Chrisna C. Khuon

Chrisna Khuon is a community org. consultant, scholar, activist, and part-time emerging artist based in Lynn, MA. Her art work currently explores her conflicted identity, joy, intergenerational trauma, social justice, and traditional Cambodian ‘Kbach’ design-- sometimes intersectionally. She was an apprentice with Cambodian Master Ceramist, Yary Livan, for 2 yrs working under traditional apprenticeship grants in Massachusetts. She is learning to share her storytelling works more and more as she ages because it feels right.

Chrisna has a B.A. in Peace and Conflict studies from UMass Lowell. She is the founder of a community festival, former director of the Lowell Southeast Asian Water Festival, and former project manager at the Center for AsAm Studies, UMass Lowell. She is now working for the Anti-Asian Racism Project at (I***).

RESEARCH

2/2022 - Present,

Anti-Asian/Asian American Racism and Covid-19 related social, economic, & other experiences for AAPI in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

2/2019 - 2021, Artist Apprenticeship

Studios of Master Ceramist Yary Livan, Western Ave. Studios

Funded by the Mass. Cultural Council (2020-21).

1/2018 - 4/2018, Research Affiliate

Bophana Audiovisual Resource and Archive Center, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

4/2015-1/2016, Research Assistant — Civic Engagement in Lowell and Merrimack Region

9/2014-9/2016, Research Collaborator/Co-Author — Underrepresented Asian American Student College and Career Readiness

CAAS, UMass Lowell

9/2014-9/2016, Research Assistant — Asian American Student Experiences

UML & Office of Student Affairs, Middlesex Community College

EVENTS, PROGRAMMING, and OUTREACH

9/2022 - 10/2022, Events Organizer

          • 10/24 - An Afternoon with Curtis Chin, Screening ‘Dear Corky’, 40th Anniversary of murder of Vincent Chin.

7/2017 - 07/2021, Planning Committee Member

2021 Southeast Asian American Studies Conference

10/2019-3/2020, Documentary Producer/ Project Consultant

Lao Food Foundation

Oversee a series of discussions were hosted, a round table talk, and a larger documentary of the cultural retreat. Advise on best practices.

8/2018-10/2020, Co-Founder and Project Manager

Voices of Lynn Initiative/Voices of Lynn Festival

Co-founded a culturally competent initiative to highlight, empower, and encourage community voices in my city in response to the city’s motivation for gentrification and support the rise of organizations who model cultural appropriation and gentrification frameworks. The first event was a 3-day festival and community-based platform to celebrate the minority-majority communities that comprise Lynn, MA— including the third largest Cambodian American (refugee) population in the U.S. as well as Black, Latinx and other Southeast Asian American communities. Coordinated to have local and state artists, athletes, scholars, small business owners, non-profit workers, healthcare workers, civil-servants, and other community members participate and engage in opening ceremony performances, community conversations, a film showcase, speaker-series, and arts & exhibitions: 400+ attendees; created with zero-budget/fundraising.

6/2019 - 10/2019, Executive Director

Lowell Southeast Asian Water Festival

12/2017 - 1/2019, Community Outreach Consultant and Partnership Coordinator

Southeast Asian Digital Archive at UMass Lowell

    • Advisory Board member, 2019 - 2022.

1/2018 - 1/2019, Development Grant Consultant

Angkor Dance Troupe Inc.

6/2016 - 7/2017, Project Manager

Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund (NSRCF) Scholarship

6/2016-4/2017, Artist Liaison and Illustrator

Southeast Asian Folktales Anthology

5/2016 - 7/2017, Conference Assistant Coordinator

Southeast Asian American Studies Conference, UMass Lowell

2/2016 - 3/2017, Project Manager

High School Immigrant Parents Introduction to Lowell High School

9/2014 - 4/2018, Event Coordinator

Center for Asian American Studies (CAAS), University Massachusetts, Lowell

Below is a list of events I coordinated/co-coordinated:

          • 3/27/2018. Sophal Ear “Cambodia 25 Years Later: The UN, Democracy, and the Future of International Assistance”

          • 9/22/2016 - Poetry Reading by Monica Sok and Chath pierSath

          • 9/8/2016 – Asian American Cultures Festival: Looking Back to the Future with Angkor Dance Troupe and Flying Orb Productions

          • 2/11/2016 – “1975” Panel with Anida Yoeu Ali, LinDa Saphan & Amy Lee Sanford

          • 3/30-4/3/2015 – “Forty Years Later: Where Are We Now?”

          • 4/29/2015 – Book Launch with Shehong Chen “Daughter of Good Fortune: A Twentieth-Century Chinese Peasant Memoir” (served also as videographer)

          • 4/2/2015 – Asian American Cultures Festival: “The Kingdom of Kambuja”

PRESENTATIONS

2023 “Union’: Navigating Contemporary Art in Public, Institutional, and Digital Community Spaces” presenting art works & analysis with artists Peter Pa and Russel De Leon. Association for Asian American Studies Conference. Long Beach, CA.

2021 “Controlling Images: History & Preservation” A discussion with Executive Director of Bophana Center, Sopheap Chea, moderated by Chrisna Khuon, Triennial Southeast Asian American Studies Conference Plenary Session, San Jose State University.

2021 “Healing SEA Monsters Through Zines”  Southeast Asian American Studies Conference, San Jose State University.

2019 “Millennial Southeast Asian Diasporic Artists on the New Frontier: Products of War, Code Switching, Fractured Identities” Association for Asian American Studies Conference. Madison, WI.

2017 “Community Engagement: Telling & Collecting Stories.” Southeast Asian American Studies Conference. Lowell, MA.

2017 “The Work You Love”: Asian American Millennial Perspectives.” Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) Conference. Portland, OR.

2017 “Rock the Boat! Connecting the Dots Between Cultural Engagement and Activism.” Asians and Pacific Americans for Higher Education Conference. Oakland, CA.

2016 “Social Media Workshop for PhD Candidates.” UMass Lowell Graduate School of Education.

2016 “Introduction of Asian American Studies.” Dartmouth College Office of Pluralism and Leadership.

2016 “Revitalizing the Fight for Asian American Studies: A Resounding Call Comprised of Undergraduate Student Voices--with Dartmouth, Fordham, UMass Lowell, and UMass Boston.” Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) Conference. Miami, FL.

2016 “Asian American Roots: The Current and Historical Role of Youth and Undergraduate Organizing in Asian American Studies.” Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) Conference. Miami, FL.

2015 “Southeast Asian American College and Career Readiness Panel Discussion.” Asian American Student Success Symposium at UMass Boston. Boston, MA.

2015 “Southeast Asian American College and Career Readiness: Preliminary Findings.” UMass Lowell Student Research Symposium. Lowell, MA.

2015 “Southeast Asians Pushing Boundaries in Education.” Co-presented with Dr. Phitsamay Uy and Dr. Sue Kim. Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) Conference. Evanston, IL.

PUBLICATIONS

2016 Uy, P. S., Kim, S. J., & Khuon, C. C. “College and Career Readiness of Southeast Asian American College Students.” New England. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, pp. 1-23.