1 10 91 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/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/81c1eb01c5f1995a3568e6aea75a1168.pptx 472dff6a432674cf5624d2e3744e4dd5 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 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/ppt Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2016_20170109_ydoi_master 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 ; Doi, Yuriko 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/9ad7c71391b94523bb09c32b90341c0a.pdf 6aadc4308ac776b3ccb5d138f9cf101d PDF Text Text 1 �2 �3 � 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 Johanson, Vanessa ; 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_vjohanson_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 Phillips, Krystyn V. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Vanessa Johanson http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/b6e2a5581a05ba52ef02f9ef1e33aa25.pdf b65961dbdc55955271dfdbcbd67fc9fa PDF Text Text Krystyn V. Phillips POL 307 Professor Christoff 12.1.2016 Final Project Interview Report Section #1 Person Interviewed: Vanessa Johanson Education: Bachelor degree in Politics, Graduate diploma in Journalism, Masters in Participatory Development. Interviewee’s title or position: Country Director, Myanmar. United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Date: November 22, 2016 Time: 8:00 PM Length of interview: 36 Minutes, 53 Seconds. Objective in conducting the interview: To gain knowledge and insight into the world of USIP and how Mrs. Johanson’s job fits into the entire spectrum. Also, to learn about her life growing up, how she became involved with USIP along with her contributions, and to hear her ideas and thoughts regarding the world at large within international relations. Section #2 �I must say the research behind the interview was just as exciting and fulfilling as the actual interview itself. I found myself delving into more than just the overall professional bio of Vanessa Johanson, I became enamored with USIP as a whole and wanted to learn as much as I could about the organization and its affiliates. My first action was to give a definition to USIP so I would know and understand the initial topic, it therefore gave me guidelines in how to look for specific questions to ask during my interview. I looked into the organization’s founders, current staff, their mission statement, the work they have accomplished, their “issue areas” (places that hold USIP’s attention such as women’s rights, conflict analysis and prevention, mediation and facilitation, media, countering violent extremism, religion, rule of law, gender, education, economics, science and technology, governance, training, and youth), and what specific countries they have been involved with over the years. For her part, Mrs. Johanson is the Country Director of Myanmar, which prompted me to pose questions about her background and how she became invested in the organization. Mrs. Johanson has only been with USIP for about a year now but she has worked in Asia/ Middle East since 1996. Prior to USIP, she has held positions at other institutions such as Search for Common Ground, The Asian Foundation, BBC Media Action, and Internews. I tried not to be too invasive about Mrs. Johanson’s private life as I wanted to make sure she felt comfortable with me throughout the entire interview. However, I was able to glean some information about how she grew up and what drove her to Myanmar. I made points to ask her about leaving her homeland (Australia) at a young age (22 years old) to engage in another culture. I made notes to ask her how she felt upon entering a strange and foreign environment; Having to learn whole new languages and customs. I held particular interest in the latter question because throughout the �“Women in U.S.- Asian Relations” course, when reading about the many times when foreigners enter another nation, they tend to be offset and not able to fully integrate themselves. I wanted to see if Mrs. Johanson struggled with any of these hurdles as well. There was a mental aspect and a physical aspect to the actual presentation. Mentally I was slightly nervous. This was not in any way attributed to having zero experience, for surely, I have interviewed others before. No, my anticipation and anxiety came from hearing horror stories of how classes before me were paired up with grouchy and withholding interviewees. I felt that with my luck I would end up with a cold person and have to use my considerable charm to open her up. Needless to say, my fears were allayed when I finally met Mrs. Johanson. She is perfectly friendly, fun, engaging and most relieving of all, WILLING!! That in itself calmed my nerves considerably, causing me to have an utterly fantastic time conversing with her. As to physical preparation, the interview was through Skype (After all Mrs. Johanson resides in Myanmar, 11.5 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time), therefore I was able to conduct it from the comfort of my own home. This is not to say I failed to exercise professionalism. I made sure that I was still dressed presentably, as though I was attending a real interview, and I made sure my surroundings were clean and clear. I spoke clearly and articulately, allowing space for her to add anything she so wished during my follow up questions. I began my interview by greeting Mrs. Johanson, introducing myself and engaging in light pleasantries. I laid the groundwork then smoothly transitioned into my inquiries. Here is a list of my initial questions: v --Where were you born? How was family life growing up? �v --Were your parents much involved in your schooling? Were they encouraging as you reached higher levels of education and began to indicate the career path you wished to take? v --How were you inspired to join USIP? Although you have lived many places, how did you land as the country director in Myanmar as opposed to any of the other global stations the USIP controls? v --I see that you have worked in some of the harshest environments one of them being Afghanistan, how did you dispel family and friends concerns when entering into such dangerous territory? v --I read that you speak Bahasa Indonesia fluently, as well as conversational Myanmar (simple Burmese), was it easy to learn? I imagine this greatly assisted you in integrating with Myanmar, but did you still have to leap over other cultural hurdles? In a lot of my readings women outsiders found it difficult to fully immerse themselves and struggled to find common ground so they might go about their duties. How did you gain the trust of your country’s indigenous populace? v --When entering into your position at USIP, did you have preconceived notions as to how the organization was run, did you agree with all of its practices and policies? If there were instances where you disagreed, what steps did you take to accommodate or compromise? �v --When you initiated peace talks within foreign countries, naturally you interacted with numerous and diverse ethnic groups. What was your perception of how they interacted with one another? Were negotiations tentative, hostile, readily received? v --Within some of my class readings I have noticed that throughout history, the U.S has not always been seen on the international stage in a favorable light (individually speaking) whether we are diplomats, doctors, journalist or simple missionaries. How receptive are the leaders of the countries/groups you have dealt with in regards to the fact that the U.S is spearheading such endeavors? v --Many world leaders or just heads of different ethnic groups have voiced varied opinions regarding the results of our most recent U.S. presidential election. The U.S. is seen as the leading democracy and a cornerstone of peace and global stability; emphasis on stability. Yet I have been reading numerous articles written and released by renowned media outlets that show international heads of states (such as prime ministers, chancellors, presidents, royals etc.) hold concerns. How will these concerns effect USIP’s missions abroad? v --How do you think the United