Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Celebration (APIAHC) Calendar
Upcoming events!
Events for the 2025 calendar will be added to the calendar as the planning committee reviews submissions.
To submit for the 2025 Calendar, complete the Call for Programs form.
If you have any questions, please email apiahcelebration@ucsd.edu.
May 1 | Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Kickoff Celebration and Awards Ceremony
Join us as we kickoff our month long celebration with our Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Kickoff Celebration and Awards Ceremony.
This year’s theme highlights the national AANHPI theme: “A Legacy of Leadership and Resilience.” This year’s theme honors the hard work of AANHPI leaders who established a foundation for future generations to thrive and adapt to change and adversity. The event will include live cultural performances, inspiring words from keynote speaker Shyama Kuver—a celebrated writer, poet, and founder of Heart Over Crown, a platform dedicated to storytelling around love, loss, and healing—and the presentation of awards honoring outstanding students, faculty, and staff.
Time: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Price Center West Ballroom
To sponsor a table, please contact apiahcelebration@ucsd.edu
For individual tickets, please make a contribution to the Pan Asian Staff Association Fund (fund #7826) of $30 or more, and forward screenshot/confirmation email of the gift to apiahcelebration@ucsd.edu by April 29.
Sponsored by: Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
May 1 | Celebrating APIA Heritage Month and the Immigrant Experience in San Diego: A Spotlight on Former City Council Member Tom Hom | Exhibit
Celebrate Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month with an exhibit honoring cultural heritage, resilience, and community contributions. With a spotlight on artist, advocate, and pioneering leader, Tom Hom, the display also features campus and Library resources highlighting APIA voices, immigrant stories, and the rich diversity of San Diego’s Asian and Pacific Islander American communities.
When: May 1-June 29, All Day
Location: Sally T. WongAvery Library Breezeway
More information available at the Library website.
Sponsored by: UC San Diego Library
May 2 | Rising Together Through Storytelling
We will discuss how storytelling can foster community, share ways to create community, and provide an opportunity for people to reflect on storytelling and what community they are seeking to build.
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
Location: Zoom (registration required)
May 5 | Planting A Seed & Watching It GROW: 5 Years of Gathering AAPI Stories at UC San Diego | Exhibit
Celebrate five years of GROW, a student-led initiative preserving the history of AAPI activism at UC San Diego. This exhibit showcases how students, faculty, staff, and librarians have cross-pollinated ideas and experiences to document the untold stories behind the creation of UCSD’s AAPI Studies Program in Fall 2020. The process of archiving fosters new growth amplifying AAPI stories, empowering change, and inspiring engagement.
When: May 5-August 10, during Geisel Library's open hours
Location: Geisel Library, Main Floor, West
More information available at the Library website.
Sponsored by: UC San Diego Library
May 6 | Missing/Disappearing Bodies and Forgotten Geographies
Join us for the talk by Dr. Junyoung Verónica Kim - "MISSING/DISAPPEARING BODIES AND FORGOTTEN GEOGRAPHIES: A Korean Argentine Diasporic Viewing of Im Heung-soon’s Good Light, Good Air." Situating the Gwangju Uprising and the Argentine Dirty War as part and parcel of the diasporic, this talk proposes that paying attention to Korean-Latin American intimacies offers a possibility of fabulating a decolonial and demilitarized world.
Dr. Junyoung Verónica Kim is a visiting scholar at the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University, where she will be joining Liberal Studies starting Fall 2025 as Visiting Assistant Professor of East Asian Cultures. Her interdisciplinary research examines how settler militarism, imperialism, and racial capitalism intersect in East Asia and Latin America and across hemispheric Asian American diasporas.
Many thanks to Dr. Andrea Mendoza, IAH, UCHRI, and the Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts for making this event possible!
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Mosaic Hall 113 (in the North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood)
RSVP: Registration recommended (free)
Sponsored by: Institute of Arts and Humanities (IAH); Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Studies; IAH Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program; Chicanx and Latinx Studies, School of Arts and Humanities Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts; University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI)
May 8 | Equity Exchange: Immersed in the First
This workshop is comprised of four first daughters who will share and invite others to talk about how their first daughterness has shaped not only their worldview, but their outlook on higher education. Part of the “Equity Exchanges: Staff Collaborations for a Just Campus” Series hosted by the Cross-Cultural Center. This event is directed toward UC San Diego faculty and staff. Please visit the Cross-Cultural Center website for more information.
Time: 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Cross-Cultural Center | Price Center East Level 2
RSVP: Registration recommended!
