2022 Approximate Schedule
(Subject to change)
Please note the following:
– specific details of this schedule may change between now and the start of the institute;
– reading should be done for the day on which it will be discussed;
– it is expected that summer scholars will attend all of the events listed below.
DAY ONE
Sunday, July 24: Welcome
5:00 pm: Welcome reception hosted by institute facilitators and faculty: Matthew Spangler (Institute Director), Glen Gendzel, Sara Zatz, Ping Chong, Noah Novogrodsky, and Maria Judnick. Location TBD.
6:00 pm: Dinner provided by San José State University at Farmers Union Restaurant
Primary Reading: “Just the Facts: Immigrants in California”
DAY TWO
Monday, July 25: Literary and Historical Overviews of Immigration to California
9:00 am: Welcome Lecture, led by Dr. Matthew Spangler (Professor of Performance Studies, SJSU). Introduction to the institute’s three organizing themes: (1) using literature to understand history, (2) the representation of family, and (3) the representation of gender within immigrant communities. Including welcome exercise, led by Sara Zatz (Institute Resident Faculty and Associate Director Ping Chong + Company).
9:30 am: Storytelling and Immigration, led by Noah Novogrodsky (Professor of Law and Ethics, University of Wyoming College of Law)
10:00 am: Writing about Immigration, led by Ping Chong (Obie Award Winner and National Medal of the Arts Recipient)
- Primary Reading: Ping Chong and Company Website
11:00 am: Break
11:15: Overview of Immigration to California, led by Dr. Glen Gendzel (Professor of History and Department Chair, SJSU)
- Primary Reading: Manuel Pastor, Rachel Rosner, and Jennifer Tran, “Out of Many, One: Collaborating for Immigrant Integration in San Jose,” in John Mollenkopf and Manuel Pastor, eds., Unsettled Americans: Metropolitan Context and Civil Leadership for Immigrant Integration (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2016).
- Primary Reading: Omar Valerio-Jimenez, “Race and Immigration in the Nineteenth Century,” in A Companion to California History (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2008).
- Primary Reading: Kevin Allen Leonard, “Making Multiculturalism: Immigration, Race and the Twentieth Century,” in A Companion to California History (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2008).
- Primary Reading: Bill Ong Hing, “Immigration and Race in the Twenty-First Century,” in A Companion to California History (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2008).
12:15 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm: Discussion: Working with Students and Immigrant Communities, led by Ping Chong and Sara Zatz
- Primary Reading: “Methodology” from Ping Chong’s Undesirable Elements (New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2012).
3:30 pm: Break
4:00 pm: Discussion on Iranian Immigration to California, led by Dr. Persis Karim (Director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, San Francisco State University) and Dr. Jasmin Darznik (Associate Professor of Creative Writing, California College of the Arts).
- Primary Reading: Jasmin Darznik, “Masquerade” (Washington Post, Oct 28, 2007).
- Primary Viewing: The Dawn is Too Far: Stories of Iranian-American Life by Persis Karim and Soumyaa Behrens (movie trailer, 4 min.)
- Primary Reading: Seven Poems from A World Between: Poems, Short Stories, and Essays by Iranian Americans, edited by Persis Karim (1999).
- Primary Reading: “Introduction: Iranian Diaspora” by Babak Elahi and Persis Karim in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011).
- Supplementary Reading: “The Landscape” by Tara Bahrampour in To See and See Again: Life in Iran and America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).
5:30 pm: Break
7:00 pm: Performance of Jasmin Darznik’s short story “Masquerade” (20 min.), discussion to follow.
DAY THREE
Tuesday, July 26: Immigration from Mexico and Migrant Agricultural Workers in California
9:00 am: A History of Mexican Immigration to California, led by Dr. Alberto Garcia (Assistant Professor of History, San José State University)
- Primary Reading: Kelly Lytle Hernandez, “Mexican Immigration to the United States,” OAH Magazine of History, October 2009.
- Primary Reading: Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Mexican Immigration to the United States, 1900 – 1999: A Unit of Study for Grades 7-12 (The National Center for History in the Schools, Fall 2002).
- Primary Reading: “The Border” from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion (2021).
10:30 am: Break
10:45 am: Small Group Discussions of Francisco Jiménez’s The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child, and Readings Above, led by Garcia, Judnick, and Spangler
- Primary Reading: Francisco Jiménez, The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997).
12:00 pm: Lunch
2:00 pm: Walking tour of downtown San José, led by Dr. Gendzel. Meet in Lobby of Westin Hotel.
