Videos

This lecture was held on 02/21/2023 and was part of the Spitzer Spring 2023 Sciame Lecture Series, titled “Across the Pacific Rim: Architecture and Landscape in Translation.”

Michelle G. Magalong, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Historic Preservation program at the University of Maryland’s School of Architecture. Planning and Preservation, where she previously served as a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow. She is affiliate faculty in Asian American Studies, Urban Studies and Planning, and American Studies. Dr. Magalong served as President for Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation (APIAHiP), a national nonprofit organization. She received her BA in Ethnic Studies and Urban Studies and Planning at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and her MA and Ph.D. in Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

“Preserving Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Historic Sites: Dispelling and Disaggregating the Acronym and the Data”: In the field of Asian American studies, little emphasis is made in to understanding historic preservation or public history work. In the work of preserving Asian American history and places, there is a greater need for understanding the diverse ethnic and cultural histories of this racial category of “Asian American.” This includes the need to dispel stereotypes of Asian Americans and for the inclusion and expansion of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander historic preservation efforts. This talk will provide case studies in California, Hawaii, and Guam on local efforts and approaches in addressing the needs to dispel stereotypes as “Asian Americans” while providing more inclusion of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander histories and places. Dr. Magalong will draw in examples from her practitioner work with Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation and from her previous experiences with AAPI context studies in Los Angeles, the state of California, Washington, DC, and on the federal level with the National Park Service in identifying historic places associated with Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander histories and places.

“Across the Pacific Rim: Architecture and Landscape in Translation” begins with what the Pacific Ocean is: a fluid place, a sea where ideas, people, and artifacts move. It questions the framing of this great body of water as a barrier or a void, concepts that are rooted in colonialism and imperialism. Instead, it posits the Pacific as an active stage for exchanging and translating ideas, concepts, materials, and technologies about constructed environments. The designers, scholars, practitioners, and activists featured in this series are situated along the Pacific Rim. They examine areas, products, and product histories along the Pacific Rim. They call on this positionality to offer exceptional, transnational, boundary-breaking, hybrid practices and research that contribute to a shared environment and a collective future.

This lecture series is made possible by the Spitzer Architecture Fund and the generous support of Frank Sciame ’74, CEO of Sciame Construction.