Our Histories, Our Futures

The Asian American Center (AAC), founded in 1983 as a result of student activism, is a resource for Asian & Asian American communities at Tufts University. This year marks the center’s 40th anniversary. The center was one of the earliest Asian American Centers to be established on a college campus. Today we are one of approximately forty such centers to exist across institutions in the U.S.

Our Histories, Our Futures explores the rich legacy of the Asian American Center as it continues to grow and transform through several generations of students at Tufts.

The east wall of the exhibition dives into the center’s archives to teach us about how it came to be, supplemented by filmed interviews with alumni that explore the impact of the center on their lives at the university and beyond. The west wall of the exhibition features artwork from current students in the Tufts Asian and Asian American community, embodying their reflections on the histories and futures of the Asian diaspora.

Special thanks to the team of students at the AAC who supported the creation of this exhibition: Michelle Zhang, Anna Zhang, Arnav Patra, Jonathan Lai, Kevin Pham, Angela Yang, Dzheveira Karimova, and Baljaa Borgil. We also thank our colleagues at the AAC, Kali Guise and Aaron Parayno, and at the Art Galleries, Kaitlyn Clark and Dina Deitsch.

• Emily Ding, AAC Associate Director and Yuuki Nishida, AAC Graduate Assistant (Co-curators)