UIC Global Asian Studies Program

Congratulations to two GLAS faculty members Prof.Michelle Lee and Prof. Gayatri Reddy for their recent awards!

Prof Michelle Lee, Assistant Professor, Global Asian Studies, received a UIC Institute for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship for the 2026-2027 academic year, for her project, “Refiguring Asian America: Gender, Sexuality, and the Visuality of Race.”

Prof. Gayatri Reddy, Associate Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies and Global Asian Studies, has been awarded the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Faculty Service Award! This award honors faculty members for their exceptional contributions to LAS via direct involvement with College committees and initiatives and through service to their departments, professions, and the community that further the mission of the College.

Congratulations! We are proud of you!

May 3, 2026

GLOBAL ASIAN STUDIES (GLAS) STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY WITH OUR GRADUATE STUDENT WORKERS

University of Illinois Chicago

The Core Faculty in Global Asian Studies (GLAS) at the University of Illinois Chicago stand in solidarity with the UIC Graduate Employment Organization (GEO) Local 6297 who is currently on strike. We urge the campus administration to offer our graduate student workers a contract with wages and working conditions that will allow them to thrive as they continue to contribute to the mission of the university.

As the youngest interdisciplinary academic unit in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and one that came about as a legacy of the activism of undergraduate and graduate students who persisted and fought for almost two decades to establish this program, we stand in full support of GEO. Graduate students have provided critical and invaluable labor to allow us to carry out the research, teaching, and programmatic mission of the department. From helping craft the call to establish the program to serving as graduate and teaching assistants in the program over the years, graduate students have been key partners in our growth and success.

Graduate students are crucial backbones of our community and they help in “advancing the university’s equity-focused mission to provide the broadest access to the highest levels of educational, research, and clinical excellence.”

Graduate students have been working without a contract for more than a year. We urge campus administration to end this strike and provide a contract that allows our students to thrive as educators and workers in our university.

This statement by Global Asian Studies (GLAS) does not represent the University of Illinois Chicago, nor is it the university’s official position, nor does it represent the views of all faculty, staff and students within the department.

Is that a crane cord? Yes it is! Join us for our 10th annual GLASapalooza today to celebrate our GLAS graduating minors and majors (largest cohort of graduates), retirements, and this fiercely beautiful academic community!

3-5 pm today SCE 301!

🔔 ‼️! Location change! GLASApalooza will be in room 301 in SCE! Please join us in this exciting end of the year gathering as we celebrate our graduating majors and minors, faculty, staff, and students - and what we have accomplished as an academic community!

And guess who is joining us for GLASapalooza! Song artist and performer, Raynuel Tupas who will be performing at this year’s GLASapalooza!

There will be food and music!

Kindly RSVP so we have enough food! bit.ly/GLZ2026

Raynuel Tupas is a first generation Filipino - American, and a Teaching of English major at UIC. He has performed with a number of Chicago - based Filipino artists and groups, such as FIA’Liwan, Michael Cali, and William Baranda, honing his skills as a performer and musician. After graduating college, he hopes to pursue a career as either a professional musician, or an English education teacher.

Guess who is joining us for GLASapalooza! Song artist and performer, Raynuel Tupas who will be performing at this year’s GLASapalooza!

RSVP and join us! bit.ly/GLZ2026

Raynuel Tupas is a first generation Filipino - American, and a Teaching of English major at UIC. He has performed with a number of Chicago - based Filipino artists and groups, such as FIA’Liwan, Michael Cali, and William Baranda, honing his skills as a performer and musician. After graduating college, he hopes to pursue a career as either a professional musician, or an English education teacher.

Are you a new faculty at UIC?

Join a panel of senior women faculty at UlC in a conversation about “Making Mentoring Matter in these Times” to hear their perspectives on what new faculty need to navigate an academic career successfully during these times, and how mentoring relationships and practices can help to address these needs.

Wednesday, April 8, 3:30 PM at UIC’s Women’s Leadership and Resource Center, 1200 W. Harrison, Suite 1700.

Hosted and organized by the Women’s Leadership and Resource Center (WLRC) and cosponsored by Faculty Affairs and the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Women.

