7 10 91 http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/3044bba95207643fdc6159b4017a563e.pdf 1323c258fb7664690701c2ac0d7950f1 PDF Text Text Tiffany Huang, Kelly Liu, David Youngkyun Lee AAS/POL 307 Professor Peggy Christoff Final Group Interview Report Section One Person interviewed: Yuriko Doi Interviewee’s title or position: Founder and Choreographer of Theatre of Yugen) Date, time, and length of interview: Wednesday, November 30th at 1:30PM, 62:29 Your objective in conducting this interview: Coming from art-related backgrounds with interests in photography and painting, we were really captivated by how unique Yuriko’s work is, despite having no other knowledge of theater. Her style in the theater, more than other styles of theater is very largely a visual effect. Our goal was to get a deeper understanding of Yuriko’s background and experiences in her specialty, traditional and avant-garde Japanese theater, and to better understand what influenced and affected her throughout her life and career. The objective for our interview for this class was to ask about how gender, politics, and their expectations affected her in her life and career goals over time. Section Two Description of the pre-interview research (What did you find out about the person and place she/he is affiliated with before the interview? How did you prepare for the interview?) We did a substantial amount of research before developing questions for our interview. First, we went on Yuriko’s website to start off our search, as it would probably have the most accurate information. Through the website we read through her biography, her mission, and about some ways Yuriko portrays her work through different styles. There were different examples of work she has done in the past, and upcoming plays as well. It gave us a taste and small look into what kind of person she was, and what her goals were. We also did a general internet search on several different search engines to find news articles or publications came up. The results from these searches brought up brief biographies, previous interviews, and some mentions of previous works. We learned of new words such as “yugen”, “Noh”, and “Kyogen”, and branched off our research from the website onto other search platforms, where we further define what these terms meant and tried to understand what they meant with her context. Noh is a large and major form of classical theater that tells stories off of traditional (Japanese) literature and incorporates dance by highly skilled and trained performers employing the use of masks, costumes, props. Emotions are shown through iconic styles of masks in traditional roles of ordinary people and the supernatural. Kyogen is another major form of classical theater that is linked to Noh. It is meant to be comical, and performed in brief plays in between acts of Noh. Kyogen is meant to be exaggerated so that it is very easy to understand. Contrasting Noh, Kyogen is more based on dialogue than physical aspects. �We learned the Yuriko Doi is performer, director, choreographer, and founder of Theatre of Yugen in San Francisco, California. Yuriko’s work is highly specialized in a style that mixes modern avant-garde elements with very traditional, classical Japanese theater. She was born and raised in Japan. Growing up, she was very influenced by her aunt, who was highly skilled and trained in Noh. She attended university in Tokyo studying with a Kyogen master. She also studied French avant-garde and classic theater in France, where we assumed she really started to learn about theater across cultures. We made questions in preparation for our interview based off of this knowledge. The *list* of our asked/prepared interview questions include: 1. As a formality, do you mind introducing yourself and your current occupation 2. Where were you born and how was your childhood life like? 3. What is your ethnicity? Your education background? 4. The Theatre of Yugen, the non-profit theater company you founded, specializes in bringing Japanese performing arts to American audiences, could you please share with us your experiences in building this institution? 5. Why is it it important, in your opinion, to bring theatrics into the education of Japanese culture and history? 6. Throughout our semester we learned how women in US-Asian relations faces difference experiences in biculturalism, in your point of view, do you believe your contributions helps bridge the gaps between two cultures? How? 7. The production efforts in your company is influenced by two classical Japanese dramatic forms of Noh and Kyogen. Learning more about Japanese performing arts, how would you describe the difference of these two forms to the general public? 8. What other styles of theater have influenced you in your work? Any influenced through other Asian forms? (she might mention influences in Greek mythology, Flamenco and Native American dance) 9. In your field of work, you specialized in a variety of things (from stage director, choreographer, even a performer), could you share with us one of your favorites in your array of productions to take part of or direct in? 10. Our course with Professor Peggy critically examines the crucial roles played by women in US-Asian relations throughout history, in your experience, have you ever faced any obstacles building the Theatre of Yugen, or in general due to your gender? 11. What do you want the audiences in America and Asia to remember from your work? 12. Is there anything else, you would like to mention or clarify? Or anything you want to ask us? Section Three 1. Did you get complete answers to your questions? Explain It was difficult to get complete answers to some of the questions. Though we had prepared approximately 15 open-ended questions before the interview, a lot of them turned out to be irrelevant to her based off of previous questions, and a lot of new ones surfaced as that interview went on. Of the questions we got to ask, she did not always answer them. She provided a multitude of anecdotes and side stories about her experiences that the question reminded her of. While her answers were relevant to the question, she tended to somewhat answer our questions �in a very roundabout way. It required some further analysis on our own to think over what she may have meant, and we found her stories to be really insightful later on. Even more so, Yuriko had some additional thoughts after the interview that she forgot to mention and often asked if she was making sense throughout. 2. Was your interview structured, unstructured, or mixed? Explain We originally went for a more structured interview style by following the list of questions that we made prior to the interview. This was especially true towards the beginning, when it was more awkward and while there was less conversation, but as the interview went along, it was more natural to go along with the flow of the conversation. It got easier to speak with her comfortably as she shared more and added on more details and personal anecdotes of her work experience, but it also made it somewhat difficult to transition between questions or topics when the answers got off-topic. So despite going for a more structured interview, it ended up being a mix of both structured and unstructured. 3. What probing questions did you use? Explain Probing questions we used included a lot of how and why she did what she did. We also asked a lot of detailed questions such as what she was thinking and what her goals were. We were prepared to ask more questions, but realized that as we continued into the interview, she voluntarily explained a lot of what she said on her own. 4. Explain your team approach (if applicable). That is who did what? There was a strategic approach to how we handled the assignment. Ideally, our project would be split evenly amongst our group members, but due to a lot of time conflicts in scheduling, we decided it would be best to break up the work. We can to an agreement over splitting our project into three parts, so that we could each contribute. The research, interview questions, and email proposal was done by Kelly. The interview itself with Yuriko Doi was arranged and conducted by Tiffany. David set up our substance and process powerpoint presentation for the class. And lastly, we are all putting together the final report. 5. Did the interviewee give you any documents or references to articles to read, or did she/he mention other people for you to talk to (or research)? Explain Towards the end of the interview, we requested permission to use her images in our presentation and assignment, and Yuriko Doi personally mailed us hard copies of her first edition publication about the Theatre of Yugen titled, “Theatre of Yugen 25 Years A Retrospective” by Erik Ehn. This book showcases, describes, and explains the work done and contributed to over the years, and is a collection of documents on how the Japanese practice of kyōgen and nō through the works of Yuriko herself. There is a lot of explanation, pictures, and timeline of events. �Yuriko also did mention a number of other people she mentioned have taught her and worked with her in the past, as well as people who have done similar or interesting works that I could link into for more information. Section Four Insert your interview notes/write up here. Remember to be accurate and concise. Consider what was said, any emerging trends your interviewee mentioned, different interpretations, and recommendations for follow up interviews. What really stood out throughout the interview was the double standard that existed between men and women who were “allowed” to act in traditional Japanese theater. This is just something we find to be true throughout our culture and society, throughout this course, and throughout other cultures and other societies. Women are expected to be a certain way, but it is acceptable when men get to do the same thing, or whatever else they want. We found that her answer “no” to gender being a limitation in her career path to be somewhat alarming. Yuriko did not hesitate very much in responding, and there was no noticeable shift in mood or tone that stood out. It seemed quite clear to us that gender was extremely limiting. Women were not recognized as professionals in noh or kyogen theater, a primary example being the aunt who taught Yuriko. Despite her aunt growing up in a family where all the men around her were professional noh performers, and receiving the training and practice that they did, she was only permitted to teach noh. This alone was already considered a stretch for what was allowed. For follow up interviews, we would recommend going into it with a much better understanding of theater and the different styles than we did. While she did a lot of the explanation to fill in the gaps or provide context, it would be helpful to already understand the basics, and to aim for a deeper understanding instead. Some background in the history of theater, especially Japanese or Asian theater, could help to explain some of the gender issues that we may have missed. Section Five 1. Your analysis: What aspects of the interview did you find to be particularly meaningful? One aspect of the interview (or rather, before) that we found meaningful was the time and patience Yuriko provided us to follow up with the interview. During the emails and communication we had exchanged between each other, we had a couple of setbacks that could have otherwise caused another person to simply give up and opt out of having an interview. It also started off rocky because the Skype call could not connect, and she needed to relocate to her husband’s study in the basement and use his Skype account. Besides that, what stood out immediately was how passionate Yuriko was about her work. It was very distinct and apparent in the way she would try to explain difficult and/or cultural concepts. She would get very focused on trying to phrase what she was trying to say in the way that made most sense by giving multiple examples and stories to illustrate her point. There was also very little that was required to be said to jumpstart her story-telling side. Yuriko would get so happy talking about her anecdote or reminiscing on a past experience that she was laugh or smile a lot �throughout. Even though we as an entire group have no history of working in or with theater, it was interesting because of her passion for it. We also thought it was really interesting that, while not a focus of the class, worked with dance and theater that crossed cultures that seemed unexpected. They often included a hybrid including Japanese noh and kyogen, and one other culture. Some of these unique cultures include Native American dance and spirituality, and flamenco. Her unique background of studying traditional Japanese and French theater really sets the stage for her cross-cultural interests. Yuriko spoke about how she actively finds the overlap where the beliefs are in line with each other, but also differ. For example, she discussed the difference between Eastern and Western cultures. Eastern cultures view life as a circular cycle. There was no true end. But in Western cultures, it was more linear. There were defined beginnings and endings and no connection. But despite this, the way they both proceed forward is the same. This was best illustrated when she explained the overlap between noh and kyogen, and Native American culture. In Native American culture, the tree of life is a significant symbol and holds great value and meaning. This tree of life is directly comparable to the circle of life in Japanese cultural beliefs and values. There are more physical, tangible explanations too. Yuriko also discussed style, where hard and strong movements in flamenco were comparable to those in noh. There was overlap in their intentions and effects. She concluded this explanation by saying that cultures are not so different after all, which really resonated with us after the interview. 2. What aspects were not useful? The slight sound and language barriers that we experienced throughout the interview was an unhelpful setback that we did not expect. The sound was unclear because we were have connectivity issues from the beginning of the call. Yuriko was calling from her home-office, but the calls were not going through. I had to call her personal cell-phone number to speak with her. Eventually, she had to relocate to get the Skype call to connect. Yuriko also had a slight shaky voice and accent that was at times difficult to understand, and some explanations that she provided could be so much more concise and useful had we been able to understand her statements more properly. We felt that it was rude if we kept asking her to repeat or clarify, and that it would definitely disrupt the flow of the conversation or discourage her from saying as much. After listening to the recording of interview, we realized there were more questions we could have asked if we understood what she was saying the first time around. 