Lily Wong creates space for diversity within the classroom

WASHINGTON – American University literature professor Lily Wong has spent the past six years creating new classes and ways of thinking about diversity, safe space and the Asian-American experience.

During that time, she’s created and re-imagined eight classes, all of them literature classes designed to, make space for diverse options and opportunities.

“It’s totally the students,” she said, when asked about the inspiration behind her classes. It’s about “what happens in classrooms before and then figuring out how far I can push the students or what students are actually invested in.”

When she began teaching at American, Wong noticed that of all the literature classes offered, only one dealt with Asian-American literature studies – and even that class was a generalization of the experience. Since then, she has worked with the College of Arts and Sciences to expand the classes offered so that she could create a space of learning.

“Asian-American lit was in the books when I got here but it wasn’t taught as frequently, and so this is where I see, kind of where I serve, the seven percent of API students on campus when they really can’t get specific Asian-American studies classes,” Wong said. The seven percent of Asian-Pacific Islanders make up approximately 1,160 undergraduate students on American’s campus.

The development of the courses generally takes about several months from the initial crafting, to the research, to the syllabi and the books Wong said.

The timeline differs depending on whether the classes are upper or lower level division, she said.

Her portion of crafting the classes takes up less time than the departments role. When asked about how long courses are developed from start to finish, the current department chair of literature, professor David Pike, said, “At least 18 months, probably more likely two years.” Later, he continued, saying, “There will be years when not a single new course gets developed, and then there will be years like now where I’ve lost count, because of the new core.”

Brad Knight, the director of American’s new general education program, AU Core, has partnered with faculty and staff since 2015 to develop the new curriculum that debuted this fall with the class of 2022.

Within AU Core, Knight has collaborated with Wong, saying, that he works “with Professor Wong in her capacity as the chair of the diversity and equity subcommittee, which she’s been a tremendous leader and significantly helped shape this integrative requirement so that students across the university have a meaningful experience.”

These characterizations of leadership follow Wong wherever she goes, from the literature department to the broader scope of American, especially within her students.

Amanda Luthy, a student in Wong’s Cultural Politics of the Digital World course, said, “She’s very supportive of everyone who speaks.” Wong has a high demand of her students, but “she’s not being hard for no reason – she wants her students to love it as much as she does,” Luthy said.

Wong’s favorite course isn’t the higher specialized classes, though. It’s the general education classes. It’s a space where those students who need her can find her and it’s the place where she can introduce “students to what would often times be seen as non-canonical works in literature departments but also larger histories of post-colonialism, racial capitalism” and more, she said.

Wong’s classes explore unique narratives, where people are able to confront uncomfortable truths in a safe space. She creates a window of learning, where the work is hard, but the end result is completely worth it.

“My favorite thing is being able to figure out theory in assignment and class discussions,” Luthy said. “I learned the most out of her class than the other classes this semester.”

Teaching isn’t the only thing Wong does. She wrote a book, “Transpacific Attachments: Sex Work, Media Networks, and Affective Histories of Chineseness,” which was released in February. However, even in her books, her students affect how certain things are written about.

Going back to her favorite class, she said, “Teaching these kind of broad classes, like Literature of the Global South, forced me to think through larger connections, larger patterns across literary movements,” which in turn enabled her to think through the contents of her book in a new way.

Not only does teaching help her think through her books, but the students themselves do.

“One very particular chapter had a documentary that was actually suggested to me by a student,” she said. “So, the last chapter was because of a student.”

She’s already thinking about her next book and where she can go with it. “Each of these classes are going to be seeds for a chapter in my new book,” she said.

Wong is on track to gain tenure, giving her the potential of having next fall off as a sabbatical. One thing she hopes to learn is coding.

“I’m going to spend a good amount of time learning coding,” she said. “I still have to figure out what kind of language. … I have to do a little bit more research, figure out which kind of script and where to learn it.”

Professor Lily Wong stands in her office in on the second story of Batelle-Tompkins at American University.