The East Asia Resource Center invites middle and high school educators to join the Global Asia(s) Summer Book Club from June to August 2026. Don’t miss this opportunity to partake in an online professional development reading series built around contemporary novels that trace the movement of people, ideas, and stories across place and time. Designed for educators across disciplines, the program helps participants build content knowledge, engage in collaborative discussion, and create a classroom-ready curriculum resource.
Rooted in the Global Asia(s) framework, this program approaches Asia transnationally and transculturally. Rather than treating Asia as a fixed place, Global Asia(s) asks how histories, identities, and narrative traditions move across borders and reshape our understanding of place, connection, migration, and history.
Book options
A History of Burning by Janika Oza
Janika Oza’s novel spans four generations and three continents, following a family’s movement from colonial Gujarat through East Africa to Canada. It offers a powerful lens on migration, displacement, empire, and the ways belonging is continually renegotiated across time and place.
The Man with the Compound Eyes by Wu Ming-Yi
Wu Ming-Yi’s novel, translated from Chinese, brings together ecological crisis, Indigenous knowledge, and Taiwan-centered perspectives in a story shaped by a massive island of trash drifting across the Pacific. The text offers rich classroom entry points into climate change, environmental humanities, Indigenous perspectives, and Taiwanese identity.
How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang
C Pam Zhang reimagines the American frontier through the experiences of two Chinese American siblings in the era of the Gold Rush. The novel invites discussion of race, grief, migration, Asian American history, empire, and the myths that shape national identity in the United States.
The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
Set in 1908 Manchuria, Yangsze Choo’s novel blends Chinese and Japanese fox-spirit folklore with murder, memory, and the final years of the Qing dynasty. It is especially well suited for exploring East Asian folklore traditions, historical fiction, and early twentieth-century geopolitics.
We Do Not Part by Han Kang
Set on Jeju Island and in Seoul, Han Kang’s novel centers on friendship and the memory of the 1948 Jeju Massacre. As a work by the 2024 Nobel laureate, it offers an especially compelling opportunity to engage questions of memory, violence, historical trauma, and contemporary Korean history.
How the program works
Participants choose two or three books from the summer schedule and complete each book as part of a three-week cycle. During each cycle, teachers read the novel and a short framing packet, post reflections and responses to peers asynchronously on Padlet, and participate in a live two-hour Zoom seminar. At the end of the program, participants complete a capstone curriculum project. Total program credit is 20 PD hours, with 8 hours per book and a 4-hour capstone.
Summer schedule
Period 1: June 1-24
Choose one:
- A History of Burning by Janika Oza
- The Man with the Compound Eyes by Wu Ming-Yi
Zoom sessions: Wednesday, June 24 and Thursday, June 25, 2026 (3:00 – 5:30 PM)
Period 2: July 6-26
Choose one:
- How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang
- The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
Zoom sessions: Wednesday, July 29 and Thursday, July 30, 2026 (3:00 – 5:30 PM)
Period 3: July 27-August 16
- We Do Not Part by Han Kang
Zoom session: Wednesday, August 12, 2026 (3:00 – 5:30 PM)
Program structure
Each book follows a three-week sequence:
Week 1: Read and orient
Participants read the novel and a short framing packet that introduces key historical, cultural, or thematic contexts. They then post an initial reflection in a shared Padlet space.
Week 2: Respond and connect
Participants respond to peers’ posts and engage a short secondary source, such as a scholarly excerpt, map, or visual resource, that deepens the context of the novel.
Week 3: Zoom seminar and teaching application
Each cycle culminates in a live two-hour Zoom seminar, followed by a short assignment designed for classroom use, such as a lesson sketch, annotated passage, or discussion guide.
Capstone project
Participants complete a final project that translates their learning into classroom practice. They may choose one of two options:
Option 1: Teaching the text
Create a classroom-ready resource, such as a lesson plan, discussion guide, or annotated excerpt, for using one of the novels directly with students.
Option 2: Thinking with the text
Use the books as intellectual catalysts to rethink an existing unit by incorporating new themes, historical contexts, or comparative perspectives drawn from the reading.
A note on classroom use: The primary goal of this series is to deepen educators’ own understanding of the cultures, histories, and narratives that shape Asia and its diasporas. While many participants will find passages, themes, and frameworks from these books that translate directly into their teaching, not every book will be appropriate for every classroom context. Some may be best suited for AP or upper-level courses; others may inform your teaching without being assigned to students. The curriculum resource you develop as your final project can take either form, a lesson built around a book, or an adjustment to existing curriculum that’s shaped by what you encountered in your reading. Both are equally valued.
Capstone project windows
- July 21-25
- August 11-15
Who should apply
This program is intended for middle and high school educators in grades 6-12 across disciplines, including ELA, social studies, history, and world languages. No prior background in Asian studies is required. The program is designed for educators who are curious, reflective, and interested in bringing diverse global perspectives into their teaching.
Program Benefits
- Free copies of the books selected
- 20 Free WA OSPI Clock Hours
- Online Resources
Registration
This program is open to K-12 educators of all grades and subjects. Please fill this Google Form to register. Space is limited.
This program is sponsored by the East Asia Resource Center at the University of Washington, and funded by a Freeman Foundation grant in support of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA).