Newhouse IDEA Office Recognizes This Year’s AAPI History Makers

The Newhouse School’s Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) Office is proud to announce this year’s Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) History Makers honorees, celebrating AAPI faculty, staff and alumni who have made exceptional contributions to their respective fields.

The Newhouse School’s T. Makana Chock, Genaro C. Armas and David C. Oh were recognized during a May 23 celebration.  

T. Makana Chock

Professor, Communications
Director, Extended Reality Lab

Dr. Chock joined Newhouse nearly two decades ago in 2005, where she has worked in the fields of media psychology, augmented reality and health risk. As a scholar with an extraordinary record of accomplishment, she has been named the David J. Levidow Endowed Professor, and she is the director of the Extended Reality Lab. Through Dr. Chock’s work in the lab, the Newhouse School is recognized as a leading site for work on augmented reality and media psychology. Indeed, Dr. Chock recently received a grant for nearly $600,000 to develop a project on “Media Literacy in the Metaverse.” With her prominence in the field, she has become a sought-after speaker, delivering talks in Germany, South Korea, China, the Netherlands and, of course, the United States. Despite her prominence and scholarly commitments, she is a generous mentor, advising numerous doctoral dissertations and master’s theses. She is also a dedicated member of the Newhouse community, making a lasting imprint with her service to the school. Finally, as a scholar with native Hawaiian heritage, her embodied experience informs her scholarly work on D.E.I.A.; the courses she teaches, including Race, Gender, and Media and Diversity & Virtual Reality; and her service. Awarding Dr. Chock the inaugural award recognizes the important contributions of Pacific Islander Americans in AAPI communities, including the community at Newhouse and the university.

Genaro C. Armas

Director, Office of Communications

Genaro is a ’94 graduate of Newhouse and a ’95 graduate of Maxwell. After graduation, he was hired by The Associated Press where he enjoyed a 20+ year career covering everything from politics to sports, including the Little League World Series and college and professional sports. He worked in marketing and communications at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and later served as public relations manager before returning to his alma mater. At UWM, he worked on various projects including enrollment marketing efforts; educational initiatives that promoted inclusivity, diversity, equity and accessibility; and a university research podcast.

David C. Oh

Associate Professor, Communications

Dr. Oh earned a Ph.D. in mass communications in 2007 and an M.A. in broadcast journalism in 2000 from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School; a B.A. in psychology in 1996 from Baylor University; and a certificate of completion in Korean Language from Yonsei University in 2002. Oh’s research focuses on Asian American representations in popular and digital culture; Asian American identities and media; othering in Korean media culture; and transnational and diasporic reception of Korea popular culture. He is the author of “Navigating White news: Asian American Journalists at Work” (2023); “Whitewashing the movies: White subjectivity and Asian erasure in US film culture” (2022); and “Second-generation Korean Americans and transnational media: Diasporic identifications” (2015). He’s also the author of nearly 40 refereed journal articles, an edited book and 10 book chapters. He currently teaches classes in media and diversity and cultural theory at Newhouse.