states will be seen? This organization is obviously American based. It talks of peace and wishes to construct congenial ties between two or more parties; But how does the U.S. intend to display that when they now have cultural/ religious division in their own backyard? How do we still present ourselves as the “good guys”? �v --Gender issues are one of USIP’s focal issues. Often times domestic violence of nonAmericans tends to be overlooked and attributed to a country’s cultural formation, and historical precedent. How does USIP hope to spread even more awareness of the plights of women abroad seeing as these topics are generally in the background when examining overall conflicts? v --Professor Christoff’s course centers on the involvement of women abroad. To what extent have you seen the women in the countries you have worked in be a part of the reformation? Do native women play a pivotal role in helping to bring about change within their own societies? v --I would like to talk about Acceptable solutions: In September of this year an article was published in which you gave an interview on the results of the Union Peace Conference, which was created to end the decade long conflict between Myanmar Government and rebels. You stated that finding an agreement that suits the government and three different factions is a particular challenge going forward. My question is, with such diverse groups and cultural disparities, how DO you even start to find common ground? What constitutes an acceptable solution? How do you make sure every party is equally satisfied with the outcome? v --Another main route of quelling conflict is the media. From my understanding, USIP uses this method to reach out to the surrounding communities and globally to inform, connect and empower. How effective has this technique been (that you have seen)? You yourself worked with BBC Media Action, while there did you find that providing an open airway started �dialogue between a government and her constituents? Are there any success stories you would like to share that show a particular area that benefited greatly from this method? v --You’ve been around the world, seen and experienced alliances and tensions all across the globe. Are you optimistic about the future of international relation? On a micro scale or macro scale? v --Has your career path in any way changed your worldview? Is it significant? Or marginal? v --During your time abroad, have your perceptions of the U.S. changed while seeing it from the "outside" so to speak? v --You play a significant role in shaping the future of those internationally, how would you like to apply your leadership and shape the future of your homeland’s (Australia) next generation? v --What advice (if any) do you wish to pass onto me as I continue my own academic/professional journey? As I mentioned earlier, these were tailed by follow-up questions, depending on Mrs. Johanson’s answers. Section #3 �(1) I did get complete answers to my questions. Mrs. Johanson was very thorough in her responses, often elaborating and in turn answering questions I hadn’t even thought to ask. This was extremely helpful. (2) I would say our interview was more or less “Unstructured”. My questions were purposefully open-ended so that Mrs. Johanson could expand on an idea or opinion. (3) I used 7 probing questions (point of view, information, problem, assumption, goals, clarification, and summarization.) I found these to be the most natural and useful ways of obtaining the replies I sought. I say natural because most of the time, in normal conversation, people like to add on and share their opinions; this method allows them to do so at will. (4) For this particular project, I did not have a team member. I was given this task to complete by my lonesome. However, this did not dampen my experience in the least. It may have been more work to do on my own, but I enjoyed the challenge to see if I could succeed with just me, myself, and I. I believe I did. (5) Mrs. Johanson did not give me any specific articles or person to approach. She herself admitted in her reply to my “Thank You” email, that all of my research was in depth, well done, and she couldn’t possibly add any more seeing as I had dug into every nook and crevice already. Section #4 In almost every segment of our conversation, Mrs. Johanson emphasized the need for strong communication, consideration, and respect wherever USIP contributed their vast resources. In doing so I was immediately reminded of the Appiah reading I did earlier in the semester. In that reading the author spoke highly of respect for another nation’s tradition/cultural identity. In order �to start a dialogue to enact change one must first recognize the heritage that comes along with ideas. New policies are hard, if not impossible, to implement if precedent practices are ignored. Mrs. Johanson insisted that USIP allowed themselves to only work with other nations, not for them. She left no doubt in my mind that change and resolution is a joint effort. All parties must understand the contributions each bring to the table. Only then can restoration be contemplated. Section #5 Due to the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, Mrs. Johanson held some reserve as to how the world would shape up now that the chosen leader of the most powerful country in the world is controversial. She was careful not to be overly opinionated, however, her sentiments aligned with the majority of the international world and I found this to be more poignant than anything. Here I was seeing and hearing firsthand how our country’s affairs were already affecting those outside our realm. I would have liked to go more in depth with her involving this outcome, but I sensed that it would be unwise to have the conversation become saturated in that direction. All in all, my original questions were given attention and that is all I could ever ask for. Mrs. Johanson was kind enough to take time out of her morning to sit and have a thoughtful discussion with me. To end with, I was heartened by her encouragement towards me in my studies and future endeavors. She wished me good luck and success. Even though I see my overall interview as an accomplishment, it was delightful to see that my peers had similar enlightened, fun, and intriguing experiences as well. Listening/watching the presentations put forward by other students, I began to fully appreciate that work that went into �this project for all of us. Based on the presentations, the entire class benefited greatly from the exercise and was able to clearly convey the information they received from their interviewees. A lot of the interviews were similar to mine, in the fact that many of us talked to members of USIP. I t was interesting to see the many different roles that women play throughout that organization and how they are using their positions to further relations between the U.S and Asia. Apart from USIP, it was rather illuminating to learn of the many ways in which women are touching the world: Through art, commerce, theatre, fundraising, communication, politics, and just simply by being explorers in their own right. After seeing all of the presentations it has become abundantly clear to me that being a woman should first of all never be seen as a hindrance or impairing function. Their unique outlook at the world around them offers diverse ways of searching out how to impact it. As women, they cannot always go the route of men and therefore their path provides insights that add to the sometimes-unorthodox molding/advancement of society at large. Secondly, if there is one thing that every interviewee encouraged us young adults to do, it was to go boldly and explore. As simple as it sounds, it was profound to hear it from women who expressed how that notion caused them to race forward and conquer, grasping for the highest bar and achieving goals they may not even had thought to set but reaching them nonetheless. � 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 Johanson, Vanessa ; 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_vjohanson_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 Phillips, Krystyn V. