Shuyu Chen, Qian Zhang, Cheng Zhang, Ziqi Yin Group of screenprinting poster

One Page Research Paper

"Why Do Women Think They Are Fat When They Are Not?"
Women think they are overweight as they compare their body size to slim models used in the advertising industry. Thus, the purpose of the poster is to create awareness of how social media influences the perception of body image. Society thinks that thin women are more attractive and successful than their fat counterparts. Social media can contribute to negative self-image because individuals compare their bodies with pictures of slim women, which are posted online (Thompson par. 4). The poster will create awareness about the causes and effects of negative body image associated with weight in girls and women. Negative body image affects women in all age groups and may cause eating disorders, depression, low self-esteem, and isolation (Farrar par. 11). Therefore, the poster will remind women to control their perception of their body size. Likewise, women will learn how to reduce the effects of poor body image by focusing on the good qualities and accomplishments (Farrar par. 7). Moreover, it will help viewers to understand how images that are displayed on media influence their perception about their body images.
The poster will caution the audience to appreciate their body image without exaggerations that may lead to low self-esteem. The information will help the audience to overcome the problems associated with negative body image and encourage them to read more from self-esteem workbooks (Farrar par. 12). Besides, it will make viewers feel more comfortable and develop the urge to address insecurity while sharing images on the social media platform. Also, the viewers will learn about the adverse effects of negative body image on health and relationships. Likewise, viewers will understand that individuals post exaggerated images to attract attention rather than present reality.

Here are some sketches we did for our poster:

Works Cited
Farrar, Tabitha. Body Image Of Women. Mirror-Mirror, 2014, https://www.mirror-mirror.org/body-image-of-women.htm. Accessed 30 June 2019.
Thompson, Dennis. Too Much Social Media May Harm a Woman's Body Image. Medical Express, 2018, https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-05-social-media-woman-body-image.html. Accessed 30 June 2019.

Avinash Basu Week 2 SS1

Unpacking the Master Plan enlightened me to much of the phenemona which drove me into a state of confusion in my time in university. Coming from a relatively small high school, I was used to very involved faculty and close attention being paid to me; Missing classes meant a stern talking to from the teacher and all. In college I felt invisible; like a ghost haunting a campus. No one registered my presence I simply floated in and out of classes. And it seems this pattern would continue until someone stuck a graduation cap on me, my family comes to take pictures, I'm handed a diploma, and shunted out into an even stranger and more unfamiliar world none the wiser than when I came in.

I wondered if I was doing something wrong. Was there something wrong with me? Reading the article confirmed my burgeoning notions that not only was nothing wrong; this was intentional by design.

Always Searching. Never Finding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alNQ84K3y5Y

Vincent Serracino - Week 2 SS1

One important takeaway from week two’s reading was the idea of how higher education policy jargon affects the institution and students. For example, the notion that performance-based funding would not improve ethnic studies such as Asian American Studies showed me another side of education. In “Unpacking the Master’s Plan” by Eliza Noh, Noh describes how majors are rewarded for improvement even if “there are few, if any cases of successful implementation.” Coming from a different major, I thought about how the intended trajectories of some degrees lead programs to prioritize establishing their merit and ability rather than cranking out high scores. Ethnic studies such as ASA require awareness of issues by large amounts of people and intending to give resources based on a system that does not work for every major will limit the visibility of the major to new students. 

Further discussed jargon encouraged me to make associations with terminology more often expected in corporate dialogue than in an institution for higher learning. I was waiting to learn about new “business” terminology after a while.

Question: Is there a way to get a company discount for college tuition?