3. What more would you like to know? We asked her towards the end of the interview if there were any other challenges that she faced in theater, and whether or not these difficulties were attributed to her being a woman in her field. While she did give an answer (no), we feel as though there was more to it than what she said. There were likely more challenges than she may have even realized herself, such as with gender. Yuriko kept emphasizing how focused she was on skill and talent itself than gender, because �gender of the actress or actor did not have any value to her. This may have been true for her, but her audience and professional peers and colleagues may not have all thought so. In one of her stories, she told us that when her troupe visited and performed in Japan to a large audience of Japanese men, the men were in shock afterwards. They came up to Yuriko to comment and compliment the quality of their performance, and that they did not know they were women at all. This is especially true because she mentions herself that women, even her own aunt who performed her entire life and eventually taught Yuriko, were not professionally or formally recognized in noh theater, and that there were only men actors, who play both young, old, male, and female roles. It was definitely advantageous for her to pursue these styles and this role in theater in the United States rather than Japan (if she stayed) because there is no cultural or religious standard or expectation in place. We would also like to focus on and ask more about the gendered role of the actors of traditional noh and kyogen, but contrasting fluid role of men playing all other roles. There is a clear double standard for men and women. 4. What other in-class presentations did you find particularly useful? Explain. One presentation that stood out and was relevant to our project and interviewee was Lauren's interview of her grandmother, Marilyn Morin Slater, who was a nurse in World War II. She was a really dedicated and hard worker, and pursued medical school despite how unusual and difficult it was for a woman to do so during that time. During her service, she went to Japan, where she was immersed in a place, language, and culture she did not know, but she persevered and learned how important it is to learn the language to truly understand the culture. This is true and relevant to our interviewee and project because Yuriko can speak multiple languages. She is capable of understanding multiple different cultures and styles, and we believe at least part of this is attributed to her ability to reach out and open up to other cultures and languages. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Doi, Yuriko ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2016 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2016_20170109_ydoi_doc_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lee, David Youngkyun ; Huang, Tiffany ; Liu, Kelly Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Yuriko Doi http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/53859c1331a61024ae145fede2ee0f68.pdf c27b10ed10731b6876ec489882cb3179 PDF Text Text �Talk about founding her Theatre of Yugen and its mission: Theatre of Yugen is an experimental ensemble dedicated to the pursuit of the intangible essence of yugen. With a foundation in Japanese noh drama and kyogen comedy, we create works of wo evolution of live performance and foster intercultural understanding. And by training and educating we keep the legacy of theatrical discipline is an important concept in traditional Japanese aesthetics. The exact translation of the word depends on the context. In the Chinese philosophical texts the term was taken from, yūgen meant “dim”, “deep” or “mysterious”. http://www.theatreofyugen.org/our-mission/ Forms of Noh and Kyogen, Mission to share these arts with American audiences and students. �Japanese born. Trained in classical theater styles of Noh and Kyogen. Brought heritage to West in 1960s. Stereotypes of Asian women in Film. Racist ideals like Yellow peril that focused on asian community destroying traditional principles in the west. This influenced asian women because female asian characters were created as a response to the growing asian population at the time. Usually as fillers. Not played by asian actresses but white women. Form of white washing. Miyoshi Umeki. Similarily learned to play many instruments and performed in the states. Sayonara broke boundaries in USA screen mouth to mouth kiss. Taboo fo sleeping with the enemy” where the film questions the post WWII mindset against people of asian background. Asian women tend to be more aware of their culture. Surrounding issues of us-asian relations, women play an integral role to the preservation of asian ethnic identity in the face of acculturation. ��Very personable! Open ended questions lead to more narratives and anecdotal responses Laughs a lot. Reminiscent. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Doi, Yuriko ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2016 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2016_20170109_ydoi_ppt_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lee, David Youngkyun ; Huang, Tiffany ; Liu, Kelly Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Yuriko Doi http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/8456b56aeaf66240d0ea8ba0eedd55ac.pdf fa0fc40a05942ecac5a7578a505d9073 PDF Text Text Tani Barlow AAS 307 Interview Presented by: Anqi Li Shangqing Zheng �Content Tani Barlow is a Professor of Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University. Her focus is Chinese Intellectual and women’s history. Question: What inspired you to pursue a career in Modern Chinese history and Women’s Studies? Did you have any family influences that affected your decision? Question: What are one or two of your proudest professional accomplishments? “That’s very difficult to answer. I’m very proud of writing books. Very very proud. Because that’s the most difficult thing I did. I also proud of journal that I founded and I edit it. It involves a lot of people, so I can extend positive influences by helping other people to publish their work, and I like that very much. Those are two things I’m very proud of” �Process -We interviewed Professor Tani Barlow on April 10 at 3: 10 PM. The interview lasted 37 minutes. -The objective for the interview was to learn about her career as a professor of Humanities and a scholar of Chinese History and further understand women’s roles in US-China relations. -We prepared 8 questions based on her CV and sent to her two days before the interview and eventually asked 12 questions: both open-ended and probing questions - Our Interview questions included her early life(family and education), teaching experience, visits in China, and understanding in US-China relations. -Nonverbal cues: Eye contact; Smiling; Laughing � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2018_20180411_tbarlow_pdf_dis Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Li, Anqi Zheng, Shangqing Title A name given to the resource Tani Barlow Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-04-10 Type The nature or genre of the resource text Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women's contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library's digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women's social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching Women social reformers--Asia Women social reformers--United States Oral history Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2017 http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/0030273458787bf91e35f55c9bac4c7c.pdf a6c406a5b979623fae33d67a7a6d4020 PDF Text Text AAS 307 Interview Summary Anqi Li Shangqing Zheng Final Project: Interview with Tani Barlow SECTION ONE - Person Interviewed: Tani Barlow - Interviewee’s title or position: George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities and Professor of History - Date, time, and length of interview: 04/11/2018; 3:10 PM; 37 minutes - Your objective in conducting this interview: The objective for the interview was to learn about her career as a professor of Humanities and a scholar of Chinese History and further understand women’s roles in US-China relations. SECTION TWO - Pre-interview Research: First of all, we googled her name and found that Tani Barlow is a professor at Rice University. Secondly, we went to the University’s department website and looked at the description of her area of interest, research and teaching, and list of her publications. Thirdly, we found and downloaded her CV on the department website. On her CV, we found information about her education, teaching positions, fellowships and honors, publications, and professional activities. Then, we searched the books of Tani Barlow and read the descriptions and the abstracts. Finally, based on her position at the university and previous experiences in China, as well as the interview question guide provided by Professor Christoff, we �conducted eight questions and sent to her on April 8th, two days before the interview. We received her feedbacks immediately. She provided a couple of place names so we could spell correctly. Finally, we finalized our interview questions and settled a time with her for the interview. On April 10, at 3:10 PM, we started our interview via Skype in Professor Christoff’s office. -Interview Questions 1. Where and when were you born? 2. What inspired you to pursue a career in Modern Chinese history and Women’s Studies? Did you have any familial influences that affected your decision? 3. We know that you have been to Nanjing University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University as a visiting Professor, how would you describe your experience in China? 4. What is your favourite city in China? 5. What are one or two of your proudest professional accomplishments? 6. We found that there is a new book written by you coming up, could you tell us a little bit more about this book? 7. I will be doing Gender Studies for my graduate studies . Do you have any suggestions for prospective students who want to pursue a career in Humanities? 8. What is your favorite part of your job as a professor? 9. Could you compare the Chinese students to American students and their ideas of women in society? 10. What do you think are the differences between teaching graduate students and teaching undergraduate students? �11. What do you see as the major challenges of this position? 12. What is a current project of yours? 13. What’s your future plan about developing Asian women studies as a professor? SECTION THREE 1. Did you get complete answers to your questions? Explain Yes. Professor Barlow did answer our questions completely. We structured our interview based on the prepared questions about her family, early career, experience in China, position as a professor, and publications. We also had many unplanned questions for her such as the questions about the cities in China and comparison of American students and Chinese students, but she answered all the questions precisely. She answered the questions about her books and her teaching experiences most detailed since her proudest accomplishment is writing books and the most enjoyable part is teaching. We prepared both probing questions and open-ended questions and she answered each of them completely and offered much additional information. 2. Was your interview structured, unstructured, or mixed? Explain We both believe that our interview was mixed and most parts were well-structured. We followed the interview instruction steps by steps. Firstly, we sent her our planned questions after we did many research and two days before the assigned interview date. We also made a list of the orders of which question for each person to ask which made the interview more structured. Although we settled our interview time two hours before the interview began, which was a little rush, we started our interview very well. We both introduced ourselves and started asking our introductory question. However, after asked several questions, we both thought there were more interesting and meaningful questions that we should ask. Therefore, we both asked some unplanned �questions, which might make the interview less structured. However, we still followed our planned structure to ask questions that we interested in. Overall, the interview was wellstructured and little bit mix-structured. 3. What probing questions did you use? Explain Our fifth and sixth questions actually are the probing question, the question asked by Shangqing “We found that there is a new book written by you coming up, could you tell us a little bit more about this book?” and the another question “what’s your future plan about developing Asian women studies as a professor?” In order to discuss her new book, she would have to discuss her research and biology first. We found that Prof. Barlow really like to share the written experience and some key points in her new book. We also asked her to talk about her career as a Professor of Humanities and Professor of History. She told us about her future plan, which continues to make connections with feminists across national boundaries. 4. Explain your team approach. That is, who did what? For the pre-interview research, we divided our work into different sections. Anqi has gone to the Rice University’s website and looked on Professor Barlow’s recent publications and conferences. Shangqing has downloaded Tani Barlow’s CV for her education and teaching experiences. After we collected our information, we met and discussed which parts were particularly interesting and useful for the interview. We also conducted our interview questions based the VHP interview questions list. Therefore, we divided our interview questions into five sections. The first section was the introduction. The second section was biographical details. For this part, Anqi designed our first and second question: “Where and when were you born?” and “What inspired you to pursue a career in Modern Chinese history and Women’s Studies? Did you have any familial �influences that affected your decision?” The third section was the early career. Shangqing came up the third question: “We know that you have been to Nanjing University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University as a visiting Professor, how would you describe your experience in China?” The fourth section was her professional experience. For this part, we asked: “What are one or two of your proudest professional accomplishments,” “We found that there is a new book written by you coming up, could you tell us a little bit more about this book,” and “What do you see as the major challenges of this position?” The last section was her reflection, which was for our interviewee, Professor Barlow, to develop her own discussion based on her interests. 