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Vanessa Johanson http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/1a3fd15416af0db548051aeca4f8ee25.pptx 53d638138dad2d8725b8a60ae516f9bb 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 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/ppt Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2016_20170109_vjohanson_master 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 Phillips, Krystyn V. ; Johanson, Vanessa Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Vanessa Johanson 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/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/46ec9dc6f218f0ffa81e8a2a56fcf01c.pdf ec39d94560b8f010666c2046b559233f PDF Text 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/. 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 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_srichardson_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 Khwaja, Yalda ; Osei-Tutu, Kofi R. ; Ashirmetov, Lola ; Richardson, Sophie Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Sophie Richardson http://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/e6ca5a33d7471acdafade85f983a1b0b.pdf f0df1879e0443a13d72ad2239612a926 PDF Text Text Yalda Khwaja, Lola Ashirmetov, Kofi Ramirez Osei-Tutu AAS/POL 307 Final SECTION I: LOLA Person Interviewed: Sophie Richardson Interviewee’s Position: Sophie is the China Director at Human Rights Watch. She is a graduate of University of Virginia (from which she earned her PhD), Hopkins-Nanjing Project, and Oberlin college. Sophie has also written numerous articles for various news sources, as well as authoring her own book, China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Date,Time, and Length of Interview: The interview was conducted on November 17, 2016 at 8:25 AM. It lasted 49 mins long. Your objective in conducting the interview: Our objective was to get to know Sophie Richardson more. Not only did we want to see her role in U.S-Asian relations but we wanted to know her as a person. We asked a series of questions that answered who she was and what she stands for. Through the questions, we got to know more about her work with Human Rights Watch as the China Director. We learned how as a women, she plays an important role in trying to infiltrate improved human rights standards in China. She is truly and inspiring women that is now seen as a role model for all three of us. SECTION II: LOLA As part of the pre-interview process, we looked up as much information as we could find out Sophie Richardson. We read her biography on the Human Rights Watch page, her Twitter account, her Linkedin, as well as videos of other interviews she has previously given. We also did research on China and The Human Rights Watch’s role in China. Most of the questions we wanted to ask dealt directly with The Human Rights Watch and her role in it, because the three of us have an interest in international relations and politics. The other questions dealt with her role as a woman, because we wanted to get a better sense of her importance for the class discussion. �We also wanted the interview to be friendly and make it conversational so we wanted to ask her questions with her own life in context and opinion. For example, one of the questions asked was what she felt the elections and Trump winning president-elect meant for The Human Rights Watch. SECTION III: LOLA 1. Did you get complete answers to your questions? Not only did we get complete answers to questions, but Sophie also answered many of the questions we hadn’t asked yet. She gave very complete and detailed answers causing us to actually decrease the amount of questions we had to ask. 2. Was your interview structured, unstructured, or mixed? Our interview was unstructured. We asked her a slew of questions without any real order. We wanted the interview to be conversational and wanted to make Sophie feel comfortable so we chose the questions we felt matched the moment. 3. What probing questions did you use? One of the probing questions we asked Sophie was on her thoughts on the recent election results and what it meant for the Human Rights Watch. 4. Explain your team approach (if applicable). That is, who did what? Each group member did their own research on Sophie Richardson and created questions of their own based on it. We later combined the questions and during the interview took turns asking our questions. For the presentation and post-interview work, we divided the work needed to be done equally amongst each other. 5. Did the interviewee give you any documents or references to read, or did she/he mention other people for you to talk to (or research)? Sophie did not need to refer us to documents or references, as she was very knowledgeable in her work. She also kept the conversation light and friendly, and thus did not require us to read anything. However, we still did research on her and on China in order to be prepared. SECTION IV: YALDA Sophie Richardson Interview (Transcription): Lola: [00:04:26] What about the human rights watch really attracted to you, what made you want to be apart of it. Sophie: [00:04:35] Oh, that's a great question, I sort of became aware of human rights watch fairly early on in life. I think when I was still in college. I think it was because I got interested in China, I became interested in human rights while I was in college and my senior year, I was given the choice to either write a senior thesis or doing a similar kind of project, and because I was a part of a student group that did a lot of work on things like academic exchanges with Asia and raising awareness about various Asia issues, instead of doing the thesis, I opted to design and run a week long class about Tibet because there was nothing in the curriculum about it. I think that was probably where I first picked up a Human Rights Watch report, although then HRW was still known as Asia Watch, this was before different groups came together and became a single organization. While I was on my way a year after I graduated to Nanjing, I think that was where I first met the guy that was then the head of all of the China work who was based in Hong Kong. I think I sort of only had the most tenuous grasp of what he actually did all day but I was like I want to do that. Because he was meeting with dissidence and this was not so long from Tiananmen and people were still coming out of the country and he was interviewing them and documenting what had happened to them. So I got to know some of the people who worked for �HRW particularly when I was living in Cambodia in the mid 1990s, I met the guy who has now been my boss for the last 10 or 11 years, a guy named Brad Adams and I think throughout the course of a couple of different NGO's, well I was a part of a certain NGO when I first went to Cambodia, then I left that NGO and went to grad school and while I was in grad school, I started doing some consultancy for HRW. I think it is everything from the face that it is unbelievably interesting material. The organization's work is based on a set of standards that I believe in very deeply. I can't imagine working at an organization that didn't also do work on the U.S and I say that both as an American at this particular moment time, but also to really reinforce the idea that rights are universal, that is non-negotiable and you hold everyone on the same standard. But it is also a great place to work in that, there is huge room for creativity, there are a lot of wonderful collaboration across the organization. It is an incredible platform to speak from, the organization's name is quite a calling card and what that demands of us as staff people is that we really know what were are talking about all the time. So it's about the standards. It's about you know sort of enormous collaboration and creativity across the organization. You know on any given day I'm talking to my colleagues who work in other regional programs but also thematic traditions. You know we've got projects going about LGBT rights. We've got projects going about the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. So