Rooted in Community: Students and Scholars Unite to Share Uptown’s Untold Stories

How do you define community engagement in the context of your scholarship? Has that definition evolved?

For over two decades now, my community engaged research has focused on uplifting issues related to carework, migration, and racial and economic justice. Community engagement to me is a methodology, a practice that is fundamentally rooted in the principles of critical border crossings or “situated solidarities”^[1]. These principles emphasize the co-production of knowledge, foregrounding people’s lived experiences, creating spaces for historicizing and contextualizing those experiences, and emphasizing accountability to the people and communities we work with. When I began engaging with communities, I saw community engagement primarily as a form of service, which reflected the ways that the academy often defined it. But over the years, I have come to realize that community engagement is more than that, and that this work is central to my research and intellectual trajectories.  Whereas I initially saw myself as a bridge between the community and the academy, one who could help facilitate a counter narrative to the historical extractive practice of the academy when relating with communities, I have also come to realize the ways in which my scholarly work is deeply embedded in and informed by the communities of which I’m a part. Engaging with communities then, for me, is about the process of intentionally framing my  work and seeing communities as collaborators in knowledge production, and it is also about practicing an ethic of mutuality that allows us to show up for each other.  In other words, as much as it is important to bring communities into university spaces, it is also important (and perhaps more so) to find ways to show up in their spaces.  Engaging with communities is therefore also about defining the community, the stakes of our community engaged scholarship, and being clear about our political commitments in the process.

Your research project, Dis/Placements, centers community voices at the heart of your work. What are some of the most powerful moments or outcomes from this collaboration?

Dis/Placements: A People’s History of Uptown is a research project that Dr. Gayatri Reddy and I co-founded and have been working on since 2017.  One powerful moment has been the work with the Winthrop Family – African Americans who are descendants of families who were relegated to live on just one block in Chicago’s northside neighborhood of Uptown beginning in the 1920s thanks to a race restrictive petition circulated by the Central Uptown Association and signed by 1500 white property owners and residents who were fearful of the “colored invasion” of Uptown. In the face of this racism and segregation, the residents of this block, who refer to themselves as the Winthrop Avenue Family, came together to create a tight-knit caring community.  We have been working with members of this family for several years now to collect and archive their oral histories and conduct archival research, collaborative work that has resulted in podcasts, artwork, a public mural, and OpEd.  Currently Gayatri Reddy, Themal Ellawala (a PhD candidate in Anthropology) and I are working on a collaborative book project with some of the members of the family to document this history, exploring the question of how this community survived and thrived, against all odds.

In telling the history of the Winthrop family, another powerful moment was students’ engagement in helping us tell their story.  This was evident in the painting that one of our former students, Anandita Vidyarthi, created based on the oral histories that Gayatri and I conducted with members of the Winthrop Family.  She produced a piece that she titled “Go[ld] Down Winthrop Ave.” It explicitly references the Japanese art of kintsugi – a practice of Japanese pottery that joins broken pieces (or potential cracks and imperfections) with gold. It doesn’t discard the pieces, nor does it hide the blemishes or imperfections. Instead, it highlights them, transforming the final product into a new and different but no less beautiful product. A 16^th century pottery practice, kintsugi has been recently rediscovered not only as an art form, but also as a philosophy, and a world view to navigate life. This artwork aptly sums up the counter-narrative articulated by Winthrop family members, who are fully aware of the racism, segregation, and violence that their ancestors experienced, but choose to focus on the texture of their resilient lives – on the laughter, joy, pleasures of collective meals, little excursions, dancing on the streets, abundance of love, and practices of community building that capture what it means to live through these practices, otherwise. The counter-narratives of the Winthrop Family reveal a different story than the one told about them through the lens of displacement and discrimination. Instead, they highlight and narrate stories filled with joy, laughter, love, and caring. These memories and stories allow the Winthrop Family not to forget, but instead to reframe what is seen and heard. To produce a counter narrative that places them “Going Down Winthrop Avenue… with abundance, with Gold” – sharing joy, laughter, and creating a deeply knit community that has withstood the test of time. This is just one project, among many, that is powerful. I invite you to explore the website to discover other projects and collaborations.

Can you share an example of how community feedback has reshaped or redirected your research or teaching?

Prior to the passage of the IL Domestic Worker Bill of Rights in 2016, there were numerous efforts to build the capacity of domestic workers in IL to help pass this bill. Two community organizations I work with – the Alliance of Filipino Immigrant Rights and Empowerment (AFIRE) and CIRCA Pintig – were working on building the leadership capacity of Filipino domestic workers to organize themselves and see themselves as actors who can influence policy changes. Following their lead and feedback on how we can support Filipino domestic workers, we co-applied for a research grant to engage in a collective historicizing project of documenting the shared histories and struggles with structural racism and unjust labor practices.  We employed methods that empowered workers to creatively represent their stories, which CIRCA Pintig, a community theatre organization then incorporated in its community theatre production called “Tug of War.” Building the capacity of Filipino domestic workers in Chicago helped strengthen the coalition of workers needed to pass the IL Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, making Illinois the sixth state in the country to pass such legislation.

What role does digital media play in amplifying community narratives and making scholarly work more accessible?

Digital media provides a key platform for reaching multiple audiences and allows us to visualize community narratives in creative ways. Through the Dis/Placements website, we have been able to craft an interactive and open access website that draws on oral histories, archival and ethnographic research, people’s histories/movements that are rendered through digital stories, political walking tours, interactive timelines, podcasts, essays, zines, and artwork, serving as a resource for scholars, researchers, students, and community organizers. The website allows us to foreground not only texts but also photographs, audio, and video – all of which contribute to a multi-sensorial experience as readers/viewers absorb the stories we are telling.  Digital media also allowed the project to have a wider reach as scholars and educators have included Dis/Placements in their courses in History, Anthropology, Urban Planning and invited us to present on the project or have taken their students on one of the digital political walking tours we have curated. Community organizers have used the project in political education work related to urban gentrification or in grassroots curricular work related to building sustainable community schools. The Dis/placements project has also served as a model of community engagement, leading to an invitation to present at Cornell University’s Einhorn Center for Community Engagement, among other spaces attempting to grapple with what it means to do this work of ethically engaging with communities.

As the founding director of the Global Asian Studies Program, what has guided your development of the curriculum and student engagement strategies?

In my classes, students have to turn in weekly written commentaries and I ask them if they have questions for me. One week, one of them surprised me with this question: “What type of tree would you be and why?” In response, I told them I have always been fascinated by the Banyan tree – or ficus benghalensis.  The Banyan tree is one of the hundreds of species of fig trees – that have often been referred to as the tree of life. The largest Banyan tree is said to be found in India – in Kolkata – it spans 5 acres and is 250 years old. Its roots are deep (and they grow outward), it is strong at the core, it often serves as a refuge and shelter, it is a source of food for many beings, and even a source of healing due to their medicinal properties. It stands, wildly, rooted in resistance and an expansive and strong presence for its community.  When I think of GLAS (and its predecessor Asian American Studies), I think of all the movements of the 1960s, the coalition work of the Third World Liberation Front, and the demands of the students who pushed for our academic program starting in 1991.  I owe my presence on this campus to these students who pushed to have people like me here.  When Asian American Studies was finally established in 2010 – in the infamous “KAKO” (Kick Ass Kick Off) celebration, one of the student leaders wrote a reflection about his participation as a student activist that was published in Nichi Bei News  where he said, “Often times, what many administrators failed to comprehend is that many students attend college because it is an essential part of taking the next step in life. But it is rare when students demand the ability and the right to learn. And that is exactly what those who wanted Asian American studies wanted.”

That relentless demand has been my compass ever since I got to UIC. It is the compass I hold on to not only as a source of inspiration but also as a source of strength especially in hard times.   Along with my colleagues, we worked to build a community where students could feel a sense of belonging, where they feel seen in our curriculum and in our relationships with the communities that surround us. But I also know that to build community is to be clear about who we are. As another student activist and member of the Asian American Coalition Committee phrased it:  GLAS is not just a program, it is a movement. We labor together as a movement. We dream together as a movement. We see our interconnectedness as a movement. And we act as a movement.

What advice would you give to students or researchers who want to engage in community-based research but are unsure how to begin?

The advice I give to students or researchers who engage in any research – whether community-based or not is the same.  As a scholar, you are always building on the knowledge of those who came before you, however innovative or original you perceive your work to be. So first, be diligent, careful and humble in reading the work of scholars in your field; remember that we are always standing on the shoulders of those who came before us. Second, be curious, and read broadly and widely beyond your field. Some of the best ideas come from interdisciplinary engagements. Third, while you are following a story, or taking an interest in a community, take the time to engage with that community by building relationships and listening intentionally for the people’s beat, alongside what you don’t hear. The conversations that do not happen or the people who are absent are as important as what is hyper visible. Lastly, ask yourself the “so what” question. Why does your research matter, and to whom? What is your research in service to beyond the advancement of your career?

You were recently recognized as a 2025–2026 University Scholar at UIC. What does this acknowledgement mean to you personally and professionally?

I am grateful and humbled by this award and the recognition of my work. I share this award with my colleagues and comrades whose scholarship, teaching, and labor to the institution and our profession I have benefited and learned from. I consider this award as an important platform for continuing to advance principles of social justice in our scholarship and teaching and to defend diversity, equity, and inclusion in our work.

What do you hope your scholarship and community work will contribute to future generations of scholars?

My scholarship and community work do not only belong to me. I believe that I have been able to pursue my scholarship and community work because of those who have come before me who have been a compass for my past and present trajectories.  So I hope to be able to do the same for future generations of scholars. I also hope that my work can be a reminder of the importance of storytelling and visibilizing histories that are erased or forced underground.  I hope that it can be a reminder of the importance of ethical engagements with communities. I hope it can be a reminder about always keeping front and center the stakes of one’s research.  And I hope that future generations of scholars will see my work not as an end point but as an ongoing project we continue to build together.

^[1] Nagar, Richa. 2014. Muddying Waters: Coauthoring Feminisms Across Scholarship and Activism. Urbana, Chicago, & Springfield: Univ of Illinois Press.