Office Location: Ketchum 355
Pronouns: she / her / hers
Education
M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Folklore, 2021
B.S., Northwestern University - Music with minors in U.S. History and the Humanities, 2017
Research Interests
Asian American history, material culture, ethnography, affect theory
Julia Shizuyo Popham’s interests lie at the intersection of affect, material culture, and racialized state violence. Her current work surrounds an extensive collection of paintings artist Fukunosuke Kusumi produced while confined in the Santa Anita Detention Facility in Arcadia, California and the Amache Incarceration Camp in Southeastern Colorado from 1942-1945. Through this work, she investigates the ways in which Kusumi engaged artmaking to endure seemingly unendurable conditions (gaman) and even make joy in the crevices of everyday trauma. In addition to her research, Julia volunteers with the Amache Alliance, an alliance dedicated to preserving the Amache incarceration site and its history. She also works with the Center for Humanities & the Arts, where she helps coordinate projects dedicated to educating CU Boulder and Boulder County residents about anti-Asian racism and ways of becoming active bystanders against anti-Asian hate.