Karen and Summer's North Carolina Adventure

A few weeks ago, two APSI EAS MA students, Summer Wu and Karen Shi, hit the road to Elizabeth City for the North Carolina Association of Historians conference. Inspired by Dr. Wang’s travel blog, they decided to document the trip.

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Traveling to the conference

We rolled out Thursday evening, heading east into a different North Carolina: wide-open fields, salt-swept air, and a sense of getting pleasantly lost. Dinner felt cinematic — Doug Sauls BBQ and Seafood looked like a prop from a country movie: worn benches, sun-faded ads, and framed photos of the high‑school football team from the early 2000s. The smell of smoke and sauce was perfect.

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Unlocking the room door, we were greeted by a beeping sound of the fire alarm. Summer confidently diagnosed that the battery must have died; she knows how to fix that. 

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At the conference — Karen's panel

The night before, Summer and I were discussing what to get for breakfast. Checking the map, I shouted “WAWA! Have you ever tried Wawa?” She shook her head, “you are in for a treat then,” I promised. 

“She has no idea what is coming,” I thought to myself. 

Surely enough, the next morning, Summer stood at the kiosk amazed by the infinite options a gas station could offer. After her breakfast bowl and my panini, we walked into my presentation on Techno-Orientalism and conspiracy theory. I was greeted warmly by my fellow panelists, who were excited to share their thoughts on my work. After the presentation, the audience also had brilliant questions that got me thinking more about how to develop the project further. 

Other Panels — Summer's take

After Karen’s wonderful presentation, we attended the second panel of the day separately. I attended the movie screening of Road Out produced by Dr. Shapiro from Duke. It was an amazing documentary on a group of South African doctors’ life stories and influence on public health practices in North Carolina. The Q&A with Dr. Shapiro on the documentary production process and its differences from regular academic book-writing after the screening got me thinking about the alternative ways of outputs for academic research.

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Summer’s Presentation 

Before lunch break, Karen and I joined another interesting keynote presentation on the history of North Carolina’s liberation and independence. After the presentation, we enjoyed a brief lunch break and headed to my panel on Japanese history.

My presentation is on the Emancipation Edict concerning the outcasts (Hisabetsu Burakumin) and the violence against them after the announcement of the edict. The other two panelists also gave intriguing presentations, one on the history of Black Samurai, and another on the history of Japanese YWCA in the US.

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OBX — the adventure continues

After a long long day of conference and driving the day before, it was finally time to rest and enjoy. We drove another hour east to see the famous OBX (outer banks). We had Hawaiian food the first night to celebrate. 

In the next few days, we also had some freshly caught seafood, though it still confuses me why they would fry fresh fish….

One unforgettable stop was Jockey’s Ridge State Park. Walking among the dunes felt like stepping into a movie set for Dune and The Mummy. The views were cinematic, the wind relentless, and our hair utterly unconcerned with dignity.

Overall, we had such a fun time at the conference both as presenters and audience. Having set foot in the infamous OBX, our North Carolina experience has reached maybe a 60% completion? 

Make sure to keep following our series as we embark on another conference journey to Tokyo soon~ 

Thank you for reading our little adventure.

Happy summer, everybody! 

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Check out a few more photos from their trip:

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