Waynesboro Public Schools sponsoring AAPI Community Conversation

Waynesboro Public Schools plans to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by hosting a community conversation with Waynesboro High School teacher Lorraine Dresch and Virginia Tech assistant professor Dr. S. Moon Cassinelli on Wednesday at 5 p.m. by Zoom.

Dresch teaches English, journalism, and Africana studies at WHS. A native of Wise County, she and completed an English BA with a theatre minor at UVA Wise and an English MA with a certificate in women’s and gender studies at Virginia Tech.

As an educator, Dresch’s passion is to create interdisciplinary learning experiences that center marginalized peoples and help students understand the historical roots of contemporary inequality. Dresch also serves as co-sponsor of the WHS Anti-Racism Club and co-chair of the WHS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee, and was recently accepted to the inaugural cohort of the Virginia Humanities K-12 Educator Fellowship.

Cassinelli is an assistant professor in the Department of English and the Women’s and Gender Studies program at Virginia Tech. Using feminist and queer of color critique to examine how interracial genealogies are formed as a result of U.S. militarization, Cassinelli’s research focuses on contemporary narratives of transnational adoption and kinship in the Korean diaspora.

Dresch and Cassinelli’s Spring 2022 publication in The Georgia Review, “Unconditionally Asian Americans: A Conversation on Korean Diasporic Identity in the U.S. South,” explores what it means to be part of the Korean diaspora in the U.S. South.