A Case Study of the Impact of an Asian American-Centered Digital Collage Lived Art Curriculum on Asian American Undergraduate Students

Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Kim, Eunjin
- Graduate Program:
- Art Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 29, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Karen Keifer-Boyd, Program Head/Chair
Wanda Knight, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Karen Keifer-Boyd, Major Field Member
Francesca Lopez, Outside Unit, Field & Minor Member
Eduardo Navas, Major Field Member - Keywords:
- Asian American
Asian American Undergraduate Students
Counterstories
Lived Curriculum
AsianCrit
In-betweenness
Digital Collage
Remix
Critical Consiousness
Critical Agency
Participatory Data Collection and Analysis
Art Education
Qualitative Case Study - Abstract:
- This dissertation research examines the impact of an Asian American-centered digital collage lived art curriculum on East and Southeast Asian American undergraduate students’ awareness of their racial and ethnic identities, systemic oppression, and their development of critical agency, having the feeling of urgency to act for social changes. The curriculum centers the voices and experiences of Asian Americans through engaging in discussions of their racialized experiences in education and childhood, researching Asian American artists’ narratives, and collaborative digital collage-making. Using the theoretical framework of Asian Critical (AsianCrit) Theory, this research aims to understand the unique racialized experiences of Asian Americans. The research implements a qualitative case study as a research methodology to gain a deeper understanding of Asian American undergraduate students’ lived experiences within an actual life context. Moreover, utilizing participatory data collection and analysis method, the research prioritizes and centers Asian American knowledge and experiences in analyzing the data. The participants engaged in the analysis process by discussing themes, reflecting on their dialogues throughout the workshop, and the process of collaborative digital collage-making. In this dissertation, I present and discuss the themes that participants and I co-generated and support making meaning from those themes through an examination of racial stereotypes— the perpetual foreigner, a monolithic group, a model minority—against Asian Americans. Moreover, I discuss the internalized racism that Asian American undergraduate students experience over time due to systemic oppression based on White supremacy. This dissertation concludes with recommendations for art educators to actively confront systemic oppression and decolonize curricula by centering the experiences and histories of Asian Americans and other marginalized communities in art education, which has historically centered on White narratives and histories.