5. Did the interviewee give you any documents or references to articles to read, or did she mention other people for you to talk to (or research)? Explain Our interviewee, Tani Barlow, gave us references both before and after the interview. Before the interview and after I sent her our interview questions, she provided us a couple of place and people names so that things are spelled correctly. Here is the information: “I was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1950. My parents were Claude Abner Barlow (1921-1995) and Alice Voorsanger Barlow (1924-2010) and my mother was Jewish. I have three younger sisters. Gayne Barlow-Kemper, Dika Jewell and Naomi Barlow d'Abrosio all of them still living. I grew up primarily in California, mostly in the towns of Lodi, Hayward, and then Palo Alto. I have worked at the University of Missouri, Columbia; San Francisco State University; University of Washington and now Rice University”. (Tani Barlow) Moreover, during the interview, she also mentioned her father’s uncle’s name and her father’s name and she told us that we can find their name online. After the interview, when she was editing our transcript, she added links about her father’s uncle (https://archive.is/8t1FU), her book(https://www.dukeupress.edu/positions), as well as her husband’s name, Donald Mingdah Lowe. �SECTION FOUR (30 points) Insert your interview notes/write up here. Remember to be accurate and concise. Consider what was said, any emerging trends your interviewee mentioned, different interpretations, and recommendations for follow up interviews. Anqi: Where and when were you born? PB: I was born in 1950, in Madison, Wisconsin, which is in the U.S. Midwest. My parents got married there and, after I was born, they took the little baby and went to the West Coast, Oregon and California. Shangqing: What inspired you to pursue a career in Modern Chinese history and Women’s Studies? Did you have any familial influences that affected your decision? PB:Yes, there were a lot of family influences. My father’s uncle, his name was Claude Heman Barlow and my father was named after him, so my father is Claude Abner Barlow. Claude Heman Barlow was a medical missionary in Shandong province, worked as a doctor there. (https://archive.is/8t1FU) He worked with intestinal parasites, which infected farmers through their feet. He lived there for many years, so I always heard about my uncle Claude and also I met uncle Claude when he was 95 years old. He was a very strong guy. Also Claude Heman Barlow inspired my father to go to China in 1947, so this was just before the Civil War in China, and my father was came from a rural background, so he was pro-peasant …he was pro-Mao Zedong and wanted justice for farmers and land reform. He went to China through the United Nations in a program that was specifically for helping farmers. He spent one year in China and he came back and married my mother, Alice Voorsanger. So, when I was growing up, I have always heard stories about what a great guy Chairman Mao was and also that the farmers had stood up and this was a great thing. In my family this a was very positive thing. Also, when I grew up, I lived in Northern California in the Bay Area, so during the years of my being a teenager, there was a lot of interests in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. These were all factors in my decision to pursue Chinese studies. … You asked about how I got into Women’s studies and I forgot to answer that part of your question. I am a historian right, I’m a historian of women and Chinese modern women. When I got super interested in studying history, Women’s Studies was very new. So I thought, oh this is a good job at a university that I liked a lot, University of Washington, so I think I’d apply for it. That is how I got a job in Women’s Studies. Anqi: We know that you have been to Nanjing University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University as a visiting professor, how would you describe your experience in China? PB: Well. I started going to China in the 1980s. I married a Chinese man, Donald Mingdah Lowe, so in the 1980s, we went to China and met his family. After that experience, in the 1980s, things started to change a lot. But I got even more interested, so I kept going back. So, in the 1990s, I went to China very regularly for research and also to see relatives and to make friends. I liked that way of life. Also China was not so well-developed, so there was a lot of time where you could just sit and talk to people. And the libraries were very open, so I got a lot of research �done. When I got to be senior in my profession, I was invited for these formal relationships like being a visiting professor. When I went as a visiting professor, we didn’t know what exactly to do, because in China now there are something called Institutes of Advanced Studies. All over the world we have Institutes of Advanced Study at research institutes and, in the 2000s, China was building these to advance Chinese scholars and to host international scholars. So I just went and used the library and made friends and did projects. It was a very pleasant experience. I still go to Nanjing University regularly because I have a lot of friends there. Anqi: So, I want to know that which city you like the best in China? PB: Well, it changes over the years. Because my teachers all came from Beijing, when I was a student I learned about that way of life, so I really like Beijing food and Beijing dialect. Anqi: I come from Beijing. PB: You come from Beijing then you know that I mean! I used to like to go to Beijing and I wanted to go to Beijing all the time, because I could go to libraries there and I felt culturally comfortable. But as Beijing got more polluted, all the old things changed, it wasn’t comfortable, and it got expensive. So I don’t go there anymore. I still go to Shanghai, because of the library and our family lives in Shanghai. But now Shanghai has gotten too big, so . . . . because I have a very close associate at Nanjing University, now my favorite city is Nanjing. The pace of life there is nice and it is less expensive. I still prefer Beijing food but I can get any kind of food now anytime, anywhere. Shangqing: I also like Nanjing a lot, especially Qin Huai He and Fu Zi Miao. PB: Yes, me too. Shangqing: I will be doing Gender Studies for my graduate studies in Chinese University of Hong Kong. So, do you have any suggestion for students who want to pursue a career in Humanities? PB： Tell me more about your question, it is very broad. Shangqing：There are many students interested in history, sociology, or gender studies. However, sometimes they would find the process of study very challenging. PB: Well. I would recommend humanities for the method, not always the content. When you taking an advanced degree, say a Master’s or PhD, then you learn how to read a lot of evidence, and summarize and analyze the evidence. Now, if you decided to go to a university, of course you have to learn this. But no matter where you go after your BA or BS, you can use this kind to skill, say in a business or at a newspaper, or online journalism, or any number of jobs. Being able to condense and summarize what you have read... �In the longer term we know after President Trump goes away soon (I hope) the relationships between China and the United States will improve. So those who have English and Chinese and study Chinese topics have an advantage. I think that more and more of my students understand how important it is to know about China. Because you two have studied in the United States and you are bilingual, these are all employable skills. That’s about practical things. But about less practical things, there is a lot of…how do I say this…inaccurate information about China circulating in the United States, a lot of it. And I have feeling that inaccurate information about the United States is circulating in China. So as you study both sides, you can contribute to being more reasonable in the relationship. Instead of letting people be racist, for example in China, right? They always think of Americans as white. Well, we are not all white, really. And by the time you are my age, the whites will not even be the majority population. So people need to start thinking about the United States in a more reasonable way. You will be a part of the more positive scholarship about both China and the United States, so I strongly recommend you to pursue this. Anqi: The next question is, what are one or two of your proudest professional accomplishments? PB: That’s very difficult to answer. I’m very proud of writing books. Very very proud. Because that’s the most difficult thing I did. I also proud of journal that I founded and I edit it. https://www.dukeupress.edu/positions It involves a lot of people, so I can extend positive influences by helping other people to publish their work, and I like that very much. Those are two things I’m very proud of. Shangqing: I found that there is a new book written by you coming up, could you tell us a little bit more about this book? PB: The simplest way to say it is that…this book says that when in the modern period all over the world people learned about biology. When they learned about biology, they started thinking about women in a different way, particularly because biology is linked to physiology, which is a study of our sexual reproduction. So people began to learn about hormones, for example. And they finally understood about sperm and the ovum or egg. Finally they truly understood that to make a new human being requires an equal portion from men and women. Now, there are many theories about this discovery because it’s a very, very modern discovery, very modern. As people began to think about it, they took an evolutionary idea about how human beings came into the world. The evolutionary idea is based on what we called sexual selection and natural selection. The struggle for dominance, that’s a natural selection, but the sexual selection is about how will you choose the best person to procreate with. This is the secret of mammals, so I show how Chinese social scientists discovered this along with everyone else, because they were reading what everyone else in the world was reading. Rhey created theories using these new ideas about biology and physiology. Also, at the same time, there was a change in consumption practice, so what we see is a new consumer world. Advertising professionals connected these scientific ideas about sexual selection and the consumer idea and they said that if you brought new products, then you could get a better mate and have better children. �In the Event of Women looks at two basic forms of new knowledge, visual, commercial, advertising, and new social theories and it shows that Chinese intellectuals and consumers in the 1920s and 30s were very similar to French and Japanese and Korean, pretty much every society all over the world. Everyone said, oh my! Women are not secondary to men at all! It takes two equal sexes for mammals to make babies. This happened in the urban areas. I’m a historian of thought, so I claim that this was a super big change, Actually people had never thought about women in this way before, so that is why this book is called In the Event of Women. It took a lot of historical factors and a big realization to declare that women are not what we thought in the past. That is the “event” part. Shangqing: Do you have any other project that you want to share with us? PB: Yes. So my next book is called The Logic of Society and I will continue to investigate the roots of Chinese sociological thinking, what we called social theory. One of the other modern things in thinking all over the world is the idea of society. Before the 19th century, people didn’t think so much in terms of joining the society. They thought of themselves as living in the family, right, all over the world, not just China. So people lived in the family, or in the town, or in the group, or in the lineage. These are all very concrete ways to think about yourself in relation to other people. Society is an abstract idea and society is an new idea so now we believe that people live in the society. My question now is how can we end up thinking that people live in the society. I think I can show you how people thought in the past. All human beings live in a big thing called “society” It’s not about husband and wife, or father and son, it’s about citizens. There are two basic kinds of humans in society-- men and women. So in this way, when you have the concept of society, then equality becomes a possibility. Because you are not just somebody’s mom, you’re not just somebody’s wife, you are really just a female living in the society. You may get tortured by a male living in the society and a lot of sexual oppression or male dominance and all of that. But we know that we’re basically equal and that’s why we can struggle for equality. Anqi: What is your favorite part of your job as a professor? PB: The most fun part is teaching. Because you never know what students are thinking. I stay the same and I get older, but my students are always the same age. Each generation is different. I learn different things from my students. Anqi: Could you compare the Chinese students to American students and their ideas of women in society? PB: Well, I think the first you can say, I think my students would agree, that students who come from China (or any part of the Chinese world) believe that it’s really important to have strong relationships with other people. They easily form groups. They easily communicate with classmates or with the professor and have some expectations that the professor will help. My American students don’t have these assumptions so they don’t connect to other students easily. They often don’t get to know other students, they don’t eat together, they don’t have parties together; they just go to class. I have to keep re-introducing them to each other. �Now, when it comes to teaching courses about Chinese women history, my Chinese students tend to be more patient, they tend to be more patient about what…ok, here’s a good example, which we discussed in my classes recently. I have a student and he has a sister and the sister got married for love and divorced and I asked him if he thought his sister would get married again, and he said sure, why not. Then, I asked if everybody was mad at his sister. I knew the answer: He said not really. The point was that the sister didn’t want to be alone, that’s not why she divorced the husband. She just did not like her husband. She kept her primary relationship with her own family and she’s very close to her own family, even though they were not happy that she got divorced. This is an example of an ordinary family orientation. So it’s very important for students to understand that Chinese individuals have a strong sense of self, but to retain that sense of individuality they are not throwing off their families. They might not “leave the family.” Maybe they want to keep their relationship with the mother and father, even if the mother and father are oppressive. Now, for my American students, they are individualists. And it’s a very difficult position for them because some of the differences are beyond their experience. When they read a story they might ask: Why doesn't the woman hate her father because he refused let her marry? We have to ask when was she living. In the 1920s, ok, what would happen if she ran away with her lover? What would happen if she said no to her father? What would happen if she married against her parents’ wishes? The point here is that my American students see independence as a break while the Chinese students tend to see it as an ongoing negotiation with their family. Relative and complete autonomy for young people are two versions of independence. Neither one is wrong, neither one is right. Does this make sense to you? Anqi, Shangqing: Yes, thank you! Shangqing: What do you think is the difference between teaching graduate and undergraduate students? PB:Well graduate students can be much tougher. But also graduate students 100% want to be in school. They come to the professor and they want to study, so it makes teaching much easier. Undergraduate students may take a course in Chinese studies because they’re curious, or they have to satisfy some kind of requirement and they take a class because it is not full. They not very committed to learning about China. They don’t really care. That makes my job more difficult because I have to give them reasons why they need to know new things about a foreign country. You have to show them, not just tell them. Shangqing: What do you think is the major challenge for this position, as a professor? PB: What’s kind of challenge? Shangqing: Like, what do you think is the most difficult part, such as teaching, researching … PB: Ok, I see. Well, I chose this way of life and I really like it. Although things are difficult, and I often work too hard. I like this way