Our Louisville Institute-funded oral history project aimed at capturing, analyzing, and interpreting the lived faith experiences of first-generation East Asian American Christians has generated a variety of insights and resources, and has prompted us to pursue multiple avenues of sharing our discoveries. While still in the process of finalizing some materials for more public-facing platforms, we have already undertaken several key dissemination strategies. These include: scholarly presentations, working seminars with students and researchers, preliminary written analyses, collaborative digital humanities projects, and plans for a robust, multi-format public resource portal.
1. Scholarly and Educational Presentations
We have convened multiple working seminars over the course of the research. Initially, these sessions were primarily for internal analysis—discussing, coding, and interpreting approximately 60 oral history interviews. Yet, as the project advanced, these seminars also became instructive for research assistants, visiting scholars, and advanced graduate students. In these settings, we shared our initial coding methodologies, explained our theoretical frameworks (e.g., “narrative constraint” vs. “narrative surplus”), and workshopped emergent themes like sacred value, transpacific migration, denominational identity, and family as a doctrinally significant lens for Asian American theological reflection.
These working seminars, although initially internal, effectively disseminated our methods and findings among an academic community, including MTS and PhD students as well as affiliated scholars. Observers at these sessions learned how we approach coding and analysis of oral histories, how we engage in qualitative research design, and how we relate narrative data to broader theological questions.
2. Fostering Collaborative Methodologies and Mentorship
Part of our dissemination process has been the invitation to junior researchers—both master’s-level and doctoral candidates—to observe and participate in our analysis sessions. These participants have brought their unique questions, disciplinary perspectives, and future research agendas, and in turn, we have shared our methodological reasoning, coding strategies, and theoretical framings. The dialogues generated new directions for dissemination, such as shaping a methodology workshop on lived theology and ecclesial ethnography that we plan to offer to graduate students and early-career scholars.
This collaborative environment is itself a mode of dissemination: we have found that live, interactive engagement with our data and theoretical framing is one of the most effective ways to help others learn from our project. Mentoring and methods seminars have thus become a powerful dissemination tool, as younger scholars adapt these insights into their own projects—some examining South Asian American Christian communities, others focusing on historical or political dimensions of Asian American congregational life.
3. Preliminary Written Analyses and Publication Plans
We have begun drafting scholarly essays and articles that will present our findings to academic audiences. For example, we are currently outlining a conference presentation for APARRI, an initiative focused on Asian Pacific American religions, where we will articulate our key research findings: the interplay of transpacific migration with religious identity formation, the significance of family as a sacred value, and the ways individuals navigate denominationalism and pan-Asian identity markers.
This grant period has facilitated the completion of a substantial portion of preliminary written analyses and the formulation of publication plans for the forthcoming volume on Asian American Christian theology to be published by Wiley Blackwell. Central to these efforts have been the 60 interviews conducted with first-generation Asian Christians in North America. These interviews, recorded and transcribed during the grant period, offer invaluable first-hand insights into the lived religious experiences, theological understandings, and spiritual practices shaped by the interplay of transpacific migration and socialization. They serve as a strong empirical foundation upon which the monograph’s central arguments about sacred value formation, intergenerational knowledge transmission, and cultural continuity can be constructed.
In addition to these first-generation interviews, the project’s long-term trajectory includes collecting and analyzing further data from second- and third-generation Asian Christians who represent a spectrum of ethnicities, geographies, and Christian traditions. By integrating these additional interviews, the monograph will present a robust intergenerational account of how sacred values are adapted, modified, and renewed over time and space. The developing manuscript thus moves beyond a single demographic snapshot to highlight a dynamic, evolving landscape of Asian American Christian life. The forthcoming chapters will provide a comparative and diachronic perspective that underscores how theological identities are sustained and transformed across generations—ultimately contributing a nuanced, contextually rich exploration to the field of Asian American Christian studies.
4. Digital Humanities and Public-Facing Online Platforms
From the inception of this project, one of our primary aims has been to create a publicly accessible digital platform that would host curated excerpts from interviews, thematic summaries, conceptual frameworks, and educational modules. During our working seminars, we discussed possible structures for a website that would feature:
- Select Oral History Excerpts: Short, representative quotes, accompanied by contextual notes. We envision a design that allows users—both church practitioners and the general public—to see how diverse first-generation East Asian American Christians narrate faith amid migration, trauma, economic pressures, and community formation.