Sources:
Noh, E. (n.d.). "Unpacking the Master's Plan". Retrieved from https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/392140/files/folder/Weekly Readings/Week2?preview=6318932

Image Source:            
Overman, S. (n.d.). Fighting the Stress of Teaching to the Test. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/tools/fighting-stress-teaching-to-Test.html

Avinash Basu Week 1 001 SS1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9DQINKZxWE

When I read Waking by Wang Ping this week I was taken aback by the sheer insensitivity of her colleagues in the wake of her lawsuit. No person should ever be blacklisted by their surroundings as it does tremendous damage to their social and mental wellbeing. This leads to an extreme negative state of mind that becomes very difficult to escape. Fear is like mud and without friends or social support it is very easy to be stuck sinking deeper into that fear.

A coping strategy I have and that I see seeds of in Ms. Ping's writing is that of believing they do not deserve what is happening to them or as I always say; "we are better than our circumstances".
Of particular resonance to me is how she described how her biologist colleague was intimately concerned about the ethics of animal experiments and animal rights therein yet her hand stayed when it came to her own colleague, an animal in her own right. It reminds me of some lyrics from a Hindi song from my adolescence.

"O Eco Friendly
Nature ke Rakshak
Mein Bhi Hoon Nature
rivaajon se
samajoon se
kyun
tu kaate mujhe
kyun baante mujhe is tarah"

'O Eco Friendly
Savior of Nature
I am Nature too
From Customs
From Societies
Why
Do you cut me off?
Why do you scatter me in pieces?'

Noah Shepherd-Week 2-SS1

“Attack of the Institution” is the best fitting name for this week’s readings. I had some thoughts going into this week’s readings thinking that it would not be such a big deal, being that the university is a business and those who cannot perform at the standards of the university should justifiably be removed. However, when learning of the injustices performed by universities against women of color, especially Asian women and Asian American women it is just wrong. First and foremost on a business standpoint it is best when all the employees of that business are happy and treated fairly because if not; problems will ensue and quality of work will go down. When I was reading Injustice against Women of Color in Academy, I was shocked to find out that some academies and universities were not following their own rules and regulations. The fact that they were going out of their way to change the rules to get themselves out of trouble is really disturbing. Again, it is understandable that a business needs to get rid of unproductive people but when the university/academy is making it so that the people of productivity it hires are lied to and used; there is no justification for termination. When the establishment receives praise because of the people working for the university, the university should take that into account when those people are due for promotion. The responsibility of a business is to perform smart, this entails taking care of the employees at that establishment because those employees are a needed investment to that business, therefore the business should not make the employee feel as if they are not welcome or taken care of. This means ALL employees, it would be unwise for a business to not take care of its employees. To read in the Killing Machine, due to a lack of acceptance from academies and universities of women of color especially Asian/Asian Americans leading to major health problems is very concerning. This goes against something a business, and even more so, a university should be doing to a major positive investment, or in a more realistic view; doing to a person. To push a person to the point of death is a place that needs to be reevaluated and investigated.     

Kirchner, Self-Portrait as a Soldier (1915)

A question that I have is how has this topic not entered the most popular forms of media in the world by now? If people are dying I believe it is something that should be known by the masses. When I read this week’s readings I thought of a painting by a German citizen in the time of WW2. I thought of this artist (Ernst Ludwig Kirchner) because when Hitler came to power Kirchner was labeled a degenerate artist because of his expressionist style. He later killed himself in 1938 due to the injustice he received. These two topics of academy and WW2 Germany are different, but the same in the fact if people feel like they are not appreciated and their life work is not appreciated and suppressed, later to be discriminated against; they will feel alone. This leading to the possibility of death.

---

References 

“Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 May 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Ludwig_Kirchner.

“Injustice against Women of Color in the Academy.” UC Davis Canvas Discovery, canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/392140/files/folder/Weekly%20Readings/Week2?preview=6318931.

“Killing Machine .” UC Davis Canvas Discovery, canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/392140/files/folder/Weekly%20Readings/Week2?preview=6318930.

Ziqi Yin: Week Two readings for ASA 002

In the article Investigating Discrimination: Injustice Against Women of Color in the Academy, Cross et al. have conducted the study in the University of South Carolina in order to explore the tendencies of career development in white academic employees, ones of color and Asian American females as a separate category. I liked the study because its statistics is evidence for institutionalized racism as well as the entire ‘blackbox’ tenure procedure.