The San Jose walking tour introduces participants to downtown San José sites relevant to the rich history of immigration in America’s tenth largest city. The tour begins at the former location of San Jose’s “Chinatown,” destroyed by fire in 1887, and includes the Ernest Galarza Memorial, César Chávez Plaza, the Alcantara Building (founded by a French immigrant), the Bank of America building (founded by the son of Italian immigrants), and the site of the former Hart Department Store (founded by German Jewish immigrants). The tour ends at the Peralta Adobe, the oldest house in San José, where Spanish immigrant Luís María Peralta lived in the early nineteenth century.
- Primary Reading: Shoshi Parks, “The Fairmont Hotel Was Built on the Arson-Ravaged Ruins of San José’s Chinatown,” SF Gate, May 30, 2021.
4:30 pm: Tour ends at the San Pedro Square Market. Optional happy hour and/or dinner with many choices available.”
Viewings for Wednesday:
“This is Us – Luis Valdez” (10 min.)
“SJSU Interview with Luis Valdez” (4 min.)
Evening free
DAY FOUR
Wednesday, July 27: European Colonization of California / The Work of El Teatro Campesino
8:00 am: Travel to San Juan Bautista (by passenger van)
9:30 am: An Introduction to the Spanish Missions, led by Dr. Gendzel
- Primary Reading: Damon Akins and William Bauer, “Our Country Before the Fernandino Arrived was a Forest,” in We Are the Land: A History of Native California, Berkeley: UC Berkeley Press, 2021.
- Primary Reading: Indian Resistance to the California Missions.
10:00 am: Tour of San Juan Bautista Mission
12:00 pm: Lunch in San Juan Bautista Historic District
1:30 pm: History of El Teatro Campesino, Discussion with Luis Valdez (Playwright and Founder of El Teatro Campesino)
- Primary Reading: Luis Valdez, Zoot Suit (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1992)
- Primary Viewing: “A Look Inside Valley of the Heart,” Center Theatre Group, Part 1 (2 min)
- Primary Viewing: “A Look Inside Valley of the Heart,” Center Theatre Group, Part 2 (3 min)
3:30 pm: Break
4:00 pm: Tour of El Teatro Campesino with Kinan Valdez (Artistic Director El Teatro Campesino)
4:45 pm: Break
5:00 pm: Return to San José
Evening Free
DAY FIVE
Thursday, July 28: Immigration from Asia to California since 1850
9:00 am: Immigration to California from East Asia, discussion with Dr. Yvonne Kwan (Assistant Professor in Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, San José State University)
Primary Reading: From Erika Lee’s The Making of Asian America: A History (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015):
- “Chinese Immigration in Search of Gold Mountain” (Chapter Three)
- “‘The Chinese Must Go!’: The Anti-Chinese Movement” (Chapter Four)
- “Making a New Asian American Through Immigration and Activism” (Chapter Thirteen)
- “In Search of Refuge: Southeast Asians in the United States” (Chapter Fourteen)
- “The ‘Rise of Asian Americans’? Myths and Realities” (Chapter Seventeen)
- “Epilogue: Redefining America in the Twenty-first Century”
10:15 am: Break
10:30 am: Stacey Lee (historical and contemporary young adult fiction author, Outrun the Moon)
12:00 pm: Lunch with Dr. Yvonne Kwan
1:30 pm: The Woman Warrior, discussion with Maxine Hong Kingston (Emeritus Faculty in English, University of California, Berkeley; National Book Award and Presidential Medal of the Arts Recipient)
- Primary Reading: Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (New York: Vintage International Edition, 1998).
3 pm: Workshop on Adapting and Performing Literature in the Classroom with Dr. Spangler
4:00 pm: Break
Resources:
Chinese Railroad Workers in North America, Oral Histories and Interviews
Viewings for Friday:
Discovering Angel Island: The Story Behind the Poems (12 min.)
The Immigrants of Angel Island: The History You Didn’t Learn (11 min.)
Carved in Silence (21 min.) (optional)
DAY SIX
Friday, July 29: Immigration to California through Poetry and Historical Remembrance, Angel Island 1910-1940
7:00 am: Travel from San José to Angel Island with stop at the Golden Gate Bridge (by passenger van)
10:00 am: Ferry from Tiburon to Angel Island
11:00 am: Angel Island through Poetry and Historical Remembrance with Dr. Charles Egan (Professor of Chinese and Director of the Chinese Flagship Program, San Francisco State University)
- Primary Reading: Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim, Judy Yung, Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940, 2nd ed. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2014).
- Primary Reading: Noreen Naseem Rodriguez, “Teaching Angel Island through Historical Empathy and Poetry,” Social Studies Learner 27 (3), 2015.
