The UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center (AASC) plans to develop an online, open-access “AAPI Multimedia Textbook,” after receiving $10 million in state funds.
According to The Rafu Shimpo, the free multimedia learning materials will focus on the histories, struggles, cultures and contributions of AAPI communities in the U.S. It will also cover over 200 years of AAPI history.
The “AAPI Multimedia Textbook” will use visual, audio and archival artifacts in chapters that can be customized for one class period or lengthened to a whole week. The materials will be written for high school and college students.
The multimedia textbook will be unique for its collaboration with members of the AAPI community from across the U.S.
“The textbook will be the most comprehensive, scholar-informed, online history of AAPIs that redefines the American narrative and opens unlimited possibilities for building a just, multiracial and democratic future,” AASC Helen and Morgan Chu Endowed Director Karen Umemoto said to Rafu Shimpo.
California Assembly Member Mike Fong told Rafu Shimpo of his gratitude for the project. With the increase of anti-AAPI hate crimes, Fong connected it to a lack of understanding and appreciation of the AAPI community’s contributions to the state and nation.
Erika Lee from the Organization of American Historians’s supported the importance of having AAPI history in the classroom in a recent essay.
“The absence of Asian American history in our classrooms has serious consequences, including laying the foundations for ignorance, hate, and violence,” Lee wrote. “Stereotypes of Asian Americans as spies, terrorists, unassimilable foreigners, or model minorities dominate the ways in which entire communities are viewed and understood.”
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