School of Information Sciences

Han to host workshop for youth to learn Chinese American history

Yingying Han
Yingying Han

PhD student Yingying Han is helping youth learn about Chinese American history and take action to preserve their cultural heritage. Through a multi-session workshop, which will take place the next four Saturdays from 10:00-11:30 a.m. at the University YMCA in Champaign, Han hopes to teach children about the contributions of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans to the history of the United States. Children participating in the sessions will be encouraged to think critically about how these groups have been marginalized and what they can do to become changemakers for their communities.

"With the passing of the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act, Illinois has become the first state to mandate that Asian American history be part of teaching in its public schools. I want to explore how we may use archival records and museum artifacts to facilitate learning about and discussing Asian American history with youth," said Han, whose research focuses on critical archival studies and community engagement with Chinese immigrants, Chinese Americans, and broader Asian American communities.

According to Han, the workshop came about, in part, because of her involvement with the Chinese Heritage Association (also known as the Chinese language school) and the New American Welcome Center at the YMCA. Through her work with these organizations, Han learned that Chinese immigrants want their children to learn more about their culture and history.

In the future, Han would like to bring the workshop to a wider audience, from school-aged children to college students and community members.

"I would like to bring the sessions to local schools and further co-develop them with youth from different cultural backgrounds," she said. "I also want to facilitate more academic conversations with archival and heritage scholars about building community archives with marginalized communities."

Register for the workshop here.

Watch Han discuss her workshop in this video from WAND TV and read more in this Illinois Newsroom report.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Get to know Jade Carthans, BSIS student

Jade Carthans is interested in how human-centered design, machine learning, and data analytics can come together to solve critical problems that impact organizations and individuals. She gained firsthand experience in these areas through internships with Microsoft and State Farm.

Jade Carthans

Join the iSchool at the 2025 ALISE annual conference

Join iSchool faculty, staff, and students for the annual conference of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), which will take place from October 6–8 in Kansas City, Missouri. The theme of the 2025 conference is "Decolonising Pedagogies: Agency, Identity, Practices."

Ravury selected to serve on Homecoming Court

BSIS student Lauren Ravury has a new item to add to her resume: member of the 2025 Homecoming Court at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Ravury's resume is already impressive. She serves as president of the Student Alumni Ambassadors (SAA), an organization dedicated to fostering school spirit at the U. of I. Last year, she served as president of the Asian Pre-Law Association, a stint that led to her receiving the Outstanding Asian & Asian American Undergraduate Student Leader Award from the Asian American Cultural Center and the association being named the 2025 Outstanding Asian & Asian American Student Organization.

Lauren Ravury

Wang appointed to Autism Data Privacy Advisory Group

Professor Yang Wang has been appointed by Governor JB Pritzker to serve on the newly created Autism Data Privacy Advisory Group, established under Executive Order 2025-02 to strengthen protections for the civil and human rights of people with autism in Illinois. 

Yang Wang

School of Information Sciences

501 E. Daniel St.

MC-493

Champaign, IL

61820-6211

Voice: (217) 333-3280

Fax: (217) 244-3302

Email: ischool@illinois.edu

Back to top