Aaron Tam A01 Week 6

BLOG

For this weeks blog I will be covering the reading from Akiko Takeyama, titled "Opening the Box: An International Asian Woman Scholar's Fight." This story was very similar to one I read previously in this class, which depicted the personal account of my own professor. Professor Valverde's story on a very similar topic involved many of the same ideals as well as the same struggles for equality as an asian American female in academia. This story by Akiko Takeyama depicts her struggle and adversity that she faces in attempting to obtain tenure. She experienced a lot of adversity on the road to obtaining tenure such as anxiety and other issues. Anxiety in regards to tenure is the very reason that Professor Valverde was hospitalized. In the end, both women ended up gaining tenure. Their stories about their challenges and struggles along the way revealed a lot about the system of academia however. There is an overarching theme in both stories that articulate a struggle of asian American women in academia while attempting to obtain tenure. This shows that universities and academia as a whole are not accepting of asian Americans, particularly those of female origins. The fact that this is even an overarching theme reveals a lot about how the system fails to account for minorities. I think more awareness needs to be brought to this topic, which is the very reason that the professor constructed this book. All aspects of ideals I learned from this class are interrelated and can be put together, such as shared stories of the inequality theme present, as well as how activism can play a role in changing these ideals set forth by academia.

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REFERENCES

Valverde, Kieu-Linh Caroline, and Wei Ming Dariotis. Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars' Resistance and Renewal in the Academy. Rutgers University Press, 2020.

Valverde, Kieu-Linh Caroline, and Wei Ming Dariotis. “Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars' Resistance and Renewal in the Academy.” Amazon, Rutgers University Press, 2020, www.amazon.com/Fight-Tower-American-Scholars-Resistance/dp/1978806361.