I'm talking to my colleagues in those two separate programs. You know and the organization's name is quite a calling card. And we have to be you know that that means that we really have to be on the ball all the time but it also means that we can get very senior levels of attention. China is an exception in that regard because the government just doesn't really engage with us at all. But you know it's a pretty remarkable platform from which to speak. So you know these things about it that are quite appealing. Yalda: [00:01:17] So my question would go down is so in relation to the current results of the election, my question is do you think the Trump administration is going to handle human rights in what way do you think they're going to be handling it. Sophie: [00:01:44] What is the right way of saying this. I sort of have multiple responses to that. Sophie: [00:01:55] I woke my son up some morning after to explain to him what had happened, he cried for an hour and he said "but mom it's a woman's turn. And what's going to happen to us now". Here's what I said at a gathering in sort of China hands in D.C. yesterday which is that it is damn hard to advocate for human rights when you are credibly alleged to have violated them yourself. When in the course of your campaign that you have shown it creepy enthusiasm for torture abuse of law enforcement practices, intrusive surveillance, grotesque discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities and women. I could keep going. Sophie: [00:02:44] You know even if we find ourselves in a situation of sort of benign neglect of the government agencies that we rely on primarily the State Department you know it's going to be very easy for the Chinese government which is sort of eternally on the lookout for hypocrisy coming from the U.S. as a reason to just dismiss criticisms. You know they've got more material to work with then they'll know what to do for the next four years. You know and then there's a distinct possibility that you know I sort of have these horrific nightmares about Trump and Xi Jinping comparing notes on you know. So how did you go about designing your registry of Muslims? Which form of torture do you prefer, waterboarding or electric shocks? Right it means we have you know we have just a massive hole in you know the international architecture for human rights defenses. And let me be very clear. There was plenty the Obama administration got wrong there was plenty. Every U.S. administration got wrong. You know I could rattle off my complaints about the Norwegians if you like but this is an entirely separate matter. I mean one of Trump's only comments during the campaign about human rights was to say he's one of the debates I think and he said something like "well who were we to talk about human rights". But it wasn't in sort of that thoughtful self-reflective way of saying we need to get our own house in order. He was essentially saying Screw it. This is not a priority for us. And you know I think it's going to be an enormous challenge for organizations like ours if the U.S. either just sort of vacates the field or happily engages in committing abuses itself. So there's a nice cheerful answer �for you. For me you know the idea that somebody who bragged about sexually assaulting somebody is now at the helm of government. It's just astonishing Yalda: [00:04:57] The thing that came out I generally thought that OK this is going to impact the elections in a negative way. But I saw a statistic where 97 percent of people who were devoted to him said that, that video didn't really matter and didn't really persuade their opinion in any way which was unfathomable for me. It just shows like how devoted if people are actually to them and. Sophie: [00:05:21] I saw a woman the other day wearing a t shirt that said something like Mr. Trump you can grab me wherever and whenever you want. Sophie: [00:05:35] So my son is in sixth grade and he was supposed to have been doing a project with his class about the elections. It's a great project. I would have loved doing this when I was his age. You know they actually had to understand what the candidates’ platforms were on the different issues. To watch the debates all these sorts of things and for the Access Hollywood video came out, the school canceled the project, which I thought was a stupid thing to do. And he of course wanted to know why and he'd heard about the video. You know he's 11 and in 5th grade. They talk to each other. They watch TV. They hear these things, right? And you know my husband and I were debating about how to handle this because parents are given some curveballs like this. Sophie: [00:06:24] And so it was later in the week I think that the first lady gave a marvelous speech at the University of New Hampshire. And so we decided to do was have him watch both. So we watched them together and talked about what is good about one and what was really wrong with the other, partly because you want to leave people with a sense of what you know responsible thoughtful public discussions on these kinds of subjects ought to be. And all I can say is Michelle and 2020 please. Sophie [00:07:00] She's the first lady I would march in her army any day. Anyway we've digressed. Kofi: [00:07:08] So working with the Human Rights Watch, I'm sure like you experience a lot of a wide variety of things. And so I'm wondering like how do you balance your regular life in the job in the HRW. Sophie: [00:07:20] It's just a big mess. Kofi, I’m not going to lie to you. Well there are a couple of different things that make it all possible. First of all it is that you know I have a gorgeous marvelous smart supportive partner who cares about all the same things I do. So it's without which it would not be possible. And while my son hates it when I'm away he also you know I mean it's different now than when he was really little because he sort of understands what the point is that he sort of OK with that plus it means he gets to eat a lot of pizza. But I also think different divisions at HRW function in somewhat different ways. The HRW division is the largest. Now at least with the regional division, there are about 35 of us all up and we are flung all across the globe. And you know my boss is a wise creature in that you know he believes very firmly that you know we need to we ask people who work really hard. We need to do our best to accommodate the rest of their lives. And so we are very flexible about where people work from about what hours they're working about travel about vacation and stuff like that. You know he doesn't care where I'm standing so long as I'm getting done what I need to do. And I think that flexibility makes it possible for us to retain really good people who know that sometimes they're just going to be madly madly busy at various points. You know my own personal pathology is to I tend to get up incredibly early in the morning I'm usually up and working by about 4:00 4:30 because that lets me log a couple of hours before going to the gym, which is essential for my sanity and then sort of getting the rest of the house up and moving. But it also means that if I need or want to punch out sort of mid-afternoon to have that time and just with my son and to kind of protect evenings as family time, that's the best way to do it. A good chunk of my job involves editing and that's the kind of work that you really just want to do when it's completely quiet. The phone is ringing. But the other advantage to getting up quite early is that many of the people I �supervised are sitting 12 or 13 hours ahead of me in Asia by virtue of my being up really early. It means that they and I can have a couple of sort of normal business hours for them to overlap so that they can go have a nice normal evening with their families and their kids. You know I'm not going to lie to you there's a lot of juggling. But you know HRW I think is flexible enough to help make that work for people. And you know the piece in a way that's hardest for me as traveling just because when I'm gone I'm really really gone. And I don't want to have to travel unless it's really necessary. But