I found the results of the study shocking. The authors have estimated that ‘92% were awarded tenure’ at the university in comparison to ‘55% of female and minority faculty members’ (100). I understand that the authors have aimed to explore how exactly racism is constructed in the tenure process. However, I believe that the main issue is its closed procedure. Additionally, no explanations are provided to the participants, yet allowing racism to happen.

I found it also interesting that racism occurs more often among the senior administration representatives. In case of grievance, as the example showed, the grievance is sent to the president who in the exemplary case defended the tenure deniers, yet showing racist behavior. I also consider it helpful that the authors provided an additional reading, which is the media source called the Chronicle of Higher Education, at the end of the Conclusion.

Conclusively, I liked the article because it provides significant evidence about racism in academic surroundings. I have always thought that in academic surroundings, racism is least likely to happen; therefore, the article findings changed my perception of the university world. I also found it important that the authors tell the audience that making the information about racism public contributes to the solution of the problem.

 Work Cited

Cross, David et al. “ Investigating Discrimination: Injustice Against Women of Color in the Academy.” Class Readings, 2019, pp. 96–109.

Ziqi Yin: Week One readings for ASA 002

“The Time To Fight Is Now: Asian American Women, Academia’s Socially Engineered ‘Privileged Oppressed’” Caroline Valverde and Wei Ming
Asian American women face racial and sexual stereotypes in higher education, and social engineering in society is to blame for the vice. Nonetheless, the issue can be overcome by understanding the origin and motive of reverse social engineering. Besides, most people hardly notice the oppression because activists’ media portray African Americans as the only oppressed minority group in academic hierarchies of power. Likewise, society falsely positions Asian American women between the dominant and minority groups in the country – discrimination can hinder the development of a society. Thus, the authors remind us not to ignore the oppression of Asian Americans in higher education. Racism and sexism also discourage Asian American women from pursuing higher education due to the unfavorable learning environment.
Consequently, the intersectional sexism and racism undermine the efforts to end the oppression of the group. Interestingly, the authors urge society to address racial and sexual challenges that face Asian American women in institutions of higher learning. Still, the education system is partly to blame for social engineering. For example, elite institutions developed socially engineered ideas to control Asian American women in higher education. Moreover, socially engineered ideas have no scientific evidence about a particular social group. Therefore, the misinformation in the country’s educational system causes the vice. Nevertheless, the institutions of higher learning can address the issue by embracing diversity and inclusion in all policies and practices. Furthermore, higher education leaders should consider the interests of minority groups in organizational culture and encourage staff and students to promote equality. Asian American women should also empower themselves and demand fair treatment. Besides, they need to come together to promote social justice in institutions of higher learning.

Qian Zhang: Week Two Readings for ASA 002

The given research explores the working conditions in the academic institutional culture and presents Asian American women as the most oppresses group in academic circles. The article gives an extensive explanation of reasons why Asian American women suffer from stress and die earlier than their white male and female colleagues. The article has a humorous nature but provides many reasons to attract the public's attention to the situation with working conditions in academic circles.              
The humorous nature of the article becomes visible when focusing on certain details: there are no personal names of scholars used, and the provided statistics lack accuracy and reliability. The examples of discrimination are too extreme to happen in the 21st century United States, taking into account the work against discrimination and laws prohibiting it. For example, the article states that students “consequently have begun to treat professors more as service providers instead of educators; this is particularly true for those professors who are already perceived by their race and gender to be of the servant class." This statement has been included in the paper as a personal opinion of some person, which is not a valid source for research because it cannot reflect the real situation objectively and with relevant proofs. However, the paper does a wonderful job attracting attention to the working conditions of scholars, since academic work is indeed stressful not only for Asian American women but generally for all workers due to the great workload, stress, burnouts, and financial vulnerability.     
The given paper is a wonderful piece of reading that at first sight looks like serious research, but soon, the provided arguments start to look suspicious. The paper is a perfect example that it is necessary to check the validity of a source and not treat all scholarly papers as reliable sources of information. This is a rather ironic text about current difficulties among academic staff that attracts attention to their indeed stressful working conditions. 