- Primary Reading: Vincent Ciardiello, “Is Angel Island the Ellis Island of the West? Teaching Multiple Perspective-Taking in American Immigration History,” The Social Studies, 2012.
- Primary Reading: Silas Valentino, “Everything You Know About Angel Island, The Largest Island in the San Francisco Bay, Is Likely Wrong,” SFGate.com, May 6, 2022.
- Supplementary Reading: “Immigration Stations: Ellis Island vs Angel Island, Lesson,” 2019.
- Supplementary Reading: Erika Lee and Judy Yung, Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
- Supplementary Reading: Judy Yung, The Chinese Exclusion Act and Angel Island: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s Press, 2019).
- Supplementary Reading: Judy Yung, Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
- Supplementary Reading: Judy Yung, Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006).
- Supplementary Reading: Judy Yung, “‘A Bowlful of Tears’ Revisited: The Full Story of Lee Puey You’s Immigration Experience at Angel Island,” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 25, no. 1 (2004), pp. 1-22.
Resources:
Angel Island Curriculum Guides
12:00 pm: Lunch
1:00 pm: Tour of Angel Island with Dr. Egan
3:30 pm: Ferry from Angel Island to Tiburon
4:30 pm: Travel to Marriott Marquis Hotel in San Francisco
Optional: After we check into the hotel, Dr. Gendzel will lead a walking tour of San Francisco’s Mission District murals. Summer scholars will explore representations of the history of the Latino presence in the heart of the city through these murals. Dinner in the Mission District to follow.
Evening free
DAY SEVEN
Saturday, July 30: A Walking Tour of Immigrant San Francisco, 1848 to the Present Day
10:00 am: Walking Tour of Immigration-Specific Historical Sites in San Francisco with Dr. Gendzel.
This tour will provide a survey of Spanish, Mexican, Irish, Italian, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Chinese immigration to San Francisco by taking summer scholars through portions of the Mission District, South of Market, Union Square, the Financial District, “Chinatown,” and North Beach. Selected locations include: St. Patrick’s Church, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, the Old Mint, Market Street, the Flood Building, the Theatre District, Grant Avenue and Stockton Street, a fortune cookie factory, a former Chinese mission, Old St. Mary’s Church, Portsmouth Square, Columbus Avenue, Saints Peter & Paul Church, the Shrine of St. Francis, and the International Hotel – all within easy walking distance. Participants will have the option of attending the morning tour (10:00 am to 12:30 pm), or afternoon tour (1:30 pm to 4:00 pm), or both.
4:00 pm: The tour ends at City Lights Bookstore (co-founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti).
Group Dinner in North Beach, San Francisco.
DAY EIGHT
Sunday, July 31: Return to San Jose, Free Day
DAY NINE
Monday, August 1: A Father-Son Relationship within an Afghan Refugee Experience
9:00 am: Refugee Immigration to the United States, led by Matthew Spangler
9:30 am: Afghan Immigration to California, led by Humaira Ghilzai (Afghan Friends Network)
10:00 am: Discussion of Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, led by Matthew Spangler and Humaira Ghilzai
- Primary Reading: Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner (New York: Riverhead Books, 2003).
- Primary Reading: Matthew Spangler, The Kite Runner (New York: Penguin Books, 2018) [stage play].
- Primary Reading: San José Repertory Theatre, The Kite Runner Study Guide.
- Primary Viewing: Khaled Hosseini, Sea Prayer (7 min.)
11:00 am: Break
11:10 am: Khaled Hosseini visit on Zoom
12:10 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm: Performing History, Immigration, and Interviews in and beyond the Classroom, led by Sara Zatz
- Primary Reading: Ping Chong, Undesirable Elements (New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2012).
Undesirable Elements is an ongoing series of community-specific oral history theatre performances by playwright and director Ping Chong examining the lives of people born in one culture but currently living in another, either by choice or by circumstance. For more information, see: http://www.undesirableelements.org/pages/about-undesirable-elements.html.
3:30 pm Break
3:45 pm Session continues
5:00 pm Break
Evening Free
Viewings for Tuesday:
Viet Thanh Nguyen on CBS This Morning (6 min.)
Southeast Asian Refugees: Asian Americans (9 min.)
DAY TEN
Tuesday, August 2: A Vietnamese Refugee Experience
9:00 am: A History of Vietnamese Immigration to California, led by Dr. Gendzel
- Primary Reading: Viet Museum, San Jose (website)
- Primary Reading: Viet Thanh Nguyen, “Our Vietnam War Never Ended,” New York Times, April 24, 2015.
