In partnership with the Asian American Initiative at Columbia University, the New York City Department of Education, Hunter College, and the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), a professional learning series named Hidden Voices was successfully launched on April 6. Based on the NYC Department of Education's guide Hidden Voices: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in United States History, this intensive three-day learning series was aimed to NYC public school teachers incorporating Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) histories into their curriculum,
The series, led by Columbia University Professors Mae Ngai and Manan Ahmed, and Hunter College Professor Vivian Louie, featured lectures in general history, law and citizenship, work and community, and arts and culture. Lecture topics included the evolution of citizenship and rights in America, Asian American legal history, arts and culture.
Teachers analyzed and discussed Chinese American diaspora primary sources, including oral histories and artifacts. A workshop led by artist Greg Pak demonstrated how to utilize comic books and graphic text as instructional tools to teach complex historical themes and civic engagement.
Hidden Voices concluded with collaborative lesson-planning workshops designed to translate scholarly insights into practical classroom applications. Participants identified the lectures and immersive museum tours as the most impactful elements of the three-day program. They overwhelmingly expressed feeling better equipped with strategies for connecting AAPI narratives with other minority histories, and requested that similar workshop sessions be offered within their schools, so as to reach many other educators in the NYC public schools.
