Meet SAYHU's New Interns!
By Jennifer Koshy and Saaj Patel
SAYHU invites our community to learn more about our new interns for Spring 2021. As a feminist collective, SAYHU has always viewed collaboration as a feminist practice, so fittingly, our interns will be working together on a variety of projects while seeking greater collaboration and inspiration from the community. This post concludes with an invitation for submissions for SAYHU’s Preservation Project.
How did you learn about SAYHU and what made you start getting involved?
JK: I first learned about SAYHU through Dr. Quinn, when I was taking her Caribbean Societies and Cultures class at UH. I had wanted to get involved with the organization for a while but only got the chance to do so when its programming switched to an online format during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, I attended the Virtual Summer Institute (and dragged Saaj along for moral support). SAYHU’s VSI was unlike the other networking/leadership training events that I had participated in before, which was mainly due to the accepting and inclusive environment that SAYHU fostered in our virtual space. I was inspired to commit my time to SAYHU first as a volunteer Blog Editor and now as an Outreach Intern because it became clear to me that SAYHU is committed to empowering and making space for diverse identities that are not often included in other South Asian social justice groups.
SP: I actually found SAYHU through Jennifer, who was telling me about this summer institute she was planning to participate in. After doing my research and learning more about SAYHU, my interest was piqued! Up until then, I didn’t have that much experience with social justice groups, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get involved. The range of SAYHU’s curriculum pages showed me the dedication and effort put into community education. This all led to me applying to the Virtual Summer Institute. During the Institute, I had the opportunity to meet people with similar interests and I found myself continuing the conversation virtually with my cohort members in topics like anthropology, books, and cooking. When Dr. Quinn made an announcement for intern positions, I knew this would be a great way to give back to my newfound community. Being able to work on projects like curriculum pages and social media is a gratifying experience because it means that I can create resources for future cohorts to come.
SAYHU has established a variety of programming since its launch, including an annual Summer Institute, a Summit, and eight new Curriculum Pages. What would you like to see SAYHU develop next?
JK: When Saaj and I met with Dr. Quinn before the start of our internship, one thing we came to a consensus on was the need for resources within the South Asian community that destigmatize mental health. One of my goals for this internship is to create a Mental Health Education curriculum page that addresses the role of trauma, language, and community in cultivating a culture of mental health. Our community members regularly share outstanding resources on mental health in our virtual discussions and meetings, and I would like to compile these into this curriculum page. Of course, this curriculum page would not fully serve SAYHU’s community unless we encourage additional dialogue on the subject, so I plan to continue the conversation on mental health within our community to make sure that the resource that I am creating is reflective of our collective needs.
SP: Part of the Summer Institute’s agenda was the discussion of personal, lived experiences as well as more general issues faced within the South Asian community. Participation in these dialogues not only meant sharing pieces from my life but also hearing and taking in those of others. Along with topics such as anti-blackness, caste, and colorism, sexual health and education are other important conversations that we should have in our community. My plan for this page is to not only highlight educational material on safe and protective sex practices, but also sexual orientations, resources for coming out, gender identities, and laws in Texas. With this compilation, I hope that readers can build awareness of sexual health and strengthen or explore their identity.
SAYHU has been developing the Preservation Project, our archive for oral histories from our community, since our inception. As interns, how do you plan to grow the Preservation Project?
JK: One of our goals coming into this internship was to contribute at least one oral history to the SAYHU archive. We want the Preservation Project to reflect SAYHU’s vision of making space for diverse South Asian experiences. That includes the stories of South Asians who identify as minorities within their communities and who are not represented by the heteronormative, gender normative, Upper Caste, elitist, model minority narratives that are often used to depict the South Asian experience. I’m a firm believer that we all come from diverse backgrounds and that no two stories are the same, so I invite you to join us on our journey to document our community’s varied stories.
SP: In addition to the Preservation Project functioning as a space for underrepresented voices, it is also a space we want to be accessible for more audiences. To achieve this goal, Jennifer and I will add transcriptions to current and future audio recordings. This way, we hope to reach wider audiences while being mindful of accessibility needs within our community. Our inclusive approach aims to celebrate the multiplicities within the South Asian community in Texas by respecting and amplifying their voices.
On that note, we would like to formally invite members of our SAYHU community to reach out to us to share their oral histories. Our practice of conducting oral histories is based on a feminist foundation; consent and accessibility are at the forefront of what we are endeavoring to create with the Preservation Project.
If you’d like to contribute your own oral history, please read this first. If you’d rather have us host the interview on any virtual platform, please contact us through email or social media, and we will set up and facilitate the meeting.
We accept submissions from all members of our community and hope that you will take advantage of this opportunity to develop this archive of stories, memories, and lived experiences with us.