Asian Heritage Month
May is Asian Heritage Month—an opportunity for UVic to showcase the stories, research, contributions and vital impact made by people of Asian descent on campus, in our communities and beyond. We’re celebrating Asian cultures within vibrant and diverse Canadian communities as we forge our way together toward a better, more inclusive, future.
Initiatives
Landscapes of Injustice
During the 1940s, Canada enacted mass displacement and dispossession of Japanese Canadians. The , led by historian Jordan Stanger-Ross, explores this difficult period in Canadian history.
Through images and rich prose, the project’s provides an immersive digital experience that explores the real stories of the people affected by these racist policies. Many Canadians continue to experience marginalization and racism today—the stories of our past hold many lessons to better equip our society for dealing with these challenges today.
Pandemic racism
Nigel Mantou Lou, a social psychologist, focuses his research on intercultural relations and racial discrimination in a post-COVID world. During the global pandemic, Asian Canadians experienced a massive surge in hate crimes. In 2022, Lou published a paper on the alarming rates of discriminatory experiences faced by Chinese Canadians and other Asian Canadians.
Lou’s research lab is currently undertaking an SSHRC-funded project to uncover the resilience factors that support . Lou emphasizes one critical factor under consideration is "the role of social support and connections with family members and communities and school/workplace."
Growth and solidarity: mental health hub
Led by Fred Chou in Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies, is a resource hub and research community that aims to strengthen Asian mental health across Canada.
Fred Chou's research lab has compiled mental health resources for the Asian Canadian community that can be found through the site. They have also developed a group counselling intervention called to support individuals who have experienced anti-Asian racism.
Past Wrongs, Future Choices
Housed at UVic's Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives and Centre for Global Studies, with partners in Australia, Brazil, Japan, the United States and Canada, the prompts communities across the world to grapple with anti-Asian racism from the past and present. Museum exhibitions, digital collections, documentary films, teaching resources and books show what these transnational injustices can teach us today. Image provided courtesy of Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre. 1994.69.4.29.1.