APACT Lecture | In Conversation with Steve Elkins, Bing Li, and Danee Hazama
APACT is excited to welcome Steve Elkins, Bing Li, and Danee Hazama for a lively conversation on the Pre-Columbian Maritime Exploration of the Americas. This event is open to all members of the Caltech community, and lunch will be provided as supplies last.
More about this event and our speakers
Those of us brought up in the United States were taught that Christopher Columbus discovered America. Most never gave it much thought, even though millions of people were already living here. The question of when these people arrived and how they got here is finally beginning to become clear.
Explorer Steve Elkins and Chinese author Bing Li have spent the last several years interviewing scholars and others who have been researching this subject for decades. Their findings were recently published in China as a non-fiction book titled, "They Believe the Chinese Arrived Before Columbus," and is already starting its fourth printing. An English version will be released soon.
Joining Steve and Bing will be their colleague Danee Hazama from Tahiti, who spent decades photographing indigenous people of the Pacific Basin and has long been a member of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, traveling the ocean in traditional sailing canoes.
All three of them recently made a presentation at the recently opened Keqiutou Archaeological Museum in Pingtan Island in China, which is focused on the latest discoveries regarding the Pacific Diaspora of humans throughout the Pacific Basin. Danee's images are featured as part of a cooperative exhibit with the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California.
This is sure to be a lively conversation about this fascinating topic!
Learn more about APACT!
The Asian Pacific Americans at Caltech (APACT) is an Employment Resource Group for staff, faculty, postdocs, and other working professionals at Caltech who self-identify as Asian American Pacific Islander. APACT is open to all employees with the goal of focusing on the following five main pillars: 1) professional development; 2) education, advocacy, and awareness; 3) affinity and being a safe space; 4) community outreach; and 5) celebrating AAPI heritage. Caltech community members who are interested in joining can fill out this form.