Project Team
Thomas Cleary
Co-Principal Investigator
Thomas Cleary is an Assistant Professor Archivist/Librarian at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY. He received his MLS at Queens College, CUNY, and MA in Liberal Studies at The Graduate Center, CUNY, specializing in Digital Humanities. His research interests are in computational text analysis and data visualization, particularly with the goal of making archival collections more accessible and understandable. His current work is available on CUNY Academic Works.
Tomonori Nagano
Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Tomonori Nagano is a Professor of Japanese and Linguistics at LaGuardia Community College. He received his Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Linguistics from the CUNY Graduate Center and his MA in TESOL from New York University. His research interests are second language acquisition and Japanese as a heritage language. He has published in various linguistics/applied linguistics journals such as Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, Modern Language Journal, and Foreign Language Annals (See https://www.t-nagano.com/publications/ for the publication list). Dr. Nagano is a certified tester and rater for ACTFL's OPI and AAPPL (Japanese) and is currently serving as an executive board member for the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages (ADFL) at MLA.
Joyce Ma
Research Assistant
Joyce Ma grew up in Chinatown/Lower East Side speaking a mix of Taishanese/Hoisan, English, and Cantonese, while playing wood tag at Forsyth Park, but she currently resides in Sheepshead Bay/Homecrest, Brooklyn, and spends a lot of her time waiting for the train or bus to arrive. She holds a M.S.Ed in School Counseling from Brooklyn College. Before her research role with the COVID-19 Asian American Oral History Project, she has also worked in nonprofit, NYC Department of Education, labor union organizing, public higher education and policy advocacy. At the heart of her work, she listens deeply, asks questions, and holds space to bridge connection and cultivate belonging.
Mariana Lopez de Castilla
Research Assistant
Mariana Lopez de Castilla is a freelance Researcher and Archivist based in New York City. She received her M.S at Pratt Institute School of Information with a focus on Archives, and her M.A in Liberal Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research interests include New York City based history and activism, particularly looking at the role of emotional labor in the latter.