there you have it. Everything else is kind of manageable and I really don't want to talk to anybody. I'm not married to her or related to you after about eight o'clock. Lola : [00:10:43] So to take this on a more political tangent. Sophie: [00:10:47] Sure. Lola: [00:10:48] Many activists and human rights defenders have been persecuted by the Chinese government for fighting for the things that they believe in. So as a fellow activist, have you experienced any hardships? And if so, how do you try to overcome these obstacles in order to do your job. Sophie: [00:11:04] Oh God. Relative to them I have no problems, not a one. You know I've worked with people who have you know I was sitting in a room yesterday with people who have you know survived horrific torture then separated from their families. One activist I work with a lot we adore was actually born in prison. His mother was considered a counter-revolutionary and was detained in the early 70s and he was actually born in jail, which he loves to joke about. He has a well-developed sense of humor. You know one has moments when it's overwhelming to stop and contemplate what's happened to people. And I am constantly in awe of people who manage to get up and put one foot in front of the other and become very effective advocates. I've had the tremendous pleasure in the last year or so to get acquainted with a lovely young woman who is about the same age as you guys and Angela Guei whose father is the last of the five Hong Kong booksellers who's being detained in the mainland. And she's actually from Sweden but is going to university in the UK. And you know this is somebody for you know for nothing in life had prepared her for the experience of her dad being disappeared. He's the one who was taken from his condo in Thailand and taken back to the mainland. You know and yet she is this unbelievably you know like you guys she's this unbelievably articulate smart thoughtful poised person who has very quickly become an incredibly effective advocate for her dad's case. I mean doing everything from briefing governments to pulling together Websites and writing letters. You know working with her members of Parliament to make sure they are asked questions. All these sorts of things. But she's also 22 you know and she has a pretty complicated family situation even beyond her dad's case. And I've end up spending a lot of time just talking to her. And I think almost as kind of how you get your aunt or uncle or a professor you really close to or you know to just navigate the incredible anxieties and the emotional hardship of having a family member who is detained somewhere on the other side of the earth and knowing that there may not be much you could do about it. I'm also part of an effort internally within HRW is that for us to do a better job of looking after one another in terms of our mental health and our ability to be resilient and withstand stress. You know I also you know I have colleagues who work in other parts of Asia in Pakistan or in parts of Thailand for example where there are active conflicts and I'm mostly spending my days you know in very civilized settings relatively speaking and they're dealing with you know people in horrifically wounded or in combat or. You know. Civilians who've been targeted. We're getting better at learning how to look after one another or look after ourselves. I think we're not quite where we ought to be. Anyways that's sort of a perhaps a more philosophical answer to that question. But I think gives you some sense of what we wind up dealing with on a daily basis. Yalda: [00:14:48] So my question is where do you see Human Rights Watch the rights as the China director in 20 years. Where would you like to see it going? Sophie: [00:14:55] Well I'd love to put ourselves out of business. It would be nice to become an irrelevance. Sadly I don't think that's going to be the case especially given the direction of �political travel in China which is if anything increasing our collective workload not decreasing it. And you know what I would love 20 years from now is to be working more and more directly with groups inside the mainland because you know the one I think one of the real human rights success stories to the extent there is one over the last 10 or 15 years in China is the rise of domestic civil society and its efforts particularly on human rights issues. They're taking it in the neck right now in terms of NGO's is being shut down activists being locked up and you know it's hard to see where that trend goes. But the impulse and the community are there and it's a question of whether we can in a longer term really work with them. I'm perpetually envious of our colleagues in places like India for example who can work much more directly and openly with domestic organizations. That's where I would love for us to be I could be horribly wrong and the situation could be much more restrictive. Much depends on what Xi Jinping decides to do for the next couple of years and then who he hands off to, if in fact he does. Kofi: [00:16:26] All right. So my question to you is what are some of the accomplishments you received through the Human Rights Watch that you were especially proud of and have been most impactful? Sophie: [00:16:58] I mean look there's nothing like meeting somebody you helped get out of jail and get out of the country. That's a pretty mind-boggling experience. When I was still working Asia-wide was a very well known Vietnamese activist whose case we've worked with for years and years and I think this is maybe just before Obama's first visit to Vietnam and the Vietnamese finally decided to release her. And she came to the U.S. partly because her daughter, both of her kids had settled someplace in California and they had come to see us periodically. And so when this activist was freed and came to see us in D.C, she showed up and you know we had a lovely conversation and she had been out of Vietnam at that point for probably about a month or six weeks you know and so she had started to you know see doctors and get therapy. Was eating better. You know and going through these initial steps of rehabilitation. But she was still very careful in how she spoke to us and so it was a very it was a very emotional conversation but it was so very formal and at the very end of this evening she pulled out a picture that had been taken easily five or six years earlier of me and her daughter, that the daughter had managed somehow to get to her when she was in prison in Vietnam and she said I've been keeping this all this time and thinking about what it would be like to actually come and meet you and you're sitting there thinking, You're excited about meeting you? It's rather the other way around. But you know I think we've made a little bit of a dent in you know some of the worst aspects to certain kinds of laws or regulations in China and or at least driven the government to recommit rhetorically to things like you know some of the obligations under the criminal procedure law that in principle should allow evidence obtained through torture to be churn out of court. You know there are some minor game. And I think we can say that we were a part of them. And you know it is good to see the machinery respond. One of the things I try not to think about too much is what our colleagues who work in considerably freer environments are able to accomplish. You know like what kinds of relationships they can have policy makers and what can be achieved. Because if I stop and think about that too much it just makes China so depressing. Just in terms of how who able to actually have a conversation with I mean the government doesn't really engage us at all. And when you know the overwhelming majority of recommendations you're making are to a government you know that you can't get anybody to sit down and talk to you rationally about what those changes ought to be. It's frustrating. Lola: [00:20:00] So our class is specifically about women in US-Asian relations. So my question to you is, as a woman who holds such an impactful position in the Human Rights Watch, do you feel like women can make a difference