Now in its second year, the ACRE Travel Fund for Graduate Students supports graduate students who work broadly in the field of Asian Canadian and Asian Migration studies and/or with Asian Canadian communities.
The fund enhances graduate student capacity for research on, for and with Asian Canadian communities, and supports work that critically examines and expands the scope of Asian Canadian studies, especially from equity and intersectional perspectives. Below, recipients of the inaugural grant cohort share how the fund crucially helped and impacted their research.
Photo by Gillian Der
Receiving the inaugural ACRE Grad student travel fund allowed me to access my research site multiple times throughout my fieldwork allowing me to develop strong relationships with the community. As a wildfire researcher, my research benefited from the expansive understanding of what Asian Canadian Research might look like. While completing my fieldwork, I was able to theorize and develop questions around what looking at wildfire in BC from the intervention of early Chinese migration might do, culminating in my essay "Third Child" being shortlisted for the Malahat Review's annual Open Awards.
I have also conceptualized, curated and created an installation art show that emerged from part of this research process which will be displayed at the end of April in Vancouver. I am grateful for the commitment that ACRE has to casting a wide net of what Asian Canadian Research looks like allowing me to draw together geographic histories that are not often brought into conversation with one another.
The 2024 ACRE Travel Fund for Graduate Students supported my participation in the Witnessing/Becoming Centre for Comparative Literature Annual Conference at the University of Toronto on March 22-23, 2024. At this conference, I presented on “Meating in Space: Reading a Transnational, Trans-spatial Motherhood,” which follows a core part of my thesis project where I put Murata Sayaka’s Earthlings (2018), or 地球星人, in conversation with Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats (1998).
This was the first time I had presented to an audience outside of Asian Studies, and I received a lot of really valuable feedback in how to further explore this connection between Asian and Asian Diasporic literatures in a trans- and interdisciplinary way. Through the “Testimonial Materiality” panel I was put in, I was able to make connections with fellow graduate students from the University of Montreal and Columbia University, who were working on vastly different material – in Japanese/American literature, Chinese American comic book storytelling, and the commentary of a Metis playwright on extractivism – and yet, due to our shared interest in minor literatures and oceanic linkages between marginalized voices, we were able to make productive connections within and through each other’s works.
From the supportive comments and insightful questions I received, I left the conference feeling more committed to this experiment of reading two really different fictional texts together for my thesis work and inspired by the really fascinating work of other scholars. Thanks to the ACRE Travel Fund, I was able to experience my first conference away from “home” and become more confident as a scholar.
In 2024 I received the ACRE Travel Fund for Graduate students which allowed me to travel to Toronto for the summer to do interviews for my MA Thesis. I did my undergraduate degree in Music Theatre Performance at Sheridan College in Ontario and therefore have a lot of connections to writers, creators, and performers in Toronto.
In addition, Toronto has a strong musical theatre and new/developing theatre scene. My MA Thesis looks at the evolution of Asian-ness in North American musical theatre - a topic that is quite untapped and constantly developing. With my knowledge and connections in Toronto, I interviewed artists such as actors Kimberly-Ann Truong, Genny Sermonia, Julio Fuentes, and musical theatre writers Kevin Wong, Aaron Jan, and Nam Nguyen, among others.
The ACRE fund allowed some financial supplementation of travel and living expenses in Toronto and the ability to connect with these wonderful artists face to face, as well as the opportunity to take in the arts and culture scene in Toronto.
In early December 2024, I traveled to Korea for preliminary fieldwork related to my doctoral thesis project, returning in mid-January. As outlined in my application, this trip was essential for data collection and establishing academic connections. During my stay, I met with a professor at Korea University who specializes in the racialization of Southeast Asian migrants in Korea. Through this valuable meeting, I gained insights into current migrant issues that civil society organizations are prioritizing and learned about the current state of migrant activism.
Most significantly, I discovered that civil society organizations' attention and support vary considerably depending on the visa categories of migrant workers assigned to rural/agricultural sectors. I identified a research gap regarding the relatively recent seasonal migration program in Korea, which has received limited scholarly attention. Based on this finding, I intend to focus my doctoral dissertation on this seasonal worker program.
While seasonal worker programs have existed in Canada for many years, examining this system within the different context of intra-Asian labor migration offers a unique perspective. My research aims to enhance understanding of short-term labor migration mechanisms and capture the knowledge circulated through these processes. I expect this work will contribute significantly to discourse surrounding migration in Korea and more broadly across Asia.
The funding provided crucial support for my participation in the 2023 Society of American Music Conference in Minneapolis, where I presented original research on Cantonese opera’s sociopolitical role in 1920s Vancouver. My paper, “From Competition to Collaboration: Chinese Times, Cantonese Opera Theatres, and the Chinese Community in 1920s Vancouver,” argued that Vancouver’s Chinese community strategically used Cantonese opera as a tool for solidarity, cultural expression, and resistance against exclusionary laws such as the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act. This research challenges dominant narratives that portray Chinese communities as passive recipients of discrimination, instead highlighting their agency, transpacific awareness, and capacity for local and global organizing.
The conference presentation allowed me to share these findings with a wide scholarly audience, receive valuable feedback, and situate my work within larger conversations on Asian Canadian studies, Asian migration, and global music history. The funding also supported the next phase of my research, which investigates Cantonese opera and music-making in Vancouver and Victoria during the 1920s–30s. By bridging musicology, migration history, and community formation, this project contributes to understudied aspects of Asian Canadian history and helps illuminate how cultural practices such as opera functioned as forms of resilience, identity-making, and political expression within marginalized communities. This work is deeply rooted in and continues to serve Asian Canadian communities and scholarship.
The ACRE Travel Fund enabled my participation in the Annual Meeting on Law and Society in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2023. At the conference, I presented my paper titled “Chinese Immigrants’ Gendered Paths to Admission in the Exclusion Era,” during a session on “Gender, Immigration & Human Rights.” This paper examined the interplay between immigration law and gender stereotypes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly highlighting how legal frameworks unjustly categorized Chinese women as moral threats, thereby subjecting every Chinese woman to the scrutiny of immigration officials.
The feedback I received was invaluable, prompting me to explore further the implications of historical legal frameworks on contemporary issues. The ACRE Travel Fund’s support was instrumental in allowing me to share my findings and engage with the global academic community. The insights gained and connections made at the conference have been indispensable in guiding my research direction and contributing to my professional growth.
I am deeply grateful for the ACRE Travel Fund. In a time of increasing precarity in higher education, ACRE has provided both community and financial support in the late stages of my PhD program. The funds I received enabled me to complete a final research trip to Victoria last year, where I spent about a week between the BC Archives and the Saanich Archives. There, I examined the local contours of anti-Asian racism in the context of property relations in the province.
This research is currently serving as the foundation of a chapter of my dissertation focusing on agricultural lands, Asian racialization, and settler colonialism. As I continue to navigate chronic illness and familial obligations, this type of support has been invaluable to me, and I’m truly honoured to be part of the ACRE community.
