IU Libraries Celebrates AAPI Heritage Month

Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebrates the lives, experiences, cultures, and contributions of Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders. It offers us a time to reflect on the importance of diversity and recognize this community’s struggles for equality.

Indiana is home to several Asian diaspora communities, including Burmese, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Tibetan, Thai, Vietnamese, and others. These communities, with their unique histories and cultures, have been a part of Indiana’s and IU’s landscape for generations, dating back to the late 19th century. Currently IU Bloomington has more than 6000 students who identify as Asian, Asian American, or Pacific Islander; these students participate in dozens of student organizations around Asian culture, heritage, solidarity, and engagement.

Asian and AAPI students and faculty have been a part of the IU community since the late 1800s, when Japanese student Takekuma Okada became the first Asian student to earn a degree at IU. In this exhibit you will find memories of early Asian students at IU, including photographs and stories of individual students (although sadly the names of many are lost to history) and student organizations such as the Cosmopolitan Club (an international student association). You will also find writings by and about AAPI Hoosiers, and a section dedicated to some of the more painful parts of this history: the exclusion of Japanese American students during World War II and the racially-motivated murder of Korean graduate student Won-Joon Yoon in 1998.

With the surge of anti-Asian racism seen in the past few years, it is more important than ever to study the histories of the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander members of our community, work to highlight their experiences and achievements, and honor their contributions.

A companion guide to the exhibition is available online with more resources and information.