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Lauren Markle
Lauren Markles’ childhood memories of O’ahu are free from discrimination or prejudice. When she moved to Oregon for college, everything changed. The Pearl City native of Taiwanese, Japanese and Knaka Maoli (native Hawaiian) descent has experienced several episodes of anti-Asian racism in Portland, an unfortunate awakening.
Markle was emotionally shaken after a stranger yelled at him a wave of vulgar racist slurs on the town train.
“He called me a ‘fuck jap’ and ‘fuck’ while telling me to ‘go back to my country’ and threatening to hurt me physically,” exclaimed Markle. “I cried in the Chinese Garden Gift Shop that morning.”
Markle witnessed another incident in her art class when classmates openly made fun of their teachers’ Korean accent. These cases sparked her interest in teaching Asian studies and earning a master’s degree at the University of Hawaii in Mnoa this fall.
“There are a lot of people who have micro-aggressively committed out of ignorance rather than meanness,” Markle said. “I believe part of the solution to this is to have more exposure to diverse people and their cultures.”
Generate interest in Asian studies Young-A Park
Enrollment has almost doubled in the Masters of Asian International Affairs (MAIA) program at the Asian Studies Department at UH Mnoas over the past year. MAIA is one of the department’s two graduate programs and is aimed at students whose prospects for career advancement would be enhanced by an understanding of Asia.
“MAIA students will have many opportunities to collaborate, under the supervision of a UH Mnoa faculty member, with government, research or non-profit organizations as they work to solve a problem. or a carefully defined real-world problem, ”said Young-A Park, associate professor and chair of the Asian Studies department’s graduate program.
Asian Studies at UH Mnoa currently collaborates with the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, the Pacific Forum, the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance and the Berkeley APEC Study Center.
In June, Markle will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business administration before transferring to the Mnoa campus. Currently, Markle helps sell creative works by Asian artists in order to raise funds for organizations focused on Asia from an online publishing forum she helped create.
More information on graduate programs in Asian studies.
This program is an example of the UH Mnoas goal of improving student achievement (PDF), one of the four goals identified in the 2015-25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.
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