Jennifer Lau

AMST 603: Cultural Approaches to American Studies

Spring 2004



Contact info:
jlau(at)union(dot)umd(dot)edu

Useful, Random and/or QuirkyLinks:
AMST 603 homepage
Critical Legal Studies is cool!
The L Word
Ricepaper Online: Asian [arts] Canadian [culture]

The University of British Columbia
BBC News: Special on Migration
Vancouver 2010: The Official Site of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games

IOCC: Impact of the Olympics on Community Coalition

AMST6xx: Un/Making Citizenship: A Critical Race Approach to the Asian American Experience
Syllabus
Wired Bibliography
Syllabus Bibliography

About Me:
Greetings and salutations. I am currently a 1st year master's student in the College Student Personnel Program at the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to arriving at UMCP, I was at The University of British Columbia where I earned an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in Race Relations and Chinese Migration. My past research has focused on the integration of the Chinese communities in Jamaica and British Guyana as well as queer Asian American and Asian Canadian youth. An overarching theme during my undergraduate career was the examination of the influence of the Chinese diaspora on national identity formation within Canadian civil and political society. Currently, I am interested in examining the intersection of collective memory, national myth-making and transmigration, specifically within the Asian American and Asian Canadian communities. These interests differ greatly from my current graduate program which has more of a professional focus in working specifically with college student development. Within that realm, I continue to be interested in the intersections between race, sexuality, socioeconomic class and labour: specific projects include college students who work in the sex trade to pay for their education as well as the applications of US-based racial identity development models to international students.

Having been born and raised in Vancouver, BC, Canada by rather proud capitalist Hong Kong immigrant parents, I somehow managed to develop a somewhat socialist, social justice-minded, left-y streak. Following my graduate work at UMCP, I plan to return to Canada to pursue a Bachelor of Laws with a focus on critical race theory, immigration law and civil liberties. If you're interested in what I want to do with the rest of my life, here's a random sampling of Jenn's dream jobs: Assistant Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage, Downtown Eastside Liaison for the 2010 Winter Olympics, or Governor-General of Canada...failing that, I'd settle for any sort of work where I could combine my love of politics, my passion for Canada, and my insistence on giving voice to the silent/ced. In any event, I hope to never work in the corporate arena.

When my head isn't stuck in the postmodernist clouds, I can be found on the ground pursuing more advocacy-related work as the Graduate Coordinator for Asian Pacific American Student Services in the Office of Campus Programs at UMCP. I co-teach EDCP 418a (Asian Pacific American Leadership), facilitate an Emergent Themes Intergroup Dialogue, and advise numerous Asian American student organizations. I have also worked at the Smithsonian Institution in the National Museum of American History with the Asian Pacific American Initiative Committee. Prior to arriving at Maryland, I was a teaching fellow at Northfield Mount Hermon Secondary School in Northfield, MA, USA, where I taught ESL, Cross-Cultural Communication and Literature & Psychology. Outside of academia, I am an avid traveller and freelance photographer. Small, quirky weddings are my specialty. Having only lived in the US for one year total, I can usually be found espousing the value of all things Canadian.


Copyright 2004
Last updated: March 31, 2004
University of Maryland, College Park