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Uplifting Asian and Asian American Experiences
“I’ve always been interested in the stories and experiences of North Carolinians, especially those whose stories haven’t been shared as much or who have been marginalized and not paid attention to as much,” said Sophie To, PhD candidate in health behavior at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
That’s exactly what To set out to do in her final chapter at Carolina by uplifting Asian and Asian American voices. To grew up in Chapel Hill but spent much of her adulthood out of the area; she was happy to end her educational journey at home.
As a part of her PhD dissertation, To wanted to use oral history. When she was a field scholar in Carolina’s Southern Oral History Program in 2022, she discovered Southern Mix, a project that works to reflect the experiences of Asians and Asian Americans in North Carolina and the larger region of the South through oral histories. With her interests in the South, storytelling and qualitative methods in public health, Southern Mix was the perfect avenue to complement To’s studies. She joined Southern Mix in 2022, and she’s been working with the project ever since.
To’s main role in Southern Mix has been recording and conducting interviews with Asian American community members across North Carolina and in the South. She processes the interviews, which includes transcribing the audio, editing the transcripts, and making sure consent and bio forms are organized. To is responsible for reaching out to narrators or interviewees if there are any concerns or issues, as well as formatting everything properly for archiving.
Most recently, she helped curate the inaugural Southern Mix traveling exhibit, featuring some of the stories collected. The exhibit has been on view at sites throughout North Carolina, including public schools and libraries. Curation for the exhibit started with placards; photos of each narrator, interviewee or their family; and quotes from their oral histories. The placards include QR codes that link to the full audio recordings of the interviews. The exhibit is interactive, so people walk around and engage in different ways. Currently, there are 14 stories included in the exhibit, all from around North Carolina.
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Southern Mix seeks to represent Asian and Asian Americans in Carolina’s archives.
To has enjoyed many parts of Southern Mix and the oral history process.
“I love traveling to different places to do oral histories,” To said. “I love talking and interviewing different people — there’s nothing like it.”
She also explained another aspect that’s incredibly important in the work she does: the processing, organizing and formatting of interviews.
“We want to make sure they’re accessible to as many people as possible, and we want to make sure that they’re actually formatted and organized in a way that can be made accessible through the archives at Wilson Library,” To said.
It’s a tedious process to go through an auto-generated transcript and fix mistakes, but To enjoys making sure she is a part of getting the stories collected and transcribed correctly.
Recently, To teamed up with two artists to create the Asian Joy Project, where the team collected oral histories and turned these into a mural in collaboration with the narrators and the broader community. Though that was a separate project, To was able to use the Southern Oral History Program and Asian American Center (which operates Southern Mix with the support of the Carolina Asia Center and the Southern Oral History Program) resources. She will donate those oral histories to Southern Mix to add to the collection of Asian and Asian American stories.
Southern Mix has been a great way for To to finish her Carolina journey.
“I deeply care about North Carolinians and Southern experiences, and I want to uplift Asian American experiences, especially communities that have been overlooked for such a long time,” To said. “Southern Mix is trying to do just that, and I’m grateful that I’ve been able to be a part of it. It’s definitely a big part of my journey of being committed to our state, the people of our state and the communities here through Southern Mix.”