- Glossary of Terms and Concepts: Users might encounter unfamiliar theological or sociological terms, as well as transpacific historical references. A simple glossary or “explainer” section would help contextualize terms like “abduction” (abductive reasoning), “sacred consciousness,” or “narrative surplus.”
- Audio and Multimedia Components: While we currently have anonymized transcripts, we are exploring the feasibility of incorporating voice excerpts (with participant permission) or even short video clips to give greater embodiment to these narratives. We anticipate this will make the research more “alive” and accessible to a wider audience, beyond academic readers.
- Interactive Timelines and Maps: Because migration and transpacific flow are central to these stories, visual aids—like timelines charting major historical events (e.g., Hong Kong’s 1997 handover), or maps showing immigrant origin points and settlement regions—would situate each narrative in a rich geographic and temporal context.
This digital humanities approach is a key future step in dissemination: moving beyond the academy and making the research available to anyone curious about Asian American faith and migration. Such a platform can serve churches, community groups, educators, and even family historians seeking to understand how religious identities shape and are shaped by transnational mobility.
5. Public Lectures, Community Forums, and Ministerial Workshops
We foresee adapting these materials into curricula and workshop content for religious leaders, faith communities, and interfaith organizations. Preliminary plans include:
- Workshops for Clergy and Lay Leaders: Presenting findings about the complexity of denominational identity among first-generation immigrants could help church leaders understand generational tensions and interethnic solidarity. We are considering small group forums where pastors and ministry teams reflect on our research excerpts and discuss how to better minister to immigrant congregations.
- Public Lectures or Roundtables: In partnership with the Center for Asian American Christianity and potentially local cultural organizations, we could host public roundtables on the lived faith experiences of East Asian Americans. Highlighting family narratives, mental health stories, or the interplay of faith and political activism could draw a diverse, community-based audience and inspire dialogue.
6. Effective Dissemination: Lessons Learned
- Face-to-Face Engagement Enhances Understanding: Our working seminars and methods sessions proved that in-person or synchronous online discussions greatly enhance the dissemination of our research. Researchers and students could ask immediate follow-up questions, and we could show transcripts and coding strategies in real time.
- The Power of Narrative Diversity: Showing multiple, even conflicting narratives—from faith as a source of comfort and unity, to faith as entangled in historical trauma, denominational confusion, and geopolitical conflict—invites audiences to appreciate complexity. Rather than presenting a single master narrative, we have found that offering multiple storylines (the “narrative surplus”) resonates more deeply with diverse publics.
- Bridging Scholarship and Community Life: Sharing excerpts with community leaders or religious practitioners and seeing their “aha” moments suggests that these stories have value beyond academia. The realization that first-generation Asian American Christian narratives can help clarify immigrant experiences, support mental health discussions, or enhance cross-cultural ministry confirms the relevance of dissemination beyond traditional scholarly venues.
Conclusion and Future Directions
From conference-style presentations and graduate seminars to public web platforms and potential documentary or audio projects, our dissemination efforts are multiplying. We are moving toward a model that not only archives and analyzes first-generation East Asian American Christian oral histories, but also makes them alive, visible, and accessible to all who seek new ways of understanding faith, migration, and communal life.
As we finalize articles for scholarly publication and move closer to launching our digital humanities website, we are confident that the combination of academic rigor, public engagement, and narrative-rich storytelling will yield fruitful dialogue. Through these steps, we hope to inspire new forms of theological reflection, pastoral practice, community activism, and ongoing scholarship that center on the lived realities of immigrants’ faith journeys.
In sum, our initial and future dissemination strategies—peer-reviewed essays, digital humanities platforms, collaborative workshops, and community forums—reflect the heart of the project: to share the discovery of complex, surprising, and generative stories that expand our collective understanding of American religious life, and to do so in ways that are accessible, dialogical, and transformative for both scholarly and public audiences.
