OUR MISSION

The Asian Pacific Islander Graduate Student Alliance (APIGSA) at UC Santa Barbara is an organization that strives to create and maintain spaces of support for graduate students of Asian panethnicity, while advocating for a more critically accurate representation of Asian American students. APIGSA aims to carry forward critical conversations that are frequently read illegible and absorbed into the background. The Asian panethnic community’s plurality of experiences contributes to a rich archive of shared knowledge that networks across ostensibly separate incidents of social injustice. We welcome opportunities to critically engage notions of community in our development as students, individuals, and community members.

Joyhanna “Joy” Yoo Garza (she/her) is a third-year PhD student in Linguistics. Her research interests include language and music; language, gender, and sexuality; race and language; and embodiment and affect. She works on youth culture and Korean popular media. Joy’s work also relies on theoretical frameworks from Ethnic Studies and Feminist Studies. Joy is the founding president of the Asian Pacific Islander Graduate Student Alliance. She is particularly passionate about teaching and being a resource for undergraduate students. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing and traveling with her partner.

Founder

Joyhanna Garza

MEET THE TEAM

Naomi Joseph

President

Naomi Joseph joined the UCSB Sociology department in 2018 as a PhD student. She studies South Asian American social movements, activism, and culture. Before coming to UCSB, she worked as a Senior Analyst for Abt Associates in the DC metro area, and as a Program Officer at Financial Services Volunteer Corps. Naomi grew up in the Detroit area and holds a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Michigan. In addition to her duties as President of the APIGSA, she also served as a member of the Sociology Graduate Student Association in the 2019-2020 academic year. Naomi is excited to use her platform as president to build on APIGSA's links to other graduate associations to better serve the intersectional identities of the API community, as well as mobilize the API community to advocate for improved conditions for minority populations across campus.

Janna Haider

Vice President

Janna Haider is a second-year PhD student in the UCSB History Department. She works on the history of US immigration law and its role as a racializing process on the identities and bodies of South Asian immigrants to the United States in the early twentieth century. Prior to coming to UCSB, she finished an MA in South Asian Studies at the University of Washington. She lived in Seattle for seven years, working with a youth-centered community center. She brings to APIGSA a focus on mutual aid and direct action organizing.

Donna Anderson

Treasurer

Donna is a fourth-year PhD student in History and joined API-GSA in the 2017-2018 school year. Donna is passionate about giving voice to Asian-American/Asian populations at UCSB and creating inclusive environments that empower all graduate students. She has previous served as President (2019-2020) and Vice President (2018-2019) during which she worked closely with UCSB Reads to arrange book discussions, led a private student meeting with author Thi Bui, served as a representative for the Pan-Asian Network (PAN) and organized API-GSA's involvement with UCSB's Asian Resource Center (ARC). Further, she is a recipient of the Graduate Student Association's Dixon-Levy Service Award (2018-2019).

As a scholar and a proud Nebraskan, Donna's research focuses on the history of Asian Americans in the Midwest. Additionally, she is very much addicted to Diet Coke and Instagram.

Misa Nguyen

Community Liaison

Misa is a second-year PhD student in the Department of History. Her research focuses on pregnancy as a contested zone in the late Roman Empire. Her interest in maternal health also extends to modern discussions around pregnancy and reproductive justice.

In her spare time, Misa is a proud dog parent and enjoys mystery novels.