Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

‘Dean of Asian American journalism’ to speak at anniversary event

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Asian American Studies Program at the University of Illinois is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a conference that will explore its history and its future.

The conference, which is free and open to the public, will be March 2 at the university’s Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana.

Two panel discussions are planned. Panelists include U. of I. professors, graduate students and prominent Asian American Illinois alumni.

“We see the 10th anniversary celebration as an opportunity to recognize the contributions of all those who have helped to build a successful Asian American Studies Program,” said Kent Ono, the director of the program.

The keynote speaker is K.W. (Kyung Won) Lee, a U. of I. alumnus, Korean American activist and investigative journalist who has won 29 professional awards during his career and is widely recognized as the dean of Asian American journalism.

Lee, who was born in Kaesong, North Korea, immigrated to the U.S. in 1950 and earned his master’s degree in journalism at Illinois in 1955. He became the first Asian immigrant to work for a mainstream newspaper on the U.S. mainland. He wrote for the Kingsport Times (Tennessee), the Charleston Gazette (West Virginia) and, for 25 years, for The Sacramento Union (California).

His two-part series in 1977 for the Union about the 1973 murder conviction of Chol Soo Lee, also a Korean immigrant, led to a pan-Asian movement nationwide and ultimately to Chol Soo Lee’s exoneration and reintegration into San Francisco society in 1983.

In 1997, after 40 years as a reporter, editor and publisher in mainstream and ethnic journalism, Lee was featured in the Newseum’s first News History gallery in Arlington, Va.

He also is included in the Newseum’s newspeople database – one of only 500 “significant newspeople included because of his accomplishments,” said Cathy Trost, director of exhibit development at the Newseum, which will re-open next fall.

Three years earlier, Lee became the first Asian journalist to receive the Free Spirit Award from the Freedom Forum.

In 1990 – at a time of heightened ethnic tensions in Los Angeles – Lee launched and edited the Korean Times English Edition based in Los Angeles, and at the same time set up an internship program for Asian Americans and other minorities.

In 1987 Lee was the first recipient of the Asian American Journalists Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1979, Lee founded the first national English-language Korean American newspaper, Koreatown Weekly, also in Los Angeles.

Because of his ongoing investigative journalism courses on college campuses and his student and community conferences, Lee is regarded as “a most passionate and inspirational mentor for thousands of Asian American college students across the nation,” Ono said.

Now with 14 core faculty members and 10 affiliated faculty members, the AAS Program has become “one of the most respected programs in Asian American Studies in the United States,” Ono said.

Read Next

Life sciences Portrait of the research team posing together.

Minecraft players can now explore whole cells and their contents

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists have translated nanoscale experimental and computational data into precise 3D representations of bacteria, yeast and human epithelial, breast and breast cancer cells in Minecraft, a video game that allows players to explore, build and manipulate structures in three dimensions. The innovation will allow researchers and students of all ages to navigate […]

Arts Photo of seven dancers onstage wearing blue tops and orange or yellow flowing skirts. The backdrop is a Persian design.

February Dance includes works experimenting with live music, technology and a ‘sneaker ballet’

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The dance department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will present February Dance 2025: Fast Forward this week at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. February Dance will be one of the first performances in the newly renovated Colwell Playhouse Theatre since its reopening. The performances are Jan. 30-Feb. 1. Dance professor […]

Honors portraits of four Illinois researchers

Four Illinois researchers receive Presidential Early Career Award

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Four researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. The winners this year are health and kinesiology professor Marni Boppart, physics professor Barry Bradlyn, chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Ying […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010