The Yoonmee Chang Memorial Lecture host a distinguished speaker annually in honor of her memory and her work.
Yoonmee Chang (November 2, 1970 – January 18, 2018) was born in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up in New York. She received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003 with a specialization in Asian American diasporic literature and culture. As a graduate student at Penn, she was an instrumental leader in the founding of the Asian American Studies Program. Yoonmee, author of the critically acclaimed book, Writing the Ghetto: Class, Authorship, and the Asian American Ethnic Enclave, taught at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana before becoming an Associate Professor at George Mason University from 2005 until her death in 2018.
The Yoonmee Chang Memorial Lecture 2020-21
Oct 27, 2020 at 5:00pm
Speaker: Dr. Karen Su, Clinical Assistant Professor of Global Asian Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)
Title: Kids Know More About Dinosaurs Than About Asian Americans: Why We Need More Asian American Children’s Books
Synopsis: The talk focuses on the representation of Asian Americans in children’s books past and present and the importance of movements to diversify U.S. children’s literature. Karen Su will also touch on her own process of becoming a children’s book creator and reflect on the stakes of Asian American arts and creativity.