Asian Pacific Islander Middle Eastern American (APM) Research Project
Excavating Asian American History at W&M
Founded by Professors Francis Tanglao Aguas and Deenesh Sohoni during the centennial of Chen Pu-Kao's admission to William & Mary in 2021, the Asian Pacific Islander Middle Eastern American (APM) Research Project seeks to highlight the history and legacy of Asian, Pacific Islander and Middle Eastern/Muslim ancestry students, faculty, and staff at W&M.
The APM Research Project is an interdisciplinary, student-faculty-staff research collaboration that aims to excavate primary sources in order to explore the experiences of the earliest APM individuals at W&M, and to contextualize their lives within the racial and political climate of their times.
Undergraduate Research
This project provides W&M students research opportunities and training in order to conduct primary research with the objective of discovering the APM story at William & Mary, and how these local stories fit into broader state- and national-level narratives of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Community Engagement
We create and use a variety of forums—such as exhibits, documentary films, lecture series, public forums, —to expose Asian American histories and their contemporary relevance to a variety of audiences.
K-12 Asian American Student Education (KAASE) Initiative
The KAASE Initiative provides support for K-12 educators and the Virginia Department of Education in the development and teaching of Asian American curriculum at the K-12 level by working with the W&M School of Education to create lesson plans centered on primary sources from student archival research. This collaboration is particularly significant since K-12 students and teachers would have access to these histories as they are being uncovered by scholars. Content would include both national and local Asian American histories and would be made widely accessible.
