Join us for a Free Panel Discussion!

Hosted by Women Make Movies

Co-sponsored by Asian Women United

April 22 at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET

According to a recent study by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at CSUSB, anti-Asian hate crimes increased 150% in the U.S. in 2020. The group Stop AAPI Hate reported 3,800 hate incidents against Asian-Americans nationwide between March 2020 and February 2021, and 68% of these were against women. Within this context, Women Make Movies and Asian Women United have organized a panel discussion about media representations of Asian and Asian-American women, objectification and fetishization of Asian women, and how independent film can help shift the narrative. Register for free.

We are also currently making the films SLAYING THE DRAGON and SLAYING THE DRAGON: RELOADED available for free through April 23, 2021. Watch here.

Panelists:

Cecilia Tran | Associate Director of Strategy Growth, Atlantic 57

Cecilia Tran leads Communications and Public Relations at Atlantic 57, a creative consultancy born of The Atlantic. Prior to this, she consulted with mission-driven companies to drive their content strategy. She believes that storytelling is a powerful tool for social change. Cecilia holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley in International Development Studies and has been a member of Asian Women United since 2012. 

Eunice Kwon | Director, Asian Pacific American Student Development, UC Berkeley

Eunice Kwon is the Director of Asian Pacific American Student Development at UC Berkeley. Previously, she was the COO and the Director of Community Engagement at the Sustainable Economies Law Center, an organization working towards a cooperative economy, and a Coro Fellow in San Francisco, where she worked with a range of organizations that included the Haas Sr. Foundation and the Bay Area Community College Consortium. She has previosly worked as communications consultant for progressive political campaigns and for labor organizations including the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance. She currently serves on the board of the Sustainable Economies Law Center and the Oakland Asian Cultural Center.

Evelyn Ibatan Rodriquez | Chair and Associate Professor of Sociology, University of San Francisco

Evelyn Ibatan Rodriguez is Chair and an Associate Professor for the University of San Francisco’s Department of Sociology, and is the only tenured Filipina at the University.  She has previously served as Director of USF’s Critical Diversity Studies and Asian Pacific American Studies programs, and serves its Philippine Studies program.  She was born in Honolulu, raised in San Diego, graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, San Diego; completed her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley; and studies and teaches about race, ethnicity, gender, immigration, and generation.  She is the author of Celebrating Debutantes and Quinceañeras: Coming of Age in American Ethnic Communities (Temple University 2013), and is the current President of the non-profit group Asian Women United.

Christine Chai | Instructor, ESL and Asian American Studies, De Anza College

Christine Chai is an instructor at De Anza College, where she teaches ESL and Asian American Studies. She is also currently a faculty for the AANAPISI grant-funded program, IMPACT AAPI (Initiatives  to Maximize Positive academic Achievement and Cultural Thriving), specifically serving and supporting Filipinx, Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander students. She is an active member of Asian Women United and is currently developing a podcast project with her AWU peers that center on the rich, diverse, and intergenerational perspectives and voices of Asian and Asian American women.

Kei Fischer | Chair, Ethnic Studies, Chabot College

Kei Fischer is currently the chair of the Ethnic Studies department at Chabot College in Hayward, CA. Born and raised in Japan to a Zainichi Korean mother and Russian-Jewish American father, Kei identifies as a mixed race woman of color. In 2008, Kei co-founded Eclipse Rising, a Bay Area-based community group dedicated to promoting the radical history of decolonization and transnational political engagement by Zainichi Koreans (or post-colonial Koreans based in Japan). Eclipse Rising has organized around various issues including peace and reunification in the Korean peninsula, disaster relief for “minority” communities in Japan after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, and justice for “Comfort Women,” the est. 200,000 – 1/2 million girls and women of Asia who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese military during WWII.