Join Densho for a free professional development webinar for educators exploring how to teach about Japanese American incarceration during World War II in elementary settings. Learn from featured panelists Brian Niiya, Densho’s Content Director, and Dr. Noreen Naseem Rodriguez, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University and co-author of Teaching Asian America in Elementary Classrooms. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights and resources.
About the Panelists
Dr. Noreen Naseem Rodríguez is an Assistant Professor of Elementary Education and Educational Justice in the Department of Teacher Education and core faculty in the Asian Pacific American and Muslim Studies programs at Michigan State University. She engages critical race frameworks to explore how racial and cultural experiences impact the pedagogy and curricular enactment of Asian American and Latine pre- and in-service teachers. She also studies how educators teach so-called difficult histories to young learners through children’s literature and primary sources. Her current project examines the implementation of Asian American Studies in K-12 classrooms in California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, and Texas. She previously held tenure track positions at the University of Colorado Boulder (2021-2023) and Iowa State University (2017-2021).
Brian Niiya is a Sansei born and raised in Southern California to Nisei parents who were born and raised in Hawai’i. His maternal grandfather was one of the small number of Japanese Americans from Hawai’i who were interned, and his mother’s family went to Japan on an exchange ship during the war. Brian is a graduate of Harvey Mudd College and holds an M.A. in Asian American Studies from UCLA. His professional life has been dedicated to Japanese American public history and information management, having held various positions with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai’i that have involved managing collections, curating exhibitions, developing public programs, and producing videos, books, and websites. He has published many articles on Japanese American history in a variety of academic and mainstream publications and is the editor of the online Densho Encyclopedia, which draws on his prior Encyclopedia of Japanese American History, published in 1993 with a second edition in 2000.