of life, so I don’t have any sense that’s it too…Oh, it’s always difficult because often students and non-historians have to learn about what we �professional historians are actually doing. Plus there is no limit to what you must do when you are working in the human sciences. If you study chemistry or become a physician, it’s challenging, but unless you become a professor of medicine or chemistry there’s a limit, right? You know chemistry and you apply the chemistry and you get a job as a chemist or doctor. But for scholars of history, there’s no end. You are never finished, because that’s the way human life is: It’s never finished. So, there’s always a feeling that you haven’t done enough. That’s a very common feeling among people who are historians. As for real world problems, I think right now, the biggest one is institutional, and that is a problem for my Chinese, as well as my American colleagues. We are no longer clear about the institution we work in. Is the university a training school, a corporation, a privatized form of knowledge only for elites? If our students are just a product, that’s makes teaching much more difficult. If the school only certifies competence but discourages students from asking questions, then the teaching is very difficult. In chemistry it would be easy because you either pass or you fail, right? Organic chemistry, if you’re not good at it, you are not going to medical school. It’s really simple. But what if I have to teach about the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)? How do we study that? If I don’t have a whole semester, how can I even give a small insight for my students into such a big, big event. Or, “Reforming and Opening Out”? Or your generation? How do Chinese people in your generation live compared to your parents, grandparents and great grandparents? Everything happens so quickly, life gets quicker yet the university is becoming more limited and expensive. So we are more and more, as scholars and teachers, we worry that you are not getting a good education. Also it’s very expensive. It should be free. Anqi, Shangqing: Yes, I agree! Shangqing: I have my last question: I have heard about a term called Herstory, comparing to History. How do you understand this term? PB: Well, this idea of Herstory happened when I was very young, maybe I was not too much older than you are. So this idea is that it should be a Herstory. We have a lot of debates of this problem. Let me ask you: Could you tell the story of women without including other stories? Well, sure, you can. It means that you have whole bunch of problems, like how people defined women in the past. What do we do with women who perform as women but they have penises? If you want to write Herstory then who doesn’t belong? Who gets to be the person written about? To be a part of Herstory, do you have to be born with the body of a woman or could you be a transwoman or a gay man who feels comfortable dressing and acting like a woman? Does a Transwoman belong to Herstory or History. Although Herstory might be useful, it has two basic problems. The first is where you draw the line between who is a real woman and who cannot be a woman. The second problem is that women and men live together, along with indeterminate sex people, trans, masquerades, effeminate and butch people, so this complicates what would be considered an easy distinction between History and HerStory. Because a lot of students have never thought about this issue, I think putting HerStory into the discussion is useful. There’s more history, and the history of woman, history of man, children and old people. And interaction between women and economic �and farming, producing value. And women producing children, culture and so on. So, HerStory is a useful beginning of longer conversation. I don’t believe in a separate HerStory. That’s my opinion. Anqi: So, my last question is what’s your future plan about developing Asian women studies as a professor? PB: Well, I don’t have to do much of anything. Because when I was a very young professor, there only four or five professors with this focus. But now, there are hundreds of us. And now, not just in the United States, but all over China we see growing interest in Chinese women’s studies and also the study of women everywhere... women’s history, women’s studies, sexuality studies, sociology of woman, etc. About every month, I get letters from young feminists, asking me to participate in their activities. Maybe write a paper fir her book, maybe read their articles, to know about what they’re doing. Sometimes I can, but sometimes I am too busy. I plan to continue being a public intellectual on these matters and to interact with young feminist scholars. In December 2017 I went to India, to talk about my book. I also met very wonderful, smart Indian feminist scholars in the graduate school. People love to meet. So I hope that, in my senior career, I continue to make connections with feminists across national boundaries. SECTION FIVE (25 points) Your analysis: What aspects of the interview did you find to be particularly meaningful? We felt that the interview as a whole was meaningful to us. Firstly, we learned a lot of historical background and facts about early missionary work from Professor Barlow’s father and her father’s uncle’s experiences in China. Since many of our class materials were focused on USAsian relations from the late 19th century to early 20th century, Professor Barlow’s discussion about her family was meaningful and informative. Moreover, Professor Barlow as a scholar who studies Chinese history, has been to China many times during different time periods and as different positions. She started going to China since the 1980s when China was not welldeveloped but easier have communication with others. Professor Barlow also discussed her experiences as a visiting professor since the 2000s when China began to build Institutes of Advanced Study at research institutes. This part reminded us our class lectures on how Western women missionaries lived and studied abroad. Furthermore, as a professor of Humanities and History, Professor Barlow also responsible for teaching American students about Chinese history and US-China relations. She explained the differences between American students and Chinese �students by telling a story about a young Chinese woman and her family. This part made us thinking about cultural diversity which we have discussed in class. Overall, the whole interview with Professor Barlow was inspiring and meaningful for us to see an outstanding American female scholar dedicated her life to US-China studies and Women’s studies. What aspects were not useful? Overall, We think the most part of interview aspects are useful and can connect with what we learned in Women and Asian Studied. However, discussing the difference between teaching undergraduate and graduate students was not useful to the theme of the interview. She said that graduate students 100% want to be in school. They come to the professor and they want to study more about Asian woman studied, so it makes her teaching much easier. Undergraduate focus more on Chinese studies because they’re curious. Except for this part, we think other information she brought us was useful. What more would you like to know? We asked every question that we thought would be useful and interesting. Professor Barlow answered them very detailed and also provided much additional information to us. However, we would rather like to know more about how she thinks about U.S.-China relations developed over times and her travels in different Asian countries. For example, we know that Professor Barlow has visited India last year and met many Indian feminists so we would like to know her experience in India and how she thinks about the connection between American feminist and Indian feminist. Since Professor Barlow has engaged in US-China relations and women’s studies for many decades, there would be many useful questions for us to ask. What other in-class presentations did you find particularly useful? Explain We both found that all of our in-class presentations very interesting and useful. There were a lot of meaningful interviews about how foreign-born women develop their career in the United States and how western women professionals dedicate their life in Asia. �In particular, Yawen and Joshua’s interview with Sarah Park and Laura and Mariko’s interview with Rosemarie Barnett were very interesting and meaningful. Yawen and Joshua had an in-person interview with Sarah Park which we believe would be more effective to notice the nonverbal cues and easier to engage with the interviewee. Sarah Park’s story was fascinating since she talked about her religion and family which we did not involve in our interview. The video before their presentation was very clear for us to learn about the background story. The other presentation that we found very useful was Laura and Mariko’s interview with Rosemarie Barnett. Rosemarie Barnett is an Indian-American who got her MBA and went to Law School. She coped with a lot of gender bias during her self-fulfilling career. Moreover, her words were extremely assertive and passionate to empower the young generation. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2018_20180411_tbarlow_doc_dis Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Li, Anqi Zheng, Shangqing Barlow, Tani Title A name given to the resource Tani Barlow Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-04-10 Type The nature or genre of the resource text Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women's contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library's digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women's social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching Women social reformers--Asia Women social reformers--United States Oral history Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2017 http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/827cf9bfcbfa296062236826dff74769.pptx ffa0c41d35eeec43825ce05e82871063 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2018_20180402_rbarnett_master Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/ppt Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vega, Laura Kora, Mariko Title A name given to the resource Rosemarie Barnett Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-04-04 Type The nature or genre of the resource image Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women's contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library's digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women's social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching Women social reformers--Asia Women social reformers--United States Oral history Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2017 http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/b4def59ea087e88fe8e721864d9c767c.pdf 7aee18cd86fa37cc28b7f8f3460528ae PDF Text Text Biography Rosemarie Barnett is an Immigration Rights Attorney based in New York, she was born and raised in an affluent family of 7 (3rd sister) in India and she has also spent time living in Taiwan. Her family encountered financial difficulties after the death of her father when she was 10 years old. After his death her mother made an emphasis on investing in an education rather than dowries (which was more typical in India), and was sent to an exclusive boarding school. She later attended a small liberal arts college in Massachusetts through a scholarship, and out of practicality she decided to obtain a Bachelors in Business, but her true dream was to become an Engineer (she was not able to pursue this due to finances and her school). Upon graduating she went on to her MBA, and took a class related to law which sparked her interest in pursuing a career in law. She met her husband while earning her MBA and has had 3 children between earning her MBA and law degree. Since earning her law degree she has worked at an elite law firm for 12-13 years and has since opened up her own practice. Main points/relation to Asian American Women Rosemarie has emphasized the importance of personal happiness and how ultimately life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. She talked to us about the many incidences she has faced due to the fact that she was an Asian American �woman from being harrassed on a bus in India as well as being told by a hiring manager that she needs to be taking care of her children, despite being qualified for the position. In Order to overcome these barriers she emphasized that women need to become more assertive and appeal to others about their capabilities and to borrow from the “men’s playbook” 1) 2) Reinforced things we learned in class - Mention relation to Missing 33% video a) One of the questions we asked her was what is some advice you can give to women who want progress and get ahead in their career, and how different is this process in comparison to men. Video we watched in one of the lectures called the b) “Missing 33%”, or why women could not become as successful in their careers in comparison to men. It was revealed that often times mentors would try to build the confidence of women, while they spent time teaching the actual business to men. Because of this difference in mentoring, the gap between men and women was developed. Provided new information - Advice for young people finding their careers - Focus on trying to drown out negative voices, think about what you like to do. The bright side of living in this generation is that there are way more opportunities and options. In her generation the goal was working for a large company with great benefits. She mentioned internet business, bloggers and things that are unconventional, embrace the freedom and the opportunities that are available now. �Introduce clip: a) How do you progress in your career/get ahead (as a woman) in India or the U.S.? i) Are the rules of “progressing” up the ladder different for men and women? Step 1: Pre-Interview Research ● Once Professor Christoff told us which prominent Asian-American woman we’d be researching, we started with a Google search on Rosemarie, which led us to her LinkedIn profile and her professional website. Her LinkedIn provided us with background information like where she attended school, and her previous jobs at large law firms, which is where she started out. Her website led us to more up-to-date information on her current law firm that she runs, and the various cases that she has covered in the short five years since opening her own firm. Step 2: Preparing Questions ● Once we had a rough basis of Rosemarie’s life and work, we drafted questions that would give us more insight on her life growing up in India because the Internet did not tell us much about that, as well as some �thought-provoking career-related questions like things the things she did to jump start her career and what kind of difficulties she has faced along the way because she is an Asian American woman. Step 3: The Interview ● We were very fortunate that the person we were interviewing was a great speaker. Whenever we would ask a question, even something basic like “Where did you attend school in India?” she would often go on personal anecdotes and give us even more insight than we had asked for, which was very helpful. She told us a lot about gender biases in India, and the challenges women face in today’s society to be taken seriously or just as seriously as their male counterparts. An example of a time where we used active listening was when she told us the story of how she came to be a lawyer, and we referenced parts of that story when asking a follow-up question on what she would have done differently on her path to success. In regards to verbal cues, the only noticeable changes in her tone was when she talked about her father’s death and the impact it had on her family (which is understandable because it’s obviously a heavy topic). Her body language throughout the interview was very relaxed, she kind of spoke to us like we were her kids asking for advice (because her kids are around our age) and because she was comfortable, we were also comfortable throughout the conversation. