Hundreds of alumni returned to campus to join students and faculty in discussing issues facing Asian Americans during the fourth Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance Global Summit.
From Oct. 13 to 15, the Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance hosted its global summit, “Beyond Representation,” featuring keynote speaker Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07. Harvard-affiliated Asian American alumni — which included University faculty, CEOs, and politicians — also gave addresses and spoke on panels. The H4A Global Summit occurs every four years, with the inaugural summit launching in 2010.
The summit kicked off Friday afternoon with a celebration of new Asian American studies faculty, including Government professor Taeku Lee and History professor Erika Lee, who joined Harvard as a part of a three-year ethnic studies cluster hire initiative that concluded last year. The kickoff also featured speeches from University Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 and American Repertory Theater artistic director Diane M. Paulus ’88.
On Saturday and Sunday, summit organizers and speakers hosted breakout sessions, with topics including Asian American and Pacific Islander narratives in the entertainment industry, the impact of cultural identities on health care, Asian American issues in media, and activism against anti-Asian hate.
Wu, who holds degrees from the College and Harvard Law School, delivered the summit’s keynote address. Wu is the first woman, person of color, and Asian American to be elected mayor of Boston.
While Wu was studying at Harvard, her mother’s health began to decline, forcing her to care for her younger siblings and take over the family business.
“That’s how someone who had no exposure at all to politics or government growing up — probably very suspicious in our family and afraid of government in some ways, given our immigration history — was immersed in just about every government system,” she said. “There was a school system, hospital and health…
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