Mika Thornburg received her Ph.D. from the Department of History in 2024. She is interested in public-facing work that explores the history of race and migration in the United States, specifically the experiences of Asian Americans. She has completed several projects on this topic. She performed curatorial work for the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation’s (SBTHP) Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens exhibit project. She developed digital content and curriculum with Bakersfield College’s Digital Delano archive. Her dissertation research focuses on Japanese migration in the post-World War II period and themes of empire, race, and gender.
Connect with Mika on LinkedIn.
Read about Mika’s internship with Digital Delano, an archive hosted by Bakersfield College Delano Campus Library. Watch her interview with Digital Delano Program Director, Oliver Rosales, about her work with the archive.
Browse the “Learning Through Local Sources” resources Mika created during her internship with Bakersfield College’s Digital Delano archive, including her website on Asian American Migrations.
Read about the results of Mika’s curatorial work on the Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens exhibit project for the SBTHP.
Read Mika’s post on the Public Humanities Graduate Fellows Blog, which discusses the potentials and pitfalls of museums and archives displaying historical sources on new digital mediums.
Watch Mika’s presentation, part of her internship at Bakersfield College, on integrating material from the Digital Delano archive into the classroom and its benefits to students and the broader Bakersfield community:
Watch Mika’s Fall 2020 Public Humanities Graduate Fellows Program Capstone Presentation: