03 Feb Transforming the “Other” to “Us”

Helen Zia’s keynote address as the Spring 2022 Dan & Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals is on Thursday, February 3 at 5pm on Webinar. Please join us at this exciting event! To register, please go to:

https://hawaii.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ck36jFE2TZqnPZ9YYtQ-3g

Bio: Helen Zia is a writer, activist and Fulbright Scholar. She is the author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People, about the contemporary civil rights struggles of Asian Americans; her latest book, Last Boat out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese who Fled Mao’s Revolution, was an NPR best book of 2019 and shortlisted for a 2020 national PEN AMERICA award. An award-winning magazine journalist, she was the Executive Editor of Ms. Magazine.  

The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Helen has been outspoken on issues ranging from human rights to countering hate violence and homophobia. Her leadership in the landmark civil rights case of the 1982 hate killing of Vincent Chin in Detroit has been documented in the Oscar-nominated film, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” 

Helen has honorary doctorates from University of San Francisco and CUNY Law School. After she graduated from Princeton University’s first coeducational class, Helen quit medical school to work as a construction laborer, autoworker, community organizer, then discovered her voice as a journalist and writer.