Sponsored by: Cross-Cultural Center (CCC), Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services (OASIS), Pacific Islander and Asian American Staff Association (PASA)
May 8 | Victoria Chang: Poetry Reading and Q&A
Join us for the 6th installment of the Humanities Event Series, featuring Victoria Chang, author of With My Back to the World (2024). The collection engages with abstract artist Agnes Martin and explores the interior life of the self as we navigate the challenges of a world too often marked by indifference with wonder, beauty, and humor.
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Location: Price Center Theater
RSVP: Registration recommended (free tickets)
Sponsored by: Humanities Program; Revelle College; Dimensions of Cultural (Marshall College); New Writing Series.
May 9 | Ethnic Studies at the Library - Filipina Migrants and Community Building
We invite community members to learn about historic oppression and systemic racism and share their lived experiences for personal and community empowerment. Valerie Francisco-Menchavez, PhD is an award-winning scholar-activist, researcher, writer and educator whose academic and political work calls attention to the experiences of Filipina migrants in carework industries and their indelible abilities to form solidarities and organize with one another. Dr. Francisco will discuss her newest book "Caring for Caregivers". Drawing on surveys, individual interviews, and caregivers’ stories as told through kuwentuhan, a Philippine cultural practice of collective storytelling, "Caring for Caregivers" offers an intimate examination of intergenerational care work in the Filipino American community.
Time: 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Location: Skyline Hills Library, Multipurpose Room (7900 Paradise Valley Rd. San Diego, CA 92139)
RSVP: Registration encouraged!
Sponsored by: UC San Diego Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Studies; San Diego Central Library
May 13 | Healing Beyond the Horizon
In celebration of Asian Pacific Islander Heritage month, CARE at SARC will be hosting a Healing Beyond the Horizon workshop. This workshop will highlight alternative means of healing with influence from API cultures and communities. This event is open to all graduate and undergraduate students.
Time: 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Location: CARE at SARC
More information available at the CARE at SARC website.
Sponsored by: CARE at SARC
May 16 | Taiko Drum Workshop
Join the Pacific Islander and Asian American Staff Association (PASA) for a Taiko Drum workshop with UCSD Recreation. Be sure to bring a water bottle and a towel!
Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: UCSD Main Gym
Sponsored by: Pacific Islander and Asian American Staff Association (PASA)
May 20 | Advancing the Well-Being of API Students: The Interplay of Research, Data and Action
This panel will explore strategies to enhance the well-being of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) students. Drawing on research, data and real-world case examples, the presenters will offer insights into addressing clinical needs, service utilization and access to care for API student populations.
Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Murray's Place, UCSD Student Health Services
Sponsored by: Student Health and Well-Being (Triton CORE, Student Health Analytics and Assessment)
May 23 | Kpop Photo Card Trading
Come experience some JOY at a Kpop photo card trading event hosted by Sharon Young and the Pacific Islander and Asian American Staff Association (PASA)! Participants are encouraged to bring their lunch and binders. All groups welcome!
Korean cream puffs by Mon Chourie provided~
Bring a bag for a ton of Kpop freebies and possible trivia prizes*
Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Israni Biomedical Research Facility (IBRF) 1102
Sponsored by: Pacific Islander and Asian American Staff Association (PASA)
May 28 | AAPI Studies and APIMEDA Programs and Services Spring Mixer
Join the community to connect with students, staff, and faculty in the Asian Pacific Islander Middle Eastern Desi American (APIMEDA) community at UC San Diego and to celebrate the graduating students with the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Studies minor.
Time: 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Location: Angela's Space (4th Floor of Oceanview Terrace underneath Oceanview Terrace, OVT, Dining Hall)
RSVP: Registration encouraged!
Sponsored by: APIMEDA Programs and Services, UCSD AAPI Studies
May 30| Bollywood Workshop
Join the Pacific Islander and Asian American Staff Association (PASA) for a Bollywood workshop with UCSD Recreation. Be sure to bring a water bottle and a towel!
Time: 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Location: RIMAC Room 2
Sponsored by: Pacific Islander and Asian American Staff Association (PASA)
June 11 | Beyond the Pages Book Club
Come together with fellow staff to read, discuss, and learn from & with each other. For our spring read, in honor of Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage Month, we will be reading "All This Could Be Different" by Sarah Thankam Matthews.
Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Location: Cross-Cultural Center | Price Center East Level 2
RSVP: Cross-Cultural Center (CCC) Website
Sponsored by: Cross-Cultural Center (CCC)