Intern Update: Introducing Terry Park
Hi, my name is Terry Park, and I’m a PhD candidate in the Cultural Studies Graduate Group at the University of California, Davis.
As an intern at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, I am conducting historical research on my dissertation, Aliens at the Border: The Korean Demilitarized Zone and the Asian/American Enemy. My dissertation explores the transnational relationship between the “last Cold War frontier” of the Korean DMZ and the “racial frontier” of Asian America, looking at the ways in which a Cold War discourse of containment, an environmental discourse of preservation, and a neo-liberal discourse of productivity reverberate within and between these two racialized spaces.
For my research, I have taken advantage of the wealth of resources in the DC metropolitan area—from the Asian Reading Room in the Library of Congress, to the military records in the National Archives II in College Park, Maryland, to the exhibitions, archives, and experts throughout the Smithsonian Institution. I have also assisted with various activities at the APAP, such as the Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s Asian Pacific Americans program and the National Portrait Gallery’s Portraiture Now focus on Asian Pacific America. I’m really happy and honored to be a part of such an amazing, dedicated, and lively staff.
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