Qian Zhang: Week One Readings for ASA 002

In the article Taking Action: Asian American Faculty against Injustices in the Academy, Shirley Hune discusses the racist situation which Asian Americans as a ‘model minority’ experience. The research mostly focuses on the experience of Asian American females in the 1970s’ academic surroundings. I consider the article to be a remarkable academic work because it enlightens the reader about a ‘model minority’ approach and intersectional racism, which I think is among the most significant social issues nowadays.

In my opinion, providing the historical aspect to the reader, namely the comparison of various historical periods of racism for males and females of Asian American origin is a well-structured and educating aspect of the article. For instance, I found it outrageous that the American government attempted to significantly restrict the immigration law for Asian people in the 1940s (5). I also liked the way the article discussed racism from the legislative perspective, proving that racism against Asian Americans is an institutionalized reality.

However, the most compelling facts about the article is its discussion about the way racism complicated in modern days. For instance, the creation of ‘model minority’ is the opposite idea to traditional racism, but, nonetheless, such idea shows the governmental neglect regarding the Asian American minority. Another modern complication is intersectional racism which means that in comparison to Asian American males or white women, Asian American females have to fight both against sexism and racism simultaneously.

Conclusively, I found the article informative. The way the author focused on the disadvantages of the ‘model minority’ approach and intersectional racism which Asian American females face nowadays is persuasive and reasonable. Also, the article made me think about the way the government creates positive narratives to change the perception of a particular problem among the citizens, namely the issues which Asian Americans face in a result of the ‘model minority’ approach.

 Work Cited

Hune, Shirley. “Taking Action: Asian American Faculty against Injustices in the Academy.” Class Readings, 2019, pp. 1–30.

Vincent Serracino - Week 1 SS1

The poem "Waking" by W.P. immediately demands your attention to the surreal cruelty in their life and in the world we are a part of. Upon reading the first stanza I thought that sudden rodent murder was a bizarre but effective device to grab my attention. It made me wonder about how what was coming next would connect back to this poor mouse and oh it did. 

I had no context on my first couple of read-throughs, but I could feel how W.P. must have been torn apart and suffered in ways I could only begin to imagine. Like the mouse, they were deeply betrayed and discarded. 

I noticed in the parallel they drew between the mice’s death and their being “Flung against [a] wall of conscience”(W.P.) that there was more than a connection about being disposed of but an underlying feeling of anger by the author. Their chain of questions for their betrayer and the multiple defenses of their humanity feel righteously accusatory and demanding justice. Their asking how their betrayer “keep[s] the same as [they] watch” W.P. brings to mind how people speak when invoking their own wrath over others.  

They feel anger for being seen as discardable and a target when they were clearly a long respected member amongst their colleagues. This realization of suddenly being an outsider to the revelation that you were always seen as some kind of other reminds me of a hallmark in the discrimination against Asian Americans. Without knowing the whole context, I could see how W.P. woke up to the racial prejudice around them, cleverly making self reference as a “ yellow-faced colleague,” connecting the fear they felt with the outward racial associations that people projected onto them. W.P. has clearly awoken, but will their betrayer?

Q: What happened to the people that W.P. was helping?