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2018_20180402_rbarnett_ppt_dis Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vega, Laura Kora, Mariko Title A name given to the resource Rosemarie Barnett Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-04-04 Type The nature or genre of the resource text Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women's contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library's digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women's social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching Women social reformers--Asia Women social reformers--United States Oral history Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2017 http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/5e77699039d6d1362b65d1a123e530cb.pdf f7f51044e947e957b8514f7f19b59366 PDF Text Text Laura Vega Mariko Kora Final Project SECTION 1 Person interviewed: Interviewee’s title or position: Date, time, and length of interview: Your objective in conducting this interview: The person we interviewed for our final project was Rosemarie Barnett, an Indian-American immigration rights attorney based in New York. The interview was conducted on April 4, 2018 in professor Christoff’s office at 7pm and it approximately lasted for one hour. The interview was done through Google Hangouts and was video recorded.The objective of the interview was to find out about Mrs. Barnett’s childhood, the events that led up to her current position and how her missions and goals as an Asian-American woman relates to US-Asian relations. SECTION 2 Description of the pre-interview research (What did you find out prior to the interview about the person and/or place with which she is affiliated? How did you prepare for the interview?) As soon as we were assigned a prominent Asian-American woman to interview, we began our research. Using keywords such as “Rosemarie Barnett lawyer” and “Rosemarie Barnett immigration”, we found several links on the Google search engine that gave us information about our interviewee. The first link we accessed was Mrs. Barnett’s LinkedIn profile. This provided us with background information such as where she attended both �undergraduate and graduate schools, as well as her previous job experiences at large law firms, and her current position at her own firm. The second link we found led us to Mrs. Barnett’s professional website. This website gave us a plethora of information on the practice areas Mrs. Barnett specializes in: immigration, matrimonial/family law, personal injury and commercial litigation. Additionally, it provided us with a list of her pro bono experience, which is one of the topics we decided to ask her about during the interview. Once we had a rough basis of who Mrs. Barnett was and the law firms in which she was affiliated, we drafted questions that would give us more insight on her life before college. We specifically wanted to know more about her life in India because we were unable to find that information through our research. Other questions we wanted to ask Mrs. Barnett related to her career; what steps she took to jump start a career in law and if there were any difficulties she faced along the way because she is an Asian-American woman. Interview Questions 1) Early Childhood/Biographical - Mariko a) We heard that you spent your childhood in India, could you tell us about your experience living there and at what age did you move to the U.S.? i) How was it transitioning to the U.S., what were the biggest cultural shocks you had or differences. ii) Would you identify yourself as American, Indian or Indian-American? iii) How do the gender roles in India differ from the U.S.? b) Could you tell us about your family life in India/the U.S.? i) How do they differ in terms of cultural aspects? �ii) Could you tell us about your parents and the influence that they had on you? Do you have any siblings, how was your relationship with them growing up? 2) Education - Laura a) Where did you attend school in India? i) Where did you attend school in the U.S.? ii) How would you compare and contrast these experiences? b) How did you decide upon what you wanted to study/what inspired your interest in law and becoming an attorney? 3) Career highlights Mariko a) We’ve read that you have worked with clients including a constitutional law scholar from China, a transgender woman from Mexico and recent child arrivals from Central American countries, could you expand upon your experience working with these people? i) What are some things you have learned from working with such a diverse clientele? b) How was the transition from working at a law firm to opening up your own practice? Were there any challenges you faced? i) What was the deciding factor that caused you to open your own firm? �Laura c) What difficulties (if any) have you faced in your career because you are an Asian American woman? d) Could you give us your opinion on the current US Immigration policy, what or how do you think improvements could be made? (mention DACA) 4) Reflections upon their career/what they would change a) If you could change anything about your life/career, what would you have done differently? Why?​ (Laura) b) Do you still go back to India/do you have any relatives there? What are some ways you embrace your Indian culture/background? ​(Mariko) c) How do you go about finding a career that satisfies you? d) How do you progress in your career/get ahead (as a woman) in India or the U.S.? i) Are the rules of “progressing” up the ladder different for men and women? SECTION 3 1. Did you get complete answers to your questions? Explain Mrs. Barnett was an outstanding interviewee because she always went beyond the confines of the questions we asked her and included plenty of details to further explain her answers. For example, when we asked about her upbringing in India, not only did she tell us about her parents and four other siblings, but she also delved into India’s culture, schools, and general way of life. We were fortunate enough to be able to get very complete and detailed information about Mrs. Barnett’s entire life story in just one hour because of how eloquently she spoke and her overall candidness throughout the interview. �2. Was your interview structured, unstructured, or mixed? Explain Our interview was definitely mixed. A majority of our questions were unstructured because we wanted to get Mrs. Barnett’s opinions and perspectives on a variety of topics such as the current U.S. immigration policy and the differences between how women are treated in India versus the United States. Several of our questions were structured, like “Where did you attend school in India?” but for the most part, it was a good mix of both structured and unstructured. 3. What probing questions did you use? Explain Most of the questions we posed to Mrs. Barnett were probing questions because we had a sense of her background information, but wanted her to go more in depth into her story. Some examples of probing questions include “Could you tell us more about your family life in India and the United States? How did they differ in terms of cultural aspects?” and “​How was the transition from working at a law firm to opening up your own practice? What was the deciding factor that caused you to open your own firm?” 4. Explain your team approach. That is, who did what? When preparing questions for the interview, we worked together to compile a list of both open and closed ended questions for our interviewee. We discussed what we already knew about Ms. Barnett through our previous research and what we wanted to know more about (e.g. India, her childhood, the process of opening her own law firm). During the interview itself, we took turns asking each question, and each of us would expand upon a question or add our own comments to converse with Mrs. Barnett. We also decided to both take notes during the interview to ensure we caught every detail. �5. Did the interviewee give you any documents or references to articles to read, or did she mention other people for you to talk to (or research)? Explain No, Mrs. Barnett did not give us references to people or documents. She did, however, mention Professor Christoff and how the two of them initially met. This topic was brought up during the interview when we asked Mrs. Barnett how she and her family continue to celebrate their Indian culture while living in the United States. Each year, she prepares a large, traditional Indian dinner spread for her friends and family, she dresses in Indian clothing, and even has Indian dance performances and henna tattoo stations, occasionally. Mrs. Barnett revealed that aside from this annual extravaganza, she does not get to celebrate her culture as much as she would like to, but she doesn't feel the need to because she is Indian on the inside and that is enough for her. SECTION 4 Interview Transcript Mariko - ​We heard that you spent your childhood in India, could you tell us about your experience living there, and what age did you move to the U.S? Ms. Barnett - ​I lived in India, I was born and raised there and my father was an Engineer. He was a very hard working man, and we were a family of five kids that moved around alot. He died when I was 10 years old. We also lived in Taiwan for a couple of years, because of his job, we were there when he died. After his death we moved back to India, and it was a tough time because if you know anything about Asian cultures it’s all about legacy and family property - my father’s side of the family started a big family property fight with my mother, and it became a �very ugly situation. We ended up without very many resources. I wouldn’t say we were poor, but I wouldn’t say we were comfortable. My mother was a brave woman, she said “I’m gonna invest in one thing, not in your dowries but in your education”. We went to an exclusive boarding school and it set us up for life. I was lucky enough to find out about a scholarship at a small women’s college in Massachusetts and received it, I was 21 by then because I had done a couple of years of college in India. I came with nothing but a couple of bucks in my pocket. My mother was scared to send me off into the world, but I decided that I was here for the long haul and decided to stick it out. The first half of my childhood was very pampered, but then the second half was finding out about how life isn’t so perfect, but it made us very close as a family. Laura - ​Could you talk to us about the cultural shock you had when you came to the United States? Ms. Barnett - ​ Oh my goodness it was culture shock. I came from a very big cosmopolitan city called Bombay (now called Mumbai), to a very small college town in Massachusetts. It was a huge shock in terms of differences in technology. In India at the time we didn’t have any cable television. For example Americanized media such as MTV and seeing a much less repressed society was a culture shock. There was lots of music, drinking and dancing, but the framework was in a small college town. Outside of the college I wasn’t use to hearing the crickets after dark, it was all trees, no tall buildings or cars and the quietness drove me crazy. It felt like I was in a horror movie. I was this big city girl from a third world country but thrown in to a first world country, but in a small town. It was a strange time, and the food was so different too. I would crave my Indian food, but at the same time I found American food great, but it made me so fat. �Mariko​ - How do you think the gender roles differ between India and America? Ms. Barnett - ​When I first came here I thought it was a gender or discrimination free paradise in comparison to India. I thought it was so easy to be whatever you wanted to be here, and I still believe this to some extent when compared to India. But now having lived here for 30 years I see that it’s not as perfect as I thought it was in the beginning. When I first got here I thought it was amazing that I could wear shorts, and not having to worry about people touching me or saying dirty things and not having to be escorted by a man. In India I would always buck the norm, and be bold and daring. I come from a small sub-culture of Christians we always spoke English and wore Western clothes, we always stood out, and because we wore western clothes people automatically assumed that we were easy targets. I always grew up feeling uncomfortable. I remember coming back from boarding school often an easy target, but at the time we just thought of it as it is what it is. I remember one time standing up for myself on a bus yelling at the person who was rubbing himself up against me. I told the bus driver to kick him off of the bus, and the bus driver told me to get off of the bus “dressed in a dress like that”. It was a long baggy dress and then he kicked me off. Stuff like this would happen all of the time and I learned that you just had to be quiet, it was ugly horrible stuff. Coming from that and coming to the U.S. it was liberating. Of course there’s violent crimes here , but it seems like nothing compared to there, and if I were doing the things I did here in India it would have been guaranteed that I would be dead or raped. �Laura - ​How did you decide you wanted to get in to Law? Ms. Barnett - ​Growing up I was always someone who was very argumentative. People always joked that I should be a lawyer. I never took it seriously, because in India it was very expensive, and my mother did not have the money. We all thought that we had to be practical, so I got a bachelors in commerce. My real true dream was to have become an Engineer, but again the thought of putting my mother through this expense was not acceptable. When I came to the U.S. to a small liberal arts school I just decided to get a Bachelors in Business. I always picked classes based on what was available to me because I was a scholarship student. The law didn’t really happen until I went on to get an MBA and I took a law class which fascinated me and made me think this is what I really wanted to do. When I was in grad school that was when I met my husband to be, we got married after grad school, but then life happened and we had two kids. I put it off for a while, when the the kids were toddlers, I then went on to law school at 31. While I was in law school I also had my daughter. Mariko - ​We’ve read that you have worked with clients including a constitutional law scholar from China, a transgender woman from Mexico and recent child arrivals from Central American countries, could you expand upon your experience working with these people? Ms. Barnett - ​Sure, yeah I’ve always been interested in immigration and helping people who face some very bad experiences. I’ve worked at very large law firms up until 5 years ago. At these law firms they encourage you to do pro bono work. From this avenue I got involved with a couple of nonprofits that do this kind of work. Through Human Rights First I got to represent the �Chinese Legal Scholar - just because he wrote a couple of essays about China’s one party system he