Breaking Boundaries and Building Community

When the UCI Libraries Orange County & Southeast Asian Archive Center (OC & SEAA) opened its doors in May of 2015, more than just an entrance to a new research facility was unlocked. The OC & SEAA represents decades of community building in an effort to document, preserve, and make available the rich cultural histories that weave together the fabric of Orange County.

The OC & SEAA is an extension of UCI Libraries internationally known, Southeast Asian Archive (SEAA) which was established in 1987 to document the experiences of the thousands of refugees and immigrants from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam (the countries of the former Indochina) who resettled in the United States after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Since then, the SEAA collection has grown, as has UCI Libraries’ commitment to creating a space where people can discover the history of the region.  

We invite you to learn about one of the ways UCI breaks boundaries and builds community through the stories of Anne Frank, the founder of the SEAA, Prany Sananikone, former board member of the SEAA, Linda Trinh Vo, Director of the Vietnamese American Oral History Project, and Thuy Vo Dang, Archivist for the Southeast Asian Archive & Regional History.