaghan was instrumental in designing and planning the mentoring program, all while organizing a number of other major events for her own office this spring. In August of 2012, she successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation in American Studies, and agreed to take on the position of APA Studies Coordinator in addition to her OCAT job. Congratulations, Dr. Kozar!

Finally, we would like to thank Dr. Anna Pegler-Gordon, who has continued to invest great amounts time and energy into the program despite her numerous other commitments to her own college. The program will be left in her very capable hands when she takes over as program director in 2013.