RSVP: https://wlrc.uic.edu/events/making-mentoring-matter-in-these-times/ or scan the WR code on the flyer

Congratulations to Prof. Justin Phan on the publication of his article, “Race Graft: Decolonial Relations in Hương Ngô’s French Indochina and Beyond” in
Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience

View the article here:
https://catalystjournal.org/index.php/catalyst/article/view/44922

This essay analyzes a 2024 exhibition by contemporary artist Hương Ngô called Ungrafting, which presents a series of photographs and other multimedia experiments that index a history of French agronomists and botanists in French Indochina, present-day Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Ngô complicates inherited definitions of grafting that depict it as a solely scientific and botanical method of conjoining two plants and instead identifies its poetic resonance across other topics of study such as photography, anatomy, geography, history, race, and empire.

The essay situates Ngô’s exploration of French Indochina within Asian/America and argues that her exhibition reveals the work of “race graft,” defined as the technocratic and aesthetic consolidation of racial matter and forms within and beyond the human. Tracing how the project of race graft translates into other mediums such as images, skin, rust, and soil, this essay ultimately illustrates how Ngô’s aesthetic draws on art, poetics, and installation to engage a feminist science and technological critique that crafts as it grafts, creating a language to draw dynamic geographies of relation, and contribute to a growing number of gestures invested in a decolonizing aesthetic for how we envision Asian/America in our world.

Prof. Justin Phan is an Assistant Professor in Global Asian Studies

IMAGE ID: Graphic congratulatory card featuring Justin Phan in the center with the word CONGRATULATIONS above the photo. Background is purple with a yellow sunburst. There is a QR code on the top left corner for program information and GLAS logo on the top right corner. GLAS social media handles and office address and phone number is listed at the bottom.

GLASApalooza 2026 is upon us! Join the Global Asian Studies community for our in-person event to honor the transformative work of students, staff, and faculty, and celebrate our fearless graduating minors and majors.

✨ RSVP HERE: bit.ly/GLZ2026

🗓️ Wednesday, April 22, 2026

⏰ 3:00 – 5:00 PM
📍 605 Student Center East
750 S. Halsted St., Chicago IL 60607

📧 Questions? Email us at [email protected]

IMAGE ID: Flyer on a teal textured background for GLASAPALOOZA 2026. The title appears in large colorful collage-style letters at the center, surrounded by illustrated Chicago buildings, star graphics, and two cartoon-style student figures. The GLAS logo is at the top right. Event details are under the main title graphic listing date, time and location. A pink bar announcing RSVP deadline immediately follows event details. A QR code to RSVP, logo for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and a smaller QR code for the GLAS social media platforms are at the bottom.

Thank you all for coming to the Button-Making event collaboration between GSAB and BURSA! GLAS wishes you all a restful spring break!

To learn more about GLAS: go to: https://glas.uic.edu

ID: First slide:
A flyer with 7 badges with various designs are placed on a gray surface. The words “THANK YOU” Iin yellow letters are placed as an overlay. A white flower image with a yellow smiley face in the middle of it sits on the top right of the letter K and two eyeballs are on the middle of the letter Y. A pink lightning bot rests on top of the letter Y. On the bottom center of the flyer is the phrase “For coming to the GSAB x BURSA Button-making event.” The GLAS logo is on the bottom right and the BURSA logo on the bottom left.

Second slide: A flyer showing a number of badges laid out on a gray surface. A small pink lighting bolt sits on the top middle page in between two panels of badges. On the bottom left hand side is a small square panel with a flower icon that has a smiley face on the middle of it. Below the flower are the words “Have a restful spring break” in yellow font. And below that is the hashtag in white.

UPDATE! This event is for Wednesday March 18!

GLAS Student Advisory Board (GSAB) x BURSA Collab: Button Making Event 🎉✨

📅 Wednesday, March 18, 2026
⏰ 4:00 – 5:00 PM
📍 Room 1050 University Hall (10th floor)
601 S. Morgan St., Chicago IL 60607


✨ RSVP HERE: bit.ly/Button-Making

Join the Global Asian Studies Student Advisory Board (GSAB) and the Burmese Student Association (BURSA) for a fun and cozy DIY button making event! instead of buying your pins for your bags or lanyards from stores, take part in making your own :) button making supplies will be provided as well as snacks and drinks!

RSVP with the QR code in the poster or via link above!

IMAGE ID: Flyer on a green colored background. The title “Button Making” appears in large red bold letters at the top center. Event details are listed underneath the title. The flyer invites people to join a cozy, relaxing event where snacks and drinks will be provided. Various images of button pins decorate the flyer with trendy characters like Snoopy, Garfield, and Monchichis. A large QR code appears on the bottom left with a pop out that invites people to RSVP. The logos for GLAS and BURSA are displayed at the top left and right of the flyer. The text is on the top left next to the GLAS logo.