got thrown into jail we successfully were able to win this case. Once I started my law firm my natural inclination was to focus more on immigration, by taking more classes and getting more training. I represent a lot of children from Central America and getting them special immigrant juvenile status, I also work with a lot of women and families fleeing from the crazy gang violence from these countries. Laura - ​You mentioned that you worked at a lot of large law firms up until a couple of years ago, so can you discuss how it was opening up your own practice? Mrs. Barnett - ​Sure, I never saw myself as someone opening up my own practice, because I saw myself as a big firm kind of person. I thought I would be a cog in a very big machine, and be happy with that. There was a couple of things it was very stressful, and required a lot of hours, hard work and pressure to excel; to be better than anybody else. The work was very tough, and everyone was a type A personality. Honestly there was a lot of discrimination against women, and Asian women, in particular Asian women who were older than the rest. Even though I had graduated second in my class I was recruited by larger firms, but the minute I was there you could tell I was never going to be on partnership track. My destiny was set from day one even though I was thinking I was gonna work really hard, it’s a meritocracy. There was a bias against me and women like me, we would be stuck doing a lot of the boring work such as document work in the background, and we didn’t get to go to court. It was other people who got to go to a courtroom, unless I was doing pro bono work. Institutionally there isn’t a commitment to developing everyone’s careers in a fair and equal way. One time I remember going to a job �interview as a third year law student, and half way through the interview the guy told me I know you’re smart but im going to say no because your kids are the same age as my kids, and my wife and I met at this law firm as first year associates, and right now she’s home because three kids requires one parent to be home. I couldn’t believe at how sexist that was , and I told him right away there’s going to be one parent the dad. He said I’m doing you a favor, I know you want a career but this kind of career at a white shoe firm is not for you. I swear if that happened to me 10 years later I would have made a big stink over it on social media. Most people are not going to stand up and say something because they just want their career going. That’s what I did I was highly offended and highly upset, but didn’t do anything more I really should’ve pushed now that I think about it, it was a missed opportunity. But I thought, do you really want to be labeled as a trouble maker? So you just decide to walk away from those fights. So, that was one of the reasons I left the big law arena. Bottom line I was a mom I had other responsibilities, I wasn’t just solely a career person. The money was super rewarding in a big firm, but in other ways it was not good at all. In 2012 hurricane Sandy hit and it destroyed my house; that was dealing with being “homeless” and living in a motel, it just made me realize I can’t do the 14 hour days in the city anymore. I was thinking maybe I’ll just do some contract work, but then I decided to start my own practice. It was very scary, but I had a friend who had started already and she showed me the nuts and bolts. Mariko​ - Could you give us your opinion and current U.S. immigration policy, what or how do you think improvements could be made? �Ms. Barnett​ - How the laws are being implemented are very draconian, everyday there are new changes being made. For example with marriage petitions you find that there’s more requests from the government such as the number of interviews and denials which have increased. It’s like the law in some ways has remained the same, but the way they are implementing it is stricter. In Immigration court it’s way worse, before we use to be able to settle out certain cases if they werent a risk to national security, and they were here basically because they’re running away from violence or poverty, they weren’t going to be a problem in this country. A lot of times you would have to write a memo as to why they’re deserving - like a plea bargain, and now they don’t do this anymore. Every case has to go to trial, every trial is strictly enforced against the immigrants, and it’s very tough. Immigration policy needs to change, yes I agree that we need to have better security at the borders, but at the same time this is a country of immigrants, and it doesn’t make any sense that we have millions and millions of people that live here undocumented. A lot of these undocumented people are paying taxes and are working really hard but there’s no way for them to become documented and become a part of American society. I believe that so many people are left uninformed. I felt that under Obama, the law enforcement side was kept strong, and it tried to keep families united, but he also deported a lot of people too, but at the sametime if they were families, children and women and fleeing from violence they had a fighting chance, but now they don’t. I really hope that things change in Washington, something needs to be done. Anyone who practices immigration law is sick to the stomach as to how bad it is. I have a trial coming up and I have to prepare my clients ahead of time to save money ahead of time, because I know they’re not going to win. It’s hard to think of these people who are so hopeful. People say they arrived here with no VISA, but may be we would be doing �the same thing if we were facing the same violence and threats to ourselves. General violence is not enough for an asylum case. The laws are very complicated, you have to be a legal scholar to understand half the laws out there. Laura:​ So we know that you opened your own practice only five years ago, but so far if there’s anything you would change about your life or career what would you have done differently? Ms. Barnett:​ I think I would have started my own law practice a while ago, actually. To think of the 12 or 13 years that I spent at these big firms.. Yeah it was decent money but it was at such a cost. Like I said, I always felt I was the back room lawyer; I felt like I never had a chance and it was always exhausting...and you’re always terrified of being fired because everyone is so good! Everyone’s a star from their own hometown or their own law school so it’s the best of the best. You’re either in the top 5% of a smaller law school or you’re from an Ivy league so everybody’s a type A, flashy kind of person and it’s exhausting to be there all the time. I feel like, yeah, it was an accomplishment to swim in those waters but for personal happiness, which is actually something very important, and people don’t give it as much importance, especially women, I think I would have done this a long time ago. If I look back, I should have been practicing by myself for 10 to 12 years by now, instead of just 5. Mariko:​ Going back to India: ​Do you still go back and do you have any relatives there? What are some ways you embrace your Indian culture/background? Ms. Barnett:​ I don’t go home as much as I’d like to; the last time I went was in 2015 for my sister’s 25th wedding anniversary. My mom lives with me now, which makes traveling hard. My �kids also like India; one of my kids who’s in college spent a summer there, but the other two haven’t had a chance [to go] yet. We’re very Indian at home, but like I told you earlier, we’re from a subculture from India that is more Westernized anyway. One of the ways we celebrate is once a year, I throw this big Indian dinner and I cook everything. This is how I met your professor, as a matter of fact! I don’t get to celebrate being Indian that often but I feel like I’m so Indian to the core that I don’t need to celebrate it because I am it! Laura: ​What advice would you give to people in our generation who are looking to find a career that is satisfying for them in the long run? Ms. Barnett:​ I have this conversation with my children a lot, actually, and their friends too. I find a lot of people in your age group are very lost because there’s so much pressure on you guys. You’ve grown up in a world where there’s a lot of information out there at all times but you guys get bombarded too much. You’re already so jaded because you’ve seen the world through this lense where you see the good and the bad, and the bad seems to come hurtling at you all the time because of the media. You guys have a lot on your plates and I would say the one thing you should really focus on is to try and drown out all those negative voices. The good thing about living in this generation is that there are way more opportunities for you. You have to be creative, you have to keep thinking, and my biggest piece of advice to people your age is that life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you really want it, it will happen. Mariko:​ ​How do you progress in your career/get ahead (as a woman) in India or the U.S.? Are the rules of “progressing” up the ladder different for men and women? �Ms. Barnett:​ Yes, absolutely! One thing that women do is that we work very hard; we always think if you work really hard and you hand in a piece of work that’s perfect, you will be rewarded. We automatically have this really great work ethic. Always do that anyway, but we have to borrow from the men’s playbook. We have to learn how to brag about ourselves, we have to learn how to market, we have to be shameless self promoters. I still find that hard, but then I realize, ‘Wait a minute, I have accomplished quite a bit,’ and you should be unabashed about promoting yourself in the workplace. Let your work speak for itself, absolutely, but also learn how to take an opportunity. The deck is not stacked in our favor. Once you understand the rules, you’ll win. Laura: ​In India, do you think women still face the same struggles progressing next to men? Mrs. Barnett:​ Absolutely. It’s still hard there, there’s still a lot of violence around women. It’s hard to be a woman in India in that sense because you still have to worry about things like sexual harassment. You cannot work super late at night unless you know for sure that there’s a car to take you home; the biggest perpetrators of this violence are cab drivers. In India right now there’s an extremist right-wing movement; it’s all about returning to traditional principles and that’s actually bringing the rights of women even lower. Career-wise, it is getting a little better for women. There’s a lot more opportunities, but if you ever asked me if I would go back to live in India I would say no. The bottom line is, it’s not a place to establish a career. And that’s what I have to say about that. Both:​ Thank you so much for your time, we really appreciate it. �SECTION 5 What aspects of the interview did you find to be particularly meaningful? An aspect of the interview that we found to be particularly meaningful was hearing about the difficulties and discrimination that she faced as an Asian American women. Although these kind of experiences may be shocking or painful to some we thought that they are what build character, and makes an individual stronger in some cases. For instance when Mrs. Barnett discussed the time that she was rejected by a law firm due to being a mother of two, it was particularly shocking, but it gave us insight on how even in a country such as the U.S. that represents itself as liberalized and open, women are discriminated against solely for their gender. Although her husband was fully capable of taking care of their children, the fact that she was a woman made it unacceptable for her to hold the position as the breadwinner in the family. Initially when coming to the U.S. Mrs. Barnett believed the states to be completely discrimination free, but instances like this made her realize that this was not the case. Another meaningful aspect of the interview was her emphasis on the importance of personal happiness and how ultimately life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Particularly, we found the career advice that she gave to us as young women of our generation to be quite memorable. She stated that in order to overcome the barriers that we face as women, we need to become more assertive and appeal to others about our capabilities and to borrow from the “men’s playbook”, since “the deck is not stacked in our favor - [but] once you get the rules of the game you’ll be able to win” . This quote really stuck out to us because it emphasized how much women are at an disadvantage in society, but with some effort and utilizing more masculine qualities women can become just as successful. Just as it was emphasized in the missing 33 �percent video in class, women are often times not properly taught or given the tools to become leaders. This is often done not on purpose, but naturally which is why it is essential to actively make society realize that women need to be taught the rules of the men’s playbook. What aspects were not useful? What more would you like to know? Although we did not find any of the aspects of the interview to be unuseful, we thought that if we were students that were interested in pursuing a career in immigration law the interview would have been even more meaningful in further understanding the career. For example we asked her about how she would change the current immigration law system and her experiences working with a diverse clientele and she also gave us very detailed and raw responses on the difficulties that many refugees and immigrants face today in obtaining citizenship. Although neither of us are planning to pursue a career in law, the discussion sparked a lot of interest on how the current political climate is after the change from Obama to Trump, as well as how many of the undocumented citizens today are struggling to become accepted and integrated in to a part of American society. After conducting the interview we thought that we would like to learn more about her siblings and how their lives turned out to be despite having a similar upbringing as Mrs. Barnett. We also thought that we would further like to hear and discuss her work and experience on the cases she is presently dealing with and more about her work life as an attorney. During the one hour we spent with her we were able to get a great grasp and idea of her personality, upbringing and how her experiences have made her to be the person that she is today. In terms of personal �details she was very open with us, so there was not particularly anything that we were missing from her in that aspect. What other in-class presentations did you find particularly useful? During the in-class presentations we learned about many different Asian-American women with interesting backgrounds and careers. On the first day of presentations we learned about Nancy Wang who was a dancer and social worker, her goal was to help serve the people in her community and to blend the gap between the West and East Asian culture. On the second day of presentations we learned about women Such as Amy Hall who is the VP of Eileen Fisher a women’s wear company that heavily promotes environmental sustainability, as well as Sarah Park a woman who runs a laundromat business with her husband, and cherishes her family and Christianity with pride. We found the presentation on Mrs. Park to be quite useful because of how different her background and career was in comparison to other women. Despite not having the most prestigious career, her story gave us insight on how many Asian immigrants who do not come from the most privileged backgrounds pursue and work endlessly to make a career for themselves. On the last day of presentations we learned about women including Dr. Ling Ling Ho who grew up in a privileged family in China, but was keen on pursuing education, and was very much aware of her privilege. We thought that this quality in Dr. Ho was similar to how Mrs. Barnett valued her education and used it to prepare herself for the world. Dr. Ho enlisted in the army, and started off as a nurse but later went on to pursue her medical degree, and the biggest struggle she faced came from having a language barrier. We also learned about Sarah-Ann Smith an ex foreign service officer, writer and professor whose main goal was to help people better understand each other and similarly to Nancy Wang was to bridge the gap between U.S. and �China. The main thing we took away from viewing everyone’s presentations was seeing the similarities and differences between every woman, but observing how each individual woman’s experience woven together completes the fabric of women in US-Asian relations. The interview we had with Rosemarie Barnett was absolutely delightful, she was an extremely eloquent and engaging speaker and before we had realized, we had spent nearly an entire hour speaking to her. She was very transparent with us throughout the interview and from learning about her childhood in India, to her journey in discovering her current career path, we were able to obtain a meaningful understanding of her experiences and life as an Asian American woman. