The IAC Fall Forum brought together visiting researchers, scholars, graduate and predoctoral fellows, and research-grant awardees at UCLA's four ethnic studies centers for one-on-one discussions with UCLA educators and audience Q & A. For more information about the IAC, visit http://www.iac.ucla.edu/

Note: The event video is divided into multiple parts with information for each part provided respectively.

On a cool Saturday, December 7, 2013, people from near and far gathered in West Los Angeles to commemorate thirty years since the release of Chol Soo Lee from death row. A roundtable of speakers reflected on the Free Chol Soo Lee movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s that represented early pan-Asian, transnational and inter-generational activism. Those in the audience spanned those who participated to current students who were finding out about the movement for the first time. Chol Soo Lee himself, now living in San Francisco, was present as were other distinguished guests who played an active role during that time. Amerasia Journal has chronicled the movement over the years, including a retrospective forum including some great images in a recent volume (39:3 - 2013). Key sponsorship came from the Korea Times-Hankook Ilbo Endowed Chair in Korean American Studies and Law at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, the Department of Asian American Studies at UC Davis, the Young Oak Kim Center for Korean American Studies at UC Riverside, and the K.W. Lee Center for Leadership.

For images of the event and more information, click here.

Dr. Yang Sao Xiong will present findings from his dissertation "Hmong Americans' Protest Movements and Political Incorporation in the United States, 1980-2012." Dr. Xiong's dissertation examines the political participation and the political incorporation of Hmong American communities across three states -- California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. This study asks two main questions. First, given Hmong Americans' particular contexts of exit and contexts of reception, how and to what extent have Hmong former refugees and their U.S.-born children been incorporated into the U.S. political system? Second, how do broader political contexts or homeland circumstances shape Hmong American politics and the state's treatment of Hmong in the U.S. and abroad? Dr. Xiong addresses these questions through two historical analyses of Hmong Americans' non-electoral and electoral participation and two detailed case studies of Hmong Americans' social movements. Hmong Americans' degree of political incorporation is a byproduct of the interplay between Hmong-led mobilization and the responses of the state. Homeland circumstances or the state policies of and conditions in the former homeland continue to evolve and impact both the socioeconomic resources and political interests of Hmong Americans.

Julian Aguon is an indeginous Chamoru activist, attorney, and author. His specialty area is international human rights and while his work is anchored in his home Guam, he actively works to promote the wellbeing of indigenous peoples of the larger Micronesian region and Oceania as a whole. He lives in Tunhom, Guam.

Presented by the UCLA American Indian Studies Center and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center as a part of the UCLA Environmental Justice Initiative.

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