Fellow Reflections: Rosa Arevalo Leon
By Rosa Arevalo Leon (Spring 2026 Teaching Fellow, Fall 2025 Seminar Fellow)
Over the course of this year, participating in the China at CUNY Initiative (CACI) significantly expanded the way I think about Chinese culture, society, and politics. One of the most valuable lessons I took away from the program was the importance of integrating China not as an isolated topic, but as a central actor connected to broader global political, economic, and historical processes.
As a Teaching Fellow, I redesigned one of my classes on immigration policy by incorporating the Chinese experience in the United States as a central case study. Rather than teaching immigration only through laws and institutions, I used Chinese migration history to help students understand how immigration policy is deeply tied to race, labor markets, economic development, and political power. The class explored topics such as the California Gold Rush, railroad labor, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, and key Supreme Court cases including Chae Chan Ping v. United States and Wong Kim Ark. Through this approach, students were able to connect historical exclusionary policies to contemporary debates about citizenship, belonging, and immigration enforcement.
One important takeaway from redesigning this course was seeing how engaged students became when immigration was presented not only as a legal issue, but also as a human and political story. Using the Chinese case allowed students to examine contradictions within the American political system: immigrants were often economically necessary while simultaneously being socially excluded. This created space for meaningful classroom discussions about nationalism, racialization, labor exploitation, and the role of the state in defining who belongs in the nation.
The CACI seminars were especially helpful in providing interdisciplinary perspectives and resources that I could incorporate into my teaching. I appreciated how the program encouraged fellows to think comparatively and globally, rather than approaching China exclusively through geopolitics or international conflict. The discussions on migration, economic transformation, globalization, and diaspora helped me better connect Chinese experiences to broader themes already present in American Politics courses. In many ways, the fellowship reinforced the idea that U.S. politics cannot be fully understood without considering transnational processes and global interdependence.
Beyond the classroom, the fellowship also influenced my own research interests as a political science Ph.D. student focused on migration, inequality, and public policy. It encouraged me to think more carefully about migration as a multidirectional and global process shaped by both sending and receiving countries. I am very grateful for the opportunity to participate in the fellowship, and I believe programs like CACI play an important role in helping students, TAs, and instructors better understand an increasingly interconnected world.
0 Comments