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2018_20180402_rbarnett_doc_dis Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vega, Laura Kora, Mariko Barnett, Rosemarie Title A name given to the resource Rosemarie Barnett Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-04-04 Type The nature or genre of the resource text Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women's contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library's digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women's social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching Women social reformers--Asia Women social reformers--United States Oral history Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2017 http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/5cfdf8d90c84aa20544572ceaaaa132a.pptx 41d532df054ee26758988786b61433f5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2018_20180427_gchan_master Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/ppt Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kernin, Isabela Mojica, Bryanna Title A name given to the resource Gloria S. Chan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-04-27 Type The nature or genre of the resource interactive resource Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women's contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library's digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women's social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching Women social reformers--Asia Women social reformers--United States Oral history Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2017 http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/068251f4eb1d233a4a9139c8ad517321.pdf defb597cc170b5775c16c891c7c274c8 PDF Text Text �->Isabela Background: -Refugee parents, grew up in a diverse community with little resources in Brooklyn and Chinatown -Got into Prep4Prep, a rigorous education program that placed minority students into elite private schools; she wanted to take what opportunity she was given as far as possible -Felt pressure to speak for underrepresented communities (be her community’s Spiderman) Early Career: -Executive Director for the Asian Pacific American Caucus, Prez/CEO APAICS… realized politics wasn’t what she wanted to do, it was just a linear career path from where she started -Thought of being a music manager because loved live music…realized that was similar to politics… wanted to coach to help people find their voice and courage [First Audio Clip: Went to a liberal university where learning about how to be an activist meant pushing against old structures; as a coach she learned that being creative can be more impactful; need perspective and a balance of pushing and creating] Currently: -Works with a diverse group of people since humanity and struggle are �universal. However, still really passionate about women and Asian American communities -Looking forward to working with intergenerational women’s empowerment [Second Audio Clip: When she was younger/in her twenties, she saw the Asian American community as a struggle based community that needed a voice. She now see’s it as a community that still struggles but is strong and works together to get by; a community that she can support rather than be a hero to.] Relations to course: -Gloria helps many people of color, including Asian American women, become better leaders in their personal and work lives -She realized that you can’t just push to change old structures. This is similar to the Art of Social Change article we read where, for change to occur, you have to consider social and cultural context -Gloria works with people who have been influenced by different cultural values (ex: parents valuing boys over girls) -Exemplifies trend of future generations getting more involved in politics and activism than first generation -New information we learned: -Many second generation may feel like they need to take advantage of opportunity available to them (which can change into feelings of obligation) or they may feel like they are not deserving of the opportunity available to them -Goals of immigrants and second generation are very different. First generation mainly focuses on getting by or bringing family over; second generation focuses more on improving life and leaving a legacy �->Bryanna Planning Pre-interview research (website, Linkedin, part of her book on Amazon) Used background information to prepare key questions The questions you ask can influence the type of information you are able to gather, but Gloria was talkative, informative, & answered before we could ask Open ended (“Can you explain the type of environment you grew up in?”) Close ended (“Who would you say had the biggest influence on your drive?”) Probing questions *Clip #1* Talking about things that may have discouraged her during her journey; she said the pressure she always felt to take full advantage of her opportunities and to milk every privilege to the fullest ended up becoming discouraging for her (Harvard) In 20s: she did everything she felt she was supposed to do (cared about policy implications for AA communities, so she went to capitol hill �- and became executive director of the CAUCUS. Then became President-CEO of the sister nonprofit of that CAUCUS [APAICS]) Today: She’s not trying to milk priviledge or climb anymore *clip #1* Bc I probed her, we got a better understanding and good information on her career choice Prepare logistics for the interview Team interviewing approach: Original plan: divided questions equally by section; Primary note taker = Whoever wasn’t questioning, would take notes I ended up conducting most of interview and Isabela took notes Video conference → Telephone (~1 hour long) Conducting Type of interview: Unstructured (seeking her opinion/perspective, questions flexible and dependent on the interview & responses) Friendly (professional) conversation Active listening - *clip #2* - using her passion to find her career; i repeat to understand Responding to challenging situations (realized info about children private so didn’t ask anymore) Cues: My non-verbal: Voice (loud, clear, confident)(avoid fillers, “uh” “so”); encouraging feedback; repeat when understand; rephrasing when don’t Documenting Isabela took most notes *Clip #3* - shows Gloria’s personality. Began and ended interview speaking about Asian-American relations � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2018_20180427_gchan_ppt_dis Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kernin, Isabela Mojica, Bryanna Title A name given to the resource Gloria S. Chan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-04-27 Type The nature or genre of the resource text Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women's contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library's digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women's social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching Women social reformers--Asia Women social reformers--United States Oral history Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2017 http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/8c37b0a76341232cb363881e20e6d175.pdf 9a06aca1948a49dfb6a29935eef851d4 PDF Text Text Isabela Kernin and Bryanna Mojica AAS 307/POL 340 Women in US-Asian Relations Final Interview Project: Gloria S. Chan Section 1: Introduction For our final project we interviewed Gloria S. Chan, a second generation Asian American who currently works as a professional development coach. The interview was conducted over phone on April 27th at 12pm and lasted a little over an hour. Our objective in conducting in the interview was to learn about her life and her motivations for becoming a coach, as well as her motivation for previously being a leader in Asian American advocacy. We wanted to compare her experiences to what we learned in class about the Asian American community, and to the work other women have contributed to improving the relationship between Asian and American culture. Section 2: Preparation for the Interview Prior to the interview, we conducted research to learn about Gloria’s background. We found her coaching website, LinkedIn page, and read a preview of her book “Colorful Leadership: How Women of Color Transform the World”. From these we learned that her parents were immigrants from China, she grew up in Brooklyn and Chinatown, and had a strong cultural connection to the Asian American community. She went to Swarthmore University as an undergraduate, got a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, and then went on to Harvard Law school. In the past she was involved in leadership of multiple Asian America political organizations. She was founder, chair, and advisory council president of the Chinatown Youth Initiatives, executive director of the Concessional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and president and CEO of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS). Recently, she has been working as a leadership and professional development coach for a wide range of �impactful individuals. She is the Senior Vice President at Coach Diversity Institute and the founder of ALCLife, a community of Asian Pacific American coaches that aim to empower other Asian Americans. From what we knew about her, we created a list of questions for the interview that we hoped would relate to the course as well as help us learn more about her as a person. We included mostly broad, open-ended questions to encourage substantial answers and decided to ask any specific questions during the interview. While we were planning, we split the questions into six sections (introduction, biographical, early influences, early career, mid-career/now, and reflections) to chronologically cover her experiences. We sent the following questions to Gloria so that she could get an idea of what we’d be asking during the interview. I. Introduction -What are you trying to accomplish though your career? Why? How have you tried to accomplish these goals? -What are you most proud of in your career? -How do your goals or work relate to women in Asian America? -When you coach women, what do you usually try to help them with? What struggles do they face compared to men? Do women of color face unique challenges? II. Biographical -What kind of family/environment did you grow up in? III. Early Influences -What events/people have influenced your life the most? -How did you decide on your career? Did you have a clear path in mind? IV. Early Career -Were you ever discouraged from your career path? What hurdles have you faced? V. Mid-career/Now -What kind of work do you do now? What do you think you will be doing in the future? -What kind of work do you think is necessary to help underrepresented communities/women? VI. Reflections -Would you have done anything differently? - What do you think it means to be Asian American? Is it different for different generations of Asian Americans or for different ethnicities? Once we scheduled a date for the interview, we found an office where we could have our conversation and decided on how to split up our questions. Isabela planned on asking the introduction �and mid-career questions, while Bryanna planned on asking the biographical to early career questions. Finally, both of us would ask the reflection questions and any others that came to mind. Section 3: Conducting the Interview 1) We got detailed and complete answers to our questions, and Gloria usually gave very free responses that encompassed multiple future questions. 2) We were focused on learning about Gloria’s perspectives on different topics, so the interview was mainly unstructured and flexible where we asked most of our questions based on past responses. Instead of asking set questions like we planned, we found it easier to ask questions when we thought of them. To get answers specifically related to the course however, we did ask several structured questions. 3) Gloria was very informative, and we did not feel the need to ask many probing questions. The main probing question we asked was when Gloria stated that she was no longer trying to take advantage of all the privilege and opportunity available to her. We asked her why and to expand on her statement. She stated that chasing after impact put her in a very small container where she could not progress as a person. From our probing question, we were able to get a better understanding of her motivation to change careers. 4) For our team approach, Isabela was more comfortable writing and doing background research than speaking, so Bryanna handled most of the interview while Isabela did a majority of the note taking and outside writing for the project. 