We’re thrilled to announce this year’s AAC June Yom Student Award winner, Joanna Yeh! Joanna will be working on a research project this summer focused on painter Bernice Bing and the intersectionality of Asian America, art and queer community.
The June Yom Student Award, gift of Eugene Y. Lao ‘91, supports a current UNC Chapel Hill student with a grant of $2,500.
Bio: Joanna Yeh is a second-year undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), majoring in Women’s and Gender Studies and Political Science, and minoring in Chinese Studies. Outside of the classroom, she is pursuing conversations and academic discourse around Asian American studies which she hopes to bring to the campus. Most recently, Joanna began working with fellow undergraduate students to advocate for an Asian American studies program and additional resources at UNC-CH. Additionally, as a student executive member of the UNC Asian American Center (AAC), she is working within and beyond the university to explore her research and advocacy prowess.
Research Summary: I intend to research Bernice Bing, a twentieth-century queer Asian American painter who was based in San Francisco and who only recently began to gain national recognition. Bing, affectionately known as Bingo, was a focal point of the Beat movement in the 1950s and was an active member in the founding of the South of Market Cultural Center (SOMAR or SOMArts), to name a few achievements. Additionally, her work is now being featured in the San Francisco Asian Art Museum in a gallery called, Into View: Bernice Bing. While my research will focus on Bernice Bing, I will also pursue the topics surrounding the intersectionality of Asian America, art, and the queer community, contextualizing her in her history as well as her greater impact today.