when it comes to in terms of the rights in China? Sophie: [00:20:21] Oh absolutely. Absolutely. I think some of the most interesting activists and some of the kind of edgiest work is being done by women although you know the distinction I would make for China is not I guess that's less one about gender and more one about age. You know, I mean this is a very sort of crude generalization but you know that the activists who are �now between sort of I would say their early 20s up to about 30 are just sort of a whole different kettle of fish even from people who are just a little bit older. They have very different expectations of what the state can and should do. They literally are just wired to communicate in a completely different way. They are not especially what's the right word here. They're much less concerned about pushback from the government in a way. I don't mean to say that they're not afraid or not scared but you know they were most of them were or are post Tiananmen. So they haven't had that kind of experience and they're also they're not nearly as constrained by I think some traditional social norms and here are talking about people like the wonderful women's rights and LGBT activists who will do sort of mock gay weddings in the middle of cities or sort of performance arty visible protesty type stuff you know where sort of the next older generation is pretty focused on running certain kinds of organizations and providing training and building certain kinds of capacity. But you know I think there's so much to do on women's rights in China that, that community is strong and interesting and quite devoted to making change in the long term. And I think there's some real role models and I'm just trying to imagine you know if one of the issue put that same question to some of the really well-known Chinese women activists I think some of the younger ones would say that they feel the older ones helped sort of paved the way for them. Yeah. There's people doing incredible work on everything from, issues that have nothing to do with gender rights per se. All the way through to you know things like the one child policy or access to hygiene. Or things like incredibly Neanderthal kinds of legal discrimination about things like property rights. Yalda: [00:23:27] So you have mentioned that you do believe in universal values. Do you think that there can be universal human rights that can be achieve universally and if so, what are some of the things countries can try to solidify human rights in their country? Sophie: [00:23:50] I think that often people some people who deliberately misunderstand the culture universality to mean that we should all somehow magically come the same and that laws and policies have to be the same everywhere. You know that's not the case. And there are difficult and complicated questions about whether for example Sharia law can be compatible with international human rights standards or not. And that's a big and messy discussion. And you know and often when it comes right down to it what you're talking about or what respect for universal human rights requires is changing certain cultural practices. You know we certainly see that in the debate around things like female genital mutilation. You know some people will say well it's our cultural right to do that. And then there is a discussion about which rights take priority. And I think international law has sort of evolved in that respect to say, first and foremost is you know the right to health and bodily autonomy and asserting an individual preference because cultural rights have so often been asserted as a way of denying individual rights. But I think in the work that i do, that subject largely comes up around for example the Chinese government saying, everything from in China society values group over the individual or you know or as the government has said much more aggressively in the last year or so. We don't believe in universal human rights, we believe in the human rights with Chinese characteristics. You know which is of course a euphemism for whatever that CCP wants, which has nothing to do with Chinese characteristics. And it comes up around whether we as an organization are holding primarily western countries to the same standards which I think we do a reasonably good job of. I think sometimes we get a little bit lost in the weeds on that as we are at the moment a little bit about Trump. But there just shouldn't be a difference between you know the expectations of human rights for you know a kid born in China and a kid born in the United States. You're entitled to the same thing regardless of where on the planet you happen to be standing or where you happen to be born in or what faith you're a part of or what culture are you know that should not be negotiable. Kofi: [00:27:01] So in your opinion what are some of the biggest challenges that Human Rights Watch encounters in China today? �Sophie: [00:27:09] Well it's actually about the Chinese Communist Party using incredible hostility towards human rights or even the idea of transferring any significant power out of the party and into institutions like you know the media or the judiciary that could help prevent certain kinds of abuses or provide redress for certain kinds of abuses. I think the party is so terrified of losing power that it is unwilling to share it in anyway. It's the subject of an enormous debate amongst China watchers about why the Chinese Communist Party remains this paranoid at a time when it's never had so much power and faces so little organized threat. It’s like the guys couldn't lighten up a little bit of argument. But I think it's a set of political beliefs and practices that are so committed to dogmatically insisting that everybody believe the same thing and behave the same way and that any behavior that deviates from that is considered abnormal or problematic. Until there is some alternatives governing force it's hard to imagine the human rights situation changes considerably. The areas where we see some progress or at least some tolerance of activism and engagement around for example the environment or things like product safety because people are tired of buying tainted baby milk formula. Even on those where you see a slightly better response from state. It's not a systemic response. I mean you don't see change being made in a way that's going to last for more than a year or two and on serious issues and you wonder at what point certain parts of the population aren't sufficiently annoyed by that, that there's more of a public response than it's not it's not a regime that really knows how to even deal with that kind of reaction from the public other than sort of co-opting people in the immediate circumstances. Paying off protesters for example or just knocking heads. And again you know whatever reformers may have been floating around Xi Jinping at the beginning of his time seemed to have been pretty successfully sidelined. And it's unnerving to see for example the guy who was the party secretary in Tibet. Up until about six months ago has now been over to Shengcheng where he's already replicating some pretty nasty policies and he is tipped to join the Politburo next year. And that really doesn't bode well I think for the longer term. Lola: [00:30:24] What effect has the Human Rights Watch had on yourself and your outlook on life? Sophie: [00:30:32] Holy cow. Lola: [00:30:34] Sorry. That's a loaded question. Sophie: [00:30:37] It's just a big one, maybe the way to answer that is just to say I have a lot of trouble imagining working anyplace else from which sometimes makes me nervous. What's the right way of saying this. We lose a lot we don't win very much or at least my particular crew doesn't win very much. But I think we all believed very very deeply that we have an obligation to try and to be able to work at an organization where it's all about fighting the best fight you possibly can. And I think being with kindred spirits is an honor. Maybe that's the best way to answer that. Yalda, Lola, Kofi: [00:31:39] Thank you. Yalda: [00:31:46] Is there certain human rights issue that you would like