Sources: 

P, W. (n.d.). "Waking". Retrieved from https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/392140/files/folder/Weekly Readings/Week1?preview=6305117

Image Source:

Crowder, S. B. (2015, March 24). "To Be Unaccepted". Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2015/03/24/essay-being-denied-tenure

Xinmeng Yang - Week2 SS1

  In this weeks’ poem reading “who killed Soek-Fang Sim?”, it is obvious that unfair treatment Sim uffered in college killed her mentally. This connects to this weeks’ theme that discrimination in academic field is still a severe issue, and fair in academia still hasn’t achieved. I don’t know whether Asian professors in UC Davis are still suffering from discrimination like Sim, but as an Asian student in American college, I have felt discriminated from one professor here. I asked discriminating center and mental health consulting for help, but it didn’t work. School didn’t allow me to drop that class because what I suffered was not defined as “discrimination” according to their definition, no matter how suffered I was. I was confused, since the group of people who suffered from discrimination were minorities, but the definition of discrimination was set by majority of the population, who may not have suffered from discrimination before. Then how they would know what being discriminated feel like?

  United States is a country which labelled as “a melting pot”, but it is still a society lead by white, which is the majority group of this country. Conformity is a common characteristic in a society, and people who are not following the majority will be somewhat excluded. I think this explains why discrimination occurs – majority group of this society push out people with different appearance, different culture, or different language, because of conformity. This makes Asian scholars hard to reach academic respect in United States. As globalization processing, I think Asians will gain more respect in the future.

Question: Sim was already a award-winning professor, why she was still affected by rumors spread among students? How does students' comments affect a professor from minority group? 

Reference:

W.P (2019) Who killed Soek-Fang Sim? 

Image: https://www.memesmonkey.com/topic/racist+asian#&gid=1&pid=6

Andrew Stephanus Week 2 SS1

Reading the poem "Who Killed Soek-Fang Sim?" brought me back to when I first went to United States for college. Months before I got up to the plane, all I did was trying to calm myself and make myself believe that I would be accepted to the American culture. Negative thoughts described on the poem entered my mind, what if my accent is funny, what if I'm not ready, what if they discriminate me. I did my best during college to put my head down and work as much on my own because of the fear of working with other people that is "better" than me because they're Americans. Fast forward to when I transferred to Davis as a junior. I thought a big research university with high Asian population would be a great fit for me. I still remember one particular class where I was paired with a group for the whole quarter, one Asian american, and I am not sure the ethnicity of the other person. I realized that in order to excel here I have to become more active and speak up. I became more active in group discussion and I put forward all the ideas that I came up with. My Professor thought my ideas were very good and original but yet my group never listened to me or kept finding ways to prove that my ideas were not as good as theirs. They kept me out of all the planning and work to minimize the impact I had to the group, it got to a point where I cant even help them because they did all of the work without me. At the end of the quarter, they gave me a bad evaluation because I was not active enough, and I did not put much effort to the group. Because of this I kept thinking on what I can do besides worry and blame myself. This is a great poem because a lot of mix race, international students could relate to their personal experience. I also think that it is ridiculous how the college could take away almost all of the salary of a faculty member. And how could this happen?
Question: As a student, what can I do when I face situation like this in the future? I refuse to stay idle like last time.

Reference:
weekly reading 2 (Poem by W.P)
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/35q0nu

Christine Lee - SS1 - Week 1

In the poem, Waking by W.P, it is about Asian American women being mistreated in her workplace. At first, when I first read this poem, it led me to think that the professor flung the rat and the rat splattered across the room. With the graphic images, I could feel the disgusting guts flying everywhere. However, after reading the narrative and understanding the backstory of this incident, it made my heart drop. This poem is metaphorically implying that the rat was her. W.P. wrote this poem to tell students the responsibility for animal rights as a scientist. Yet, it is also to identify the rough work life battle in academia.

She claimed, “ I wonder if she ever sees us, women of color, flung and splattered against the wall of academia, by the pale hands of the masters and mistresses.” This ending sentence drew me to think about all the other Asian American women mistreated in academia. It's been known in history that women in color are mistreated, but I don't think that Asian American women’s mistreatment and discrimination is pronounced enough for the public to hear our voices. The idea of Asian American women are easy targets to pick on because they are not vocal, and claim their needs and wants. Just like a lab rat, being tossed around, Asian American women would be taken advantage of.

Question: Did W.P. not speak up for herself to present since it was a co-presentation in the first place?