10:00 am: Break
10:15 am: Discussion of Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora with Andrew Lam (PEN Open Book Award Recipient and former Visiting Faculty in Creative Writing at San José State University)
- Primary Reading: Andrew Lam, Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora (Berkeley: Heyday Press, 2005).
12:00 pm: Lunch with Andrew Lam
1:30 pm: Performing History, Immigration, and Interviews in and beyond the Classroom, led by Sara Zatz, cont.
3:00 pm Break
3:15 pm Workshop with Zatz
4:45 pm Break
Evening Free
Viewing for Wednesday:
“One Dollar a Day, 10 Cents a Dance” (27 min.)
DAY ELEVEN
Wednesday, August 3:
Filipino Immigration and San Francisco’s International Hotel
9:00 am: A History of Filipino Immigration to California, led by Ricco Villanueva Siasoco (Grade Dean, Urban School of San Francisco; Author; Institute Summer Scholar in 2017)
9:50 am: Break
10:00 am: Discussion of Texts Below, led by Ricco Villanueva Siasoco and Maria Judnick
- Primary Reading: Lysley Tenorio, “Remember the I-Hotel,” in Monstress (New York: Ecco Press, 2012).
- Primary Reading: “Deaf Mute” and “Nicolette and Maribel” by Ricco Villanueva Siasoco (Singapore: Gaudy Boy, 2019).
- Supplementary Reading: Anthony Christian Ocampo, “The Puzzling Case of Filipino Americans,” from The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break Rules of Race (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016).
11:00 am: Using institute material in the classroom, Melissa Koh (instructional coach and curriculum consultant, San Francisco Unified School District; former institute summer scholar in 2014), Daniel Tkach (Cupertino High School English teacher; former institute summer scholar in 2014), and Ricco Villanueva Siasoco (Grade Dean, Urban School of San Francisco; Author; and Institute Summer Scholar in 2017).
12:00 pm: Using Institute Material in the Classroom, led by Sara Zatz and Maria Judnick
1:00 Break
2:00 pm: Preparing for final presentations (on Friday evening)
Resources:
Filipino American Experiences, Oral History Project
DAY TWELVE
Thursday, August 4: California in the 1990s and Prop 187
9:00 am: Immigration and Nativism in California, led by Dr. Gendzel
- Primary Reading: Glen Gendzel, “Tortilla Curtain and California’s Nativist Heritage,” Text and Performance Quarterly 2 (2013): 175-183.
- Primary Reading: Matthew Spangler, “Adapting T.C. Boyle’s Novel The Tortilla Curtain and Subsequent Production at the San Diego Repertory Theatre,” Text and Performance Quarterly 2 (2013): 151-168.
10:00 am: Adapting T.C. Boyle’s The Tortilla Curtain for the Stage, led by Dr. Spangler
10:20 Break
10:30 pm: “Rethinking Immigration in the 21st Century,” led by Dr. Persis Karim.
Learning For Justice Resources:
Supporting Students from Immigrant Families
12:00 pm: Break
1:30 pm: Open work session for final presentations: meet with facilitators (Spangler, Zatz, Judnick, and Gendzel) for feedback
5:00 pm: Break
DAY THIRTEEN
Friday, August 5:
9:00 am: Open work session for final presentations: meet with facilitators (Spangler, Zatz, Judnick, and Gendzel) for feedback 5:00 pm: Break
7:00 pm: Participant presentations of historical, literary, or otherwise creative works on the theme of immigration.
Resources:
Steven Mintz, “Historical Context: The Human Meaning of Immigration”
Six Lesson Plans
DAY FOURTEEN
Saturday, August 6: Summer Scholars’ Presentations
9:00 am: Open office hours continued for summer scholars to meet with Spangler, Gendzel, Zatz, Judnick to discuss their implementation plans.
10:00 am: Summer scholars’ presentations of their implementation plans, which should take the form of a classroom lesson plan on a topic related to the literature and/or history of immigration. Summer scholars are encouraged to focus their lesson plans on immigrant experiences in their respective parts of the country.
12:00 pm: Lunch
1:00 pm: Presentations continue
3:00 pm: Break
4:30 pm: Japan Museum San José and Optional Walking Tour of “Japantown” neighborhood
6:00 pm: Farewell dinner in “Japantown”
SUNDAY, AUGUST 7: SUMMER SCHOLARS DEPART
By August 25 summer scholars will be expected to submit their revised implementation plans to the institute director. These implementation plans will later be uploaded to the institute website. For examples of previous years work, see the “Teacher Resources” page on this website.