to solve the most in China? Sophie: [00:31:50] Wow. Boy, let me think about that for a second. Just because the list is so long then. In so long, there are some that are more and less realistic. Wow. All right. Well if I can have a couple. Well let's go with number one is literally removing and this is sort of in the realm of vaguely possible. Number one I think would be removing all of the discriminatory policies and practices that apply to ethnic minorities. And I choose that partly because I think we see globally a very alarming trend towards the discrimination of groups of Chinese government uses that to further strengthen its own position. But you know while it's not an enormous number of people all up I think positive steps to end discrimination wind up having transformative effects in other ways and doing that requires changing laws. It requires rolling back certain kinds of policies. It requires fighting you know previously marginalized voices into certain kinds of discussions. I think it's also frankly in China's national security interests to radically overhaul its policies in Shengcheng. I think it is doing such a thorough job of systematically alienating that population at �a time when you know the potential consequences are not small is a really stupid thing to do. You know the first time I became aware of any sort of ISIS commentary about China I just like oh my god, you know you have you have created exactly what you said you didn't want. And so I think that's incredibly important. I think rolling back all the restrictions on civil society you know and the use of these just ludicrous charges about disturbing public order or you know that are just ridiculous. I think it can easily be demonstrated that independent civil society groups are not only you know not a threat to the country but are essential to solving certain kinds of fairly pressing issues. Normalize the idea of activism on political issues outside the government. I think there are obvious gains there where the government is for society at large. What would number three be? All right if you're trying to think of transformative ones let's go with a credible transparent public re-examination of Tiananmen. You know that is just the open wound that won't heal. And that to provide some accountability for that to answer the question that's a family member to honestly state however completely disingenuous it may be but for the state to explain it's case public and to allow for some visibility into a very high level government thinking would also have a pretty significant effect. You know people want to know why the government does what it is and you know that's where the Open Government Initiative came from you know on paper. That's a very weak tool. So I think to really open up about one of the most sensitive issues of the last 25 years or more would be a pretty bold step, so I will go with those three. Yalda, Lola, Kofi: [00:36:56] Thank you. Kofi: [00:36:57] So my question is, are there any defining moments or challenges you encountered throughout your career that could have changed your career path. Sophie: [00:37:09] Well if Human Rights Watch never given me a job or if I never met Brad (Her Husband). Yes and no. There are ways in which academia was tempting for kind of the relative calm and stability of it. But I honestly think I wouldn't have lasted long. There are certainly days when each of us thinks oh god this is just never going to get any better. Let's go do something else for a living. And then you're embarrassed to have thought that when you look around you and see what people are dealing with they don't really get a choice to give it up and you sort of snap out of it. It gets maybe the better way to answer that is to say that there have been a couple of just unbelievably surreal moments along the way. You know I attended on HRW's behalf, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for Liu Xiaobo. You know which is I mean it's a deeply weird thing to have a party for somebody who is in prison. It's sort of a kind of a multi day thing. There is the awards ceremony dinner and there's a concert and there's sort of all this stuff going on and it's pretty mind-boggling. You know I attended the state dinner with Xi Jinping at the White House last September you know and stood there in the receiving line with Obama and Xi. I spoke to them later that night and told them they're both doing as shitty job. You know I think I mean there are moments that are sort of strange in the sense that they provide you know as was the case and Oslo, for of this powerful sense of solidarity a kind of global recognition of your cause and then there are these moments that are very sort of these very high octane, glossy, political affairs in which you really feel like you're kind of getting used. And so you know the pressure is on to make it clear to the people who matter in that room, that you're going to argue your case regardless of whether you're sitting in a congressional hearing or wearing three inch heels and standing next the first lady. Then the next day, that morning you've been standing in a room full of Chinese activists. You know a protest outside the White House. Yalda, Lola, Kofi: [00:40:10] That is all our questions, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to speak to us, we really appreciate it. Sophie: [00:40:25] It was no problem at all. SECTION V: KOFI �In the interview there were a lot of different things that we found valuable both regarding information connected to our class, about women in US-Asian relations, as well as Sophie’s personal opinions and thoughts. In relation to the class and US-Asian relations she showed us how relevant she had been in working with China and the government, and even though the process is slow. She certainly has made progress and created a better situation for many people. One of her personal messages she shared with us was her belief in the importance of taking a gap year or some time off after school. She explained how important she thinks it is to disregard the pressure towards just getting any education or any job because there is a social pressure to do so, and rather take some time off to figure out what you really want to do. Because this is a choice about what you want to do in life and it is not something you can change with ease at any given time. This message really stuck with us, since this is something we all have been considering for a while, which we all are doing now. In addition to this we found it very meaningful that she used references to where we are from and also being very genuinely curious about us as individuals. She complimented us a lot and was very open and positive which created a great interviewing environment. After the interviews we all were really excited and happy, and it is safe to say we all regard her as a role model for everything she is doing and has done. In our honest opinion there was nothing that struck us to not be useful. First, looking at the fact that we had the chance to have an interview like this we regarded as a great experience in itself. As a student it is a valuable experience to interview and pick the brain of someone working in an area you are interested in so you can find out if this really is something you wish to pursue in life. Second, she inspired us with her persona, the things she has done, and opened our eyes up to some ideas we might not have thought of without this interview. The interview gave us the a lot of information because of our choice of making it unstructured and putting an emphasis on open ended questions. We wanted to create a candid atmosphere of conversation where she could express herself freely so we could get as much information as possible. Looking at the result we were definitely successful in this aspect of the interview, and got more information than we were expecting and that our questions demanded. However, it would be interesting to have gotten to know a little more about her experiences in the field. Kofi: There were many good in class presentations and with that we were able to see many interesting interviewees. In particular I