5) Gloria did not give us any research topics or references to look up besides the background research we’d already done, but she did mention organizations that she was connected to during the interview (like Coach Diversity Institute and ALC Life) that we could look into later. �Section 4: Interview Notes Q: What was your family life like? ● Grandparents were educated (teachers/doctors) and not the proletariat, so their families were persecuted, attacked, and separated ● Parents were refugee immigrants who grew up in China during the Chinese cultural revolution (a bleak time when there was poverty and little food) o Were not allowed to go to school and had to get “re-educated” with farming life ● They realized that staying in China wasn’t a good future for them ○ Her father swam for 7 hours from China to Hong Kong and enrolled in college ○ A year later her mom swam the shorter, but more guarded, route to Hong Kong ■ Got caught the first time and went to jail overnight; second time was a success ○ Stayed in Hong Kong for 2 years ● After receiving their visas to the US in their late 20’s, they moved to NYC, got married and had a baby by the time they were 30 in the US (had no money, didn’t speak the English) Q: What type of environment did you grow up in? ● ● ● Grew up in Starrett City, Brooklyn NY (mixed income housing project, very diverse community) Her sister and her went to public school until 7th grade when they got into Prep for Prep (a nonprofit leadership development program that offers promising students of color access to a private school education) o Was placed in one of the richest private education programs o Had to undergo rigorous testing and training CityKids = youth development and social emotional learning program o Provided Gloria with opportunities for personal growth and artistic expression by helping her channel that growth into substantial social change o Gloria benefited from the leadership component that was about facilitation; enjoyed being at the leadership retreats and talking about self-identity Q: What effects did your family’s background and childhood environment have on you? ● Experiencing a rich student school environment made her aware of the opportunity given to her; understood growing up with modest means ● Felt like she had to utilize the opportunity and represent communities that were being taken advantage of ● Inspired by coalitions from other ethnicities; wanted to be her community’s hero (related to feeling like Spiderman); wanted to show that Asian Americans were also a part of the minority struggle and were not the stereotype of rich and ivy league ● Felt a lot of pressure but didn’t know it at the time because thought it was just what she was passionate about o Never asked herself what she enjoyed and was she was really good at. She just focused on taking the privileges/resources as far as they could go (reason she went to Harvard) ● Today, she feels much less pressure to take privilege as far as it can go because knows that there is more than one way to make a difference in the world �o In her 20’s, did everything she was supposed to do (e.g., she cared about policy implications for Asian American communities so she became executive director of the Asian Pacific Caucus, then became president and CEO of the sister non-profit of the caucus (APAICS) ● Chasing after impact put her in a small box and halted her progress as a person, even though her work at the time was meaningful ● She finally took time for herself to find out what made her come truly alive and not what made her feel responsible and good o In high school, she liked going out into NYC and listening to live music (funk and soul) o Thought she was going to quit politics and become a music manager ▪ Her coach at the time helped her realize that managing was just as political as the politics she was trying to get away from ● She then realized that helping people find their voice and courage to put themselves out there was what really drew her in to music. ○ Her coach helped her realize that coaching was what she was interested in; and within a month handed in her resignation to APAICS Q: As a woman communications director, did you ever feel that you were treated differently? ● Explained that most of the time, we internalize oppression and keep ourselves from moving forward; said she already went into the job with a chip on shoulder feeling that way o Was always angry that reporters would overlook Asians and only report on the Black and Latino community ▪ Recalls when a new white guy was placed on her team and he was getting a lot of coverage for their Asian boss. She asked him how he does it, she he said he would make a list of interested reporters, go out for coffee with them, and pitch the stories. ● She then realized that it wasn’t that reporters were purposefully ignoring her or the Asian community, but that they did not know they were around and she didn’t realize because she had a chip on her shoulder. ● From this, she learned to be a better communications director (e.g., got Barack Obama and a lot of media to come to an APAICS event) ● Said we need to realize that we can’t do anything about the outside influences, but can change our internal perceptions of ourselves and the world around us ● Said that as an activist, she was trained to assume the worst (like you need something to fight against), but as a coach learned all that energy could be used to create instead of push against o Said that you need both something to fight against and creation, but a good balance is healthy Q: What advice do you typically give the women you coach? ● ● She doesn’t give advice or tell people what to do. Instead she uses more of a facilitative inquiry strategy, so that people get to their own answers Coaches them about having authenticity in their careers, a sense of confidence and leadership o Has mostly coached women of color; mainly attracts mid-career or those transitioning o E.g., coaching a manager of color that they indeed deserve to be in that high position �Q: Do you coach leadership in personal lives or within communities? ● She deals with both an individual's personal life and how they manage and interact with other people in their community o Personal: coaches a lot about family dynamics (especially relationship with her clients previous generation because a lot of who people think they are comes from their parents opinion of them) o Community: focuses on their relationship with authority and autonomy because once you become a leader, that will be how you perceive yourself Q: Do you believe that parents influencing who you are is specific to the family or a culture thing? ● Both; said culture, race and a person's individual stories matter, but all those things don’t need to define who you are ● She’s heard things from white families that are just as bad or guilt/shame ridden as minorities ● In her late 20s, this helped her learn that humanity is universal o Said we shame/guilt ourselves and don’t give ourselves our permission to be our happiest or live our best Q: Do you feel like because you’re a coach you can’t make any mistakes? ● Said not really, but sometimes she doesn't want to tell her story because of how it may unfold to public eye o This is why she didn’t post anything about being pregnant or having the baby Q: What type of work do you see yourself doing in the future? ● Said that moving forward she wants to deal with intergenerational women’s empowerment, where women can become more and more free with each generation (especially as leaders become moms) Q: Could you tell us about your most memorable clients? ● Said she’s had a lot of memorable clients, but the ones that particularly resonate with her are women who have, or their families have, gone through some kind of suffering to understand what it means to be human with a sense of grace ● Said her favorite moments are when she can deeply connect with a client and knows exactly what to ask to have some kind of change happen within them o This is what makes it such a rewarding career for her Q: What does it mean to be an Asian American in the U.S.? ● “It means everything and nothing at the same time” o Explained that it means having family and community histories of struggle, and having the opportunity to work through those so can see more clearly who we want to be and what our communities want to be Q: Are there different struggles for different generations of Asian Americans? ● Yes. Explained she has totally different struggles than her mom ○ She has romantic dreams for her daughter’s future, while her own mom didn’t have time to be romantic because she was fighting to survive in America and get her family over here (her parents laid the foundation that enabled her to think about what kind of legacy she could have) �Q: Are there different struggles for different ethnicities? ● Yes, there are different socio-political histories and communities and cultural differences o Explained that at the end of the day... no family history, culture, or socio-political circumstance can restrict who you want to become ▪ She said that without a doubt, it helps shapes who you are, but everybody has choices to make about who they want to become in the future Q: When coaching Asian women specifically, do you find that they tend to face similar struggles? ● Yes, really similar. o Said that most battle with giving themselves permission to “be”, including permission to have a voice/opinion, to have something to offer, to have confidence and believe that they belong where they are. And not feeling a sense of undeserving-ness or unworthiness o Said many issues are culturally specific, but there are differences across Asian ethnicities like how people face disempowerment o Said that overall, the struggle is still opportunity for creating new things ● Cultural example: when her and her sister were born, her mother was disappointed that they were females ○ Explained that her mother spent her whole life proving she could be as worthwhile as a man, and she passed that message and pressure to Gloria and her sister Q: Does your work now still relate to women in Asian America or do you take a broader stance? ● Said she doesn’t work exclusively with the Asian community anymore, but it is still near and dear to her heart and she will always be passionate about it o Explains that this is because thinks about Asian America differently now than in college ▪ In college, she viewed it as a struggle-based community that needed heroes and needed to be saved because it didn’t have a voice (needed a Spiderman). Today, she still sees struggle, but she sees a lot of power and potential in people that don’t need to be saved, but instead are working through their human journey. She now looks to support those who wish to become more powerful versions of themselves ● Explained that there are not that many Asian coaches, so people looking for Asian coaches usually find her ● She founded ALC Life (Asian Life Coach), which is a website and community of support for coaches of AAPI descent [sister org to Black Life Coach] Section 5: Reflections Bryanna: I feel like being assigned to interview Gloria was meant to be. Learning about her parents struggle and experiences were extremely interesting to me, but hearing Gloria speak about finding her passion was what was truly meaningful for me. As I explained to Gloria during the interview, I am �beginning to question myself on the choices I have made for my career and the path I decided to take. Ever since hearing Gloria speak about how she had to take a step back and really focus on herself and discovering what truly makes her happy and alive, I have not been able to stop thinking about it. I learned a lot from Gloria, but for me, the most liberating aspect of the interview was learning through her experiences that your hobbies have a lot to do with who you are professionally. Through Gloria, I discovered that chasing my passion may land me somewhere completely different than I am expecting. In addition, her speaking about giving birth and being a mother was extremely intriguing. She caught my attention when she mentioned that men will never be able to feel the same energy that women experience from giving birth, and that was truly powerful to me. I can honestly say that I learned something from each and every word that Gloria spoke, and nothing she said was not useful to the project or to my personal life. My partner comes from an Asian American descent so she related to Gloria in a different way than I did. However, the concepts we discussed in class such as women helping women and the art of social change really helped me view what Gloria was saying from a different perspective. I was glad to see that my classmates also had great experiences with their interviews. I really enjoyed the in-class presentations and seeing the wide range of different occupations and titles that the women being interviewed held. For example, the presentation of Grace Young really stood out to me. Learning about her desire to keep the tradition of the Wok was captivating, mainly because it stood out from other presentations on women in politics, government, and teaching professions. As my undergraduate career comes to an end this semester, and I prepare to walk across the stage in less than 2 weeks, I can honestly say this project was one of my favorites. Besides being assigned to interview an amazing woman like Gloria, the preparation and execution of the interview itself is one I will always remember, and brag about! �Isabela: Interviewing Gloria was definitely a valuable experience. Gloria was an insightful person and easy to talk to; and as an Asian American who grew up in a majority immigrant community, a lot of her experiences were relatable. Her transition from a relatively defined career path to a job that she loves and feels herself in is inspiring. It helped me to realize that you should appreciate the opportunities available to you, but you should always value yourself and make sure that that appreciation does not become obligation. For me, the most meaningful things she talked about were people needing to believe that they’re worth it, be the best selves that they can be, and go out and create. People from all ethnicities faces struggles, but those struggles shouldn’t hold people back, and they can result in people with deeper understanding and humanity. It was surprising how much of what Gloria said related to the class. She spoke about enacting change in society by creating new things culturally rather than pushing against institutionalized problems, about intergenerational differences in immigrant communities, and about cultural and historical differences leading to different struggles for different Asian Americans. Everything that she stated was useful as a perspective from someone who spent her entire life in America as an Asian American. Gloria spoke a bit about the issues faced by many Asian American women, like not feeling as confident or as deserving as they should, and I’d like to learn more about Gloria’s feelings growing up. She mainly spoke about feeling the need to be a voice for her community as an adolescent, but she definitely would have been facing other personal struggles related to identity as well. Her book, Colorful Leadership, seems like a good place to learn more about her life in the future. The other in-class presentations were very useful, and I liked how they spanned a broad range of careers and women. Careers ranged from the owner of a laundromat to women with confidential government information. The spread of women interviewed was very inclusive as well, including East Asian, South Asian, 1st generation, 2nd generation, and mixed-race women. I definitely noticed a �common theme from all of the interviews, including our own. All of the interviewee’s gave advice to younger women to believe in themselves, value themselves and their culture, and work hard at their goals. Additionally, they acknowledged different struggles specific to their lives and to being a women, like language barriers or political situations. However, it was clear how they collectively believed in future generations of women, regardless of ethnicity, which I think I is the basis for bettering the relationship between America and Asia (or any culture). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2018_20180427_gchan_doc_dis Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kernin, Isabela Mojica, Bryanna Title A name given to the resource Gloria S. Chan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-04-27 Type The nature or genre of the resource text Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women's contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library's digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women's social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching Women social reformers--Asia Women social reformers--United States Oral history Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2017