Other Academic Programs

Background image: Other Academic Programs

UC Berkeley's On the Same Page

A Year on Angel Island also linked to UC Berkeley’s On the Same Page program, in which the incoming class is invited to read the same book before arriving at Berkeley and to participate in programs and discussions. The 2022-23 book was INTERIOR CHINATOWN by Charles Yu

Key Event:

On the Same Page Presents – Interior Chinatown:

An Evening with Charles Yu and Philip Kan Gotanda

August 26, 7 – 8 pm

Hertz Concert Hall

Charles Yu in conversation with UC Berkeley faculty member Philip Kan Gotanda, Professor of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. Professor Gotanda has been a major influence in the broadening of our definition of theater in America. Through his plays and advocacy, he has been instrumental in bringing stories of Asians in the United States to mainstream American theater, as well as to Europe and Asia.

Undergraduate Immigration Project Prizes

Congratulations to the students awarded A Year on Angel Island’s Undergraduate Immigration Project Prizes! More than 35 courses in 16 departments across campus including Architecture, Ethnic Studies, History, Music, Legal Studies, and Theater, Dance and Performance Studies are affiliated with A Year on Angel Island. Students in those classes and beyond were invited to submit research papers, essays and creative projects related to our themes of migration, incarceration and belonging.

Student winners, judges, and mentors at the 3/17 luncheon

Student Winners

Research Prize:
Justin Garlepp

“Critique of OMCA’s Arrivals Exhibit: The Distinct Social History of Vietnamese Refugees”


Written for History 128AC, California, the West, and the World: From Gold and

Guano to Google and the New Gilded Age, Professor Mark Brilliant, Graduate

Student Instructor Zoe Silverman


In his research paper, Garlepp analyzed the way that an exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California on immigration failed to distinguish adequately between the orderly experience of many post-1965 immigrants with the traumatic, involuntary migrations of refugees like his family, who fled the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Garlepp is a junior majoring in bioengineering. Read the essay.

Personal Essay Prize:
Helina Li

“A World Without Borders”

Helina’s thoughtful, openhearted essay described the experiences of immigrating from Guangzhou at age six and her vivid childhood memories of learning English and of trying to maintain her Cantonese language and culture. Li is a first-year majoring in computer science and English. Read the essay. 

Creative Project Prize:
Miya Rosenthal

“Oral History of Yuriko Kamiya: A Year in Infamy”


Created for College Writing R4B: Images of History, Dr. Patricia Steenland


Rosenthal’s narrative video combined oral histories with photographs from the National Archives and other documentary materials to tell the story of her grandmother’s incarceration as a child during World War II. Like more than 120,000 other Japanese Americans, her grandmother was incarcerated due to race-based government policies. Rosenthal is a freshman planning to major in media studies. Read the artist’s statement and watch the documentary video.

Current Affairs Prize:
Mariana Garcia

“Title 42: Stories of Migrants in Search of the American Dream”


Created for CalTV


Garcia, a student journalist who carries her Canon EOS M50 camera wherever she goes, was on a trip to El Paso with her family when they encountered crowds of migrants who had just crossed the border. Garcia interviewed migrants from Venezuela about the hopes that fueled their arduous journey and produced a short video news story for CalTV. Garcia, the daughter of a Mexican immigrant, is a sophomore majoring in political science.


Read the artist’s statement and watch the documentary video.

Judges:

Shelby Kendrick, PhD student, Architecture (History, Theory, & Society) (Contest organizer)

Laura Belik, PhD candidate, Architecture (History, Theory, & Society)

Harvey Dong, Continuing Lecturer, Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies

Xander Lenc, PhD candidate, Geography

Luis Amaya Madrid, PhD student, Hispanic Languages and Literatures

Leila Mire, PhD student, Theater, Dance & Performance Studies

Susan Moffat, Creative Director, Future Histories Lab

Lisa Wymore, Professor, Theater, Dance & Performance Studies

Angel Island Immigrants

Academic Resources

A Year on Angel Island also provided curated academic resources for affiliated courses and public education.

Research Guides

UC Berkeley Library Guides:

Angel Island Immigration Station:

The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) preserves the rich stories of Pacific Coast immigrants and shares them through educational initiatives and public programs, including:

Archives and Finding Aids:

Asian/Pacific/American Archives Survey Project

This project surveys the collections of East Coast Asian / Pacific / American community-based organizations and individuals in the New York metropolitan area.