believe it was important that we were able to see all the different images and stories each of the interviewees represented and interpreted, as well as how they all impacted US-Asian relations and the students that interviewed them. I really enjoyed the variety of the different women and how their impacts and interactions were very varied on the spectrum of US-Asian relations. Mailyn Morin Slater was interviewed by her granddaughter which I found really fascinating. It gave her story a personal touch and made it easier to relate to. Her personal experiences through her many journeys really reflected the importance of travelling and experiencing different cultures. It was interesting to hear how different her experiences in Japan was from her experiences in Afghanistan. In particular I found the importance of knowing a language before you go somewhere very relevant and interesting, as she had learnt Japanese before travelling to Kyoto which helped her in getting better relationships. As we have learnt through many instances in class where missionaries as well as other colonizing agents have trouble with the language barriers which in many cases complicates these complex relationships. I believe it is important to identify and understand the different barriers in order to be able to create the best circumstances for work and relationship building. In my opinion this is certainly relevant and important to learn in US-Asian relations as well as other relations. With Jane Larson I found it interesting how she had come so far without any higher education. It was inspiring to see how impactful her family had been on her journey and how she used these traits to create her path and �do what she believed in. Her way of documenting Chinese history and sharing it is in my opinion very effective and relevant. It is important that people dedicate themselves to their culture and take the time to document history before it disappears with the winds of time. The presentation about Jumaina Siddiqui I found particularly intriguing because of the way she utilized her background to moderate between the muslim and the “western” culture. This is an important area in which people know and understand both sides and have sufficient knowledge to teach other people. It is also important to travel to different places to create and encourage political involvement. Especially with her experience of the “western” world and how equality and democracy often times have come significantly further than in developing nations which she visited. Using her multiculturalism and understanding of the importance of equality, she empowered other people through showing them what she had experienced on her journey. As we spoke about and learnt in class that women often are subject to the patriarchy and the fundamental male dominant cultures that rule many nations in Asia. Women are seen as the caretakers and responsible for the business of the home. It was interesting to see how she worked on breaking the glass, and how she can use this to encourage and empower particularly women in developing nations. With the presentation on Hodei Sultan I really enjoyed hearing her inspiring story, and how she transitioned from a refugee and gained a position where she now is able to train and empower women in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was interesting to see how she was separated from her culture when she came to the United States, but later reunited with her identity after the occurrence of 9/11. I also found it interesting that she was so passionate about peacebuilding and conflict resolution, because this is something I am greatly passionate about as well. She seemed very intelligent in her methods, in particular I noticed the fact that she works on creating conversation in the unstable areas of Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, which I believe is essential in bettering the conflict situations, not only in that region, but in other regions around the world as well. I really enjoyed the experience of the interview, it was very valuable in my opinion. I felt all the class presentations reflected this value, and it was easy to see that our fellow peers also enjoyed the process and the project. I also found that throughout the presentations many of us had chosen the same format with an unstructured interview and several open ended questions in order to create a more flowing conversation and room for more information gathering, which I noticed was very successful for us as well as for other groups. The biggest message that I left with was the importance of taking the time to learn a language in order to open doors and breach cultural barriers. I firmly believe that the native people of a place will certainly respect and acknowledge you more if you have taken the time to acquire the knowledge of their culture and language. It reflects openness and interest for another culture than your own, and perhaps this is what is needed to create better dialogue between nations and people around the world. Yalda: All of the in-class presentations on the various impeccable women in U.S- Asian roles were very interesting. It was inspiring to see all the strong female occupations these women had. The first women that stood out to me was Hodei Sultan. She was relatable to me because she was from Afghanistan, like myself. I am very interested in learning more about U.S- Afghanistan relations and she does work in this field. As mentioned in class, she currently coordinates and provides oversight in the development and planning, financial management, and gender programming outreach for the Afghanistan and Pakistan program. Her goals and missions are something that I would very much like to pursue in the future and that is to educate, empower and train women from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Due to the many years of conflict in Afghanistan, a lot of Afghan women do not have a voice and I think it is extremely encouraging that she tries to create opportunities for their voice to be heard. The second women that I liked was Jumaina Siddique. She is a program officer for South Asia at the U.S institute of Peace. The reason why she sparked an interest for me was because of her strong U.S-Asian relations role. She worked on programs that focused on political party development, election observation and increasing the participation �of the young and women in the political process. The fact that she has tried to reform these situations in countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan takes a lot of guts. I say this because those countries in particular have had a long history of men and women being treated very differently, so I think it is great that she is trying to break the glass ceiling. I think she is a great example of bridging the gap also. All of the women were great but these two women really stood out to me. Lola: While I found all of the women to be influential in their own ways, I did have some favorites. I believe that Alice Young was one woman who really stood out. As a lawyer, I found her interesting because I am interested in going to law school. Alice Young is particularly important for US-Asian relations as she works hard to represent Asian Americans and works to make sure their voices are heard. She represents a link between the two cultures and as a lawyer, she has a platform in which she can directly help other people. I also found her inspiring as she promoted women to take part in government and politics. As a political science major, I think it is important for everyone to be able to understand how their governments work and to be able to take part in it. As an Asian American woman, I feel she is a perfect role model for the class. I also felt that as a woman, she is very inspiring for all that she has accomplished. � 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 Richardson, Sophie ; 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_srichardson_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 Khwaja, Yalda ; Osei-Tutu, Kofi R. ; Ashirmetov, Lola Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Sophie Richardson