Sources:
Andris A. ZoltnersPK SinhaSally E. Lorimer. (2018, April 17). Sales Bonuses Are Supposed to Motivate, So Don't Waste Them on Easy Targets. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/09/sales-bonuses-are-supposed-to-motivate-so-dont-waste-them-on-easy-targets

Max Li - Week 2 SS1

    In "Unpacking the Master's Plan: Asian American Women Resisting the Language of Academic Imperialism", Eliza Noh analyzes in depth the discourse used by corporations and administration to justify encroachment upon public and liberal education. "Academic imperialism" itself is an intriguing concept, and is necessary for the introduction of corporatization. The once faculty-dominated university is now filled with administrative staff who make decisions without understanding the functionings of these departments, and often do not speak for the faculty. Rather than focusing on the quality of students' educations, they tend to focus on profitability and neoliberal notions of efficiency. Terms such as "student success", "excellence", and "accountability" are turned on their heads, being used as arbitrary standards for measuring the worth of certain departments. STEM departments have quantifiable success that are often valued more by the administrators, while ethnic studies departments are deemed ineffective as they "have intangible and holistic learning goals that cannot be directly assessed." (Noh 2019) This discourse justifies attacks from the administration, often in the form of defunding and faculty cuts. While universities pride themselves on valuing "diversity", it is ironic that they have turned against the faculty who best embody those notions of equity and justice. Furthermore, these administrative attacks are symptomatic of attacks on "public education's democratizing influence on American society." (Noh 2019) If students cannot be educated about the way their identities shape American politics and vice versa, how can they be informed citizens within a participatory democracy?

    Although they are consistently scrutinized, Asian American women and other faculty within ethnic studies departments are not powerless against corporatization and administrations who threaten their existence. Eliza Noh calls for faculty members to "use the master's tools to dismantle the master's house." (Noh 2019) Discourse co-opted by corporatism, such as "diversity" can be used against its encroachment upon ethnic studies departments. However, though these strategies can be temporarily effective, I believe they are ultimately defensive and ineffective in the long term. The more important acts of resistance must occur from outside of the academy, as said in the original Audre Lorder quote, and as called for by the author at the end of this chapter.

  

Question: How can we as students fight against this corporatization of the university? Or, at the very least, not be complacent in its imperialistic encroachment of our education?

Sources: Noh, E. (2019) Unpacking the Master's Plan: Asian American Women Resisting the                    Language of Academic Imperialism
Image retrieved from: 
1) http://thetalon.ca/gupta-and-the-state-of-transparency-and-democracy-at-ubc/
2) https://philosophersforchange.org/2013/11/12/public-intellectuals-against-the-neoliberal-university/

Cheng Zhang-week2-SS1

Cheng Zhang
ASA 002
Week 2 Blog
6/30/2019

Asian American Faculty

There are lots of Asian American work in the university, and they don’t get equal treat as others. From the article “Exposing the Health Threats to Asian American Women Scholars in Academia” by Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde, Cara Maffini Pham and Melody Yee Jing Mai. The article sites that “An Asian American woman began her first week as an assistant professor by settling into her office when a stranger from the lab across the hallway asked if that was her room” it shows that people may only think Asian American women can only do easy work and being an assistant professor seems like a joke. That is just not right, everyone could be professor if he/she work hard enough, it’s meant to judge them by their look and ignore their great efforts. I really want to ask a question to the people who look down on Asian American women: Do you feel happy when someone say to you that you look too clumsy to be successful in your career? 

Reference section 

Article, Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde, Cara Maffini Pham and Melody Yee Jing Mai. “Exposing the Health Threats to Asian American Women Scholars in Academia”.

Image, https://www.google.com/search?q=asian+american+woman+teacher+treat+unequal&hl=zh-CN&prmd=inv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj1le3FuZLjAhVDZ80KHdX3BlMQ_AUoAXoECAwQAQ&biw=768&bih=915#imgrc=43V2SyV8BTW0dM