BAMPFA Study Centers

The Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)’s collections contain over 17,000 films and videos. Please note in-person viewings must be scheduled at least two weeks in advance. To search the collection, search the UC Berkeley Library website and limit your search to BAMPFA. See also BAMPFA’s digitized films at CineFiles.

Bracero History Archive

The Bracero History Archive holds oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero program, a guest worker initiative that spanned the years 1942-1964.

Calisphere

Calisphere is great for searching California archives for historical images. See also curated images by topic at their exhibitions page, including Japanese-American Internment, Hispanic-American Barrios, Migrant Workers and Braceros, and Chinese Exclusion Act.

DENSHO

DENSHO offers digitized archival resources, including oral histories, documents, and images, on Japanese American incarceration during WWII.

Chinese Exclusion Act Documents

This resource provides Chinese Exclusion Act Documents in chronological order.

Immigrant Voices

This is a digital archive of personal stories of immigration on Angel Island curated by AIISF.

Online Archive of California

Ideal for keyword searching and finding aids from repositories all over California.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) holds extensive records relating to immigrants from the late 1700s through the early 2000s. Use this page as a starting point.

NARA: Research Guides

NARA also offers many extensive research guides. For example: Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans.

UCLA Chicano Studies

The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center retains archives on the histories of Chicana/o and Latina/o communities. Holdings cover topics on mass incarceration, the National Chicano Moratorium, and much more.

See also “Primary Sources” tabs in the UC Berkeley Library research guides provided at the top of this page.

Detention Data and Statistics:

TRACImmigration

Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) offers a data hub with various reports on immigration-related detention, asylum, and court.

Global Detention Project

The Global Detention Project provides international statistics and country-specific reports on immigration detention.

ICE Annual Reports

The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the government organization responsible for enforcing immigration law. ICE produces annual reports relating to detention.

Freedom For Immigrants

Freedom for Immigrants is an advocacy organization addressing immigrant detention in the United States. They collect and provide detention statistics for research and advocacy purposes.

Recommended Readings:

  • Aarim-Heriot, Najia. Chinese Immigrants, African Americans, and Racial Anxiety in the United States, 1848-82. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006.

  • Ahmad, Diana L. The Opium Debate and Chinese Exclusion Laws in the Nineteenth Century American West. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2007.

  • Barde, Robert Eric. Immigration at the Golden Gate: Passenger Ships, Exclusion, and Angel Island. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008.

  • Ceniza Choy, Catherine. Asian American Histories of the United States. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2022.

  • Chen, Shehong. Being Chinese, Becoming Chinese American. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2006. 

  • _____. Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America, 1882-1943. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1991.

  • Daniels, Roger. Asian America: Chinese and Japanese in the United States since 1850. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1995. 

  • Egan, Charles. Voices of Angel Island: Inscriptions and Immigrant Poetry, 1910-1945. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic, Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2021.

  • Gyory, Andrew. Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.

  • Hing, Bill Ong. Making and Remaking Asian America through Immigration Policy, 1850-1990. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993.

  • Hsu, Madeline Y. Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home: Transnationalism and Migration Between the United States and South China, 1882-1943. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002.

  • Lai, H. Mark, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung. Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2014.

  • Lee, Erika and Judy Yung. Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012.

  • Lee, Erika. At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.

  • _____. The Making of Asian America: A History. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2016.

  • Ngai, Mae. The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of the Chinese American. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012.

  • Salyer, Lucy E. Laws Harsh as Tigers: Chinese Immigrants and the Shaping of Modern Immigration Law (Studies in Legal History). Second Edition. Chapel Hill, NC and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.

  • Takaki, Ronald. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian America. Boston, MA, New York, NY, and London: Back Bay Books, 1998.

  • Yung, Judy. The Chinese Exclusion Act and Angel Island: A Brief History with Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019.

Recommended Films:

Recommended Theater & Music:

  • Chin, Skyler and Sunil, Sita. Illegal.

  • Huang, Ruo. Angel Island–Oratorio for Voices and String Quartet.

  • Suh, Lloyd. The Far Country.

  • Huang, Jessica. The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin.

  • Lim, Jenny. Paper Angels.