Intermittent Lecturer: Department of American Culture, Program in Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies
Fields of Study: Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies: Asian/Pacific Islander American Media, Civil Rights, Activism, Arts, History, and Journalism
About
Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a journalist, essayist, speaker, activist, and poet focused on issues of race, arts, and social justice issues. Her writing has appeared at NBC News Asian America, PRI Global Nation, New America Media, Pacific Citizen, Angry Asian Man, Cha Asian Literary Journal, Kartika Review, Drunken Boat, three chapbooks, and several anthologies, journals, and art exhibitions. She teaches courses on Asian/Pacific Islander American media and civil rights at the University of Michigan, and she teaches creative writing at the University of Hawaii Hilo and Washtenaw Community College. She has been Executive Director of American Citizens for Justice and Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce. She co-created a multimedia artwork for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center Indian American Heritage Project online and traveling art exhibition. She is a 2019 Knight Arts Challenge Detroit artist, Marguerite Casey Foundation Equal Voice Journalism Fellow on Poverty, Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights Detroit Equity Action Lab Race and Justice Reporting Fellow on Arts and Culture, and Asian American Journalists Association AAJA AARP Caregiving Essay Award Winner. She speaks nationally on Asian/Pacific Islander American issues. franceskaihwawang.com
Selected Publications
Katie Yamasaki’s Murals Probe Complex Issues of Race and Justice | Hour Detroit
Japanese-American activists will bring paper cranes to show solidarity with migrant families | NBC News
Fashion, faith and culture come together through the global art of headwrapping |PRI The World
Who Is Vincent Chin? The History and Relevance of a 1982 Killing | NBC News
Native Hawaiians to Federal Government: Give Us Back Our Kingdom | NBC News
Essay: Taking Care of Our Tough Immigrant Moms Across Four Generations, Well, Trying To | AARP & AARP Chinese
Essay: With Great Privilege Comes Great Responsibility | NBC News
Essay: Preparing Little Brother for a Mass Shooting | Reappropriate.com
Selected Speaking Samples
Keynote excerpt (short!), Midwest Asian American Students Union (MAASU) Conference, Ohio State Univ., 2018 https://youtu.be/paxgrsRE12M
Role of the Media in the Vincent Chin Case and the Birth of the Asian American Civil Rights Movement at State Bar of Michigan's 34th Michigan Legal Milestone commemorates the Vincent Chin Case "From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry," Friday, June 19, 2009. (Published in Defining Moments: A Retrospective on Tipping Points in the AAPI Community issue of The Asian American Policy Review (AAPR), “The Role of the Media in the Vincent Chin Case,” Harvard Kennedy School, 2010; Reprinted in Voices of the Asian American Experience, Emily Moberg Robinson, ed., ABC-CLIO, 2012; Reprinted again in The Great American Mosaic: An Exploration of Diversity in Primary Documents Gary Y. Okihiro, Greenwood 2014) https://youtu.be/9x0zs3Xd0_g
Dreams of the Diaspora by Jyoti Omi Chowdhury and Frances Kai-Hwa Wang multimedia prose poetry for Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center H1-B Project for the exhibition "Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation" https://www.si.edu/object/yt_KNv_fUYv7Dc
