Daily Overview

Monday, August 15

Placing Asian American Studies in Community Colleges: Critical Frameworks and Concepts

What are some of the major critical frameworks, concepts, and concerns in the field of Asian American Studies? What is the role of Asian American Studies in the community college context? How do we cultivate a critical, polycultural Asian American Studies in the community college classroom? How can we use the dynamics of New York City to illustrate key concepts and frameworks central to Asian American Studies and Ethnic Studies more generally?

Morning Session: 9am– 12:30pm

Welcome and Introductions; Overview of Seminar Schedule; Introduction to Digital Resources, including website; Orientation to Seminar Pedagogical/Curricular Projects

Lunch on your own: 12:30pm– 1:30pm

Afternoon Session: 1:30pm– 5pm  

Roundtable and Discussion:  Critical Approaches to Asian American Studies

• Allan Punzalan Isaac, Associate Professor of American Studies and English, Rutgers University
• Sujani Reddy, Associate Professor of American Studies, SUNY Old Westbury
• Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, Associate Professor of English and Asian and Asian American Studies, University of Connecticut
• Anantha Sudhakar, Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies, San Francisco State University
• Manu Vimalassery, Term Assistant Professor of American Studies, Barnard College

Readings:  [*] available here
Readings, required

• Excerpts from Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, Linda Trinh Võ, and K. Scott Wong, eds., Keywords for Asian American Studies (NYU Press, 2015) — “Introduction” (pp. 1-5), “Citizenship” (pp. 20-24), “Empire” (pp. 67-71), “Movement” (pp. 165-68), “Postcolonialism” (pp. 195-97)
• Karen L. Ishizuka, Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties (Verso, 2016) — especially “Introduction: Wherefore Asian America?” (pp. 1-12), and Chapter 10: “Generations to Come” (pp. 209-26)
• Erika Lee, The Making of Asian America (Simon & Schuster, 2015), especially “Introduction” (pp. 1-11), Chapter 17: “The ‘Rise of Asian Americans’? Myths and Realities” (pp. 373-89), and “Epilogue: Redefining America in the Twenty-first Century” (pp. 391-402)
• Dean Itsuji Saranillio, “Why Asian Settler Colonialism Matters: A Thought Piece on Critiques, Debates, and Indigenous Difference,” Settler Colonial Studies 3.3-4 (2013): 280-294. [*]
• Anantha Sudhakar “Against the Bromance of Cross-Racial Community: Mapping Queer and Feminist Afro-Asian Alliances”  American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA. 2014. Conference Presentation.[*]
• Podcast: “Episode 22: Sujani Reddy on Nursing and Empire” (2016), Who Makes Cents? A History of Capitalism Podcast

Readings, recommended

• Excerpt from Vivek Bald, Miabi Chatterji, Sujani Reddy, and Manu Vimalassery, eds., The Sun Never Sets: South Asian Migrants in an Age of U.S. Power (NYU Press, 2013) — “Introduction” (pp. 1-21)
• Excerpts from Lisa Lowe, Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics (Duke University Press, 1996) — Chapter 1: “Immigration, Citizenship, Racialization: Asian American Critique” (pp. 1-36), and Chapter 3: “Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Asian American Differences” (pp. 60-83)
• Vijay Prashad, “Bruce Lee and the Anti-imperialism of Kung Fu: A Polycultural Adventure,” positions 11.1 (2003): 51-90.
  Excerpts from Vijay Prashad, The Karma of Brown Folk (University of Minnesota Press, 2000) –“Of Antiblack Racism” (pp. 157-83)
• Excerpt from Sujani Reddy, Nursing and Empire: Gendered Labor and Migration from India to the United States (University of North Carolina Press, 2015) — “Introduction: Nursing and Empire”
• Shalini Shankar, “Racial Naturalization, Advertising, and Model Consumers for a New Millennium,” Journal of Asian American Studies 16.2 (2013): 159-88.

Tuesday, August 16

Counting Asian Communities in New York City: Recognition and Representation

What are the demographic, migration, and community profiles of “new” Asian communities in New York City? What are dominant representations and frameworks through which Asian American communities are understood? What limitations and alternative concepts of entry appear when focusing on newer communities? What forms of representation are emerging from communities in the absence of official recognition?

Morning Session: 9am– 12pm

Presentation and Discussion: Profiles of New Asian Americans in New York City
Joo Han, Program and Communications Director, Asian American Federation (AAF)

Lunch on your own 12pm– 1pm

Afternoon Session: 1pm– 5pm*

2pm: Teaching Tour in Richmond Hill, Queens, led by the Indo-Caribbean Alliance (ICA)

*includes 1-hour travel time to/from Richmond Hill

Readings: [*] available here

Readings, required

• Excerpts from Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, Linda Trinh Võ, and K. Scott Wong, eds., Keywords for Asian American Studies (NYU Press, 2015) — “Community” (pp. 31-36), “Identity” (pp. 125-27), “Immigration” (pp. 128-33), “Multiracial” (pp. 174-77), “Race” (pp. 202-7)
• Excerpt from Asian American Federation, “Asian Americans in New York City: A Decade of Dynamic Change, 2000–2010” (2012) — Executive Summary (pp. 5-10)
• Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Open City series profiling undocumented New Yorkers: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4
• Narmala Halstead, “East Indians as Familiars and Partial Others in New York,” History and Anthropology 23.1 (2012): 149-69. [*]
• Excerpt from Pew Research Center, “The Rise of Asian Americans” (2012/2013) — Overview
• Responses to the Pew report from the Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy Research Consortium and the Association for Asian American Studies
• Excerpt from Eric Tang, Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in the New York City Hyperghetto (Temple University Press, 2015) — “Introduction: Refugee in the Hyperghetto” (pp. 1-27), and “Conclusion: ‘Unsettled’” (pp. 157-79)
• Excerpts from Ellen D. Wu, The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority (Princeton University Press, 2013) — “Introduction: Imperatives of Asian American Citizenship” (pp. 1-9), and “Epilogue: Model Minority/Asian American” (pp. 242-58)

Readings, recommended

• Excerpts from Gaiutra Bahadur, Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture (University of Chicago Press, 2013) — Chapter 1: A Magician’s Box, Chapter 2: Ancestral Memory, Chapter 6: A New World, Chapter 11: Surviving History
• Mitchell J. Chang, Julie J. Park, Monica H. Lin, Oiyan A. Poon, and Don T. Nakanishi, “Beyond Myths: The Growth and Diversity of Asian American College Freshmen, 1971-2005” (2007) — Executive Summary (pp. vi-viii)
• Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, “‘We’re Not Even Allowed to Ask for Help’: Debunking the Myth of the Model Minority” (2011) — Executive Summary (pp. 4-7)
• Excerpt from Jennifer Ann Ho, Racial Ambiguity in Asian American Culture (Rutgers University Press, 2015) — “Introduction: Ambiguous Americans” (pp. 1-21) [*]
• Rebecca Chiyoko King, “Racialization, Recognition, and Rights: Lumping and Splitting Multiracial Asian Americans in the 2000 Census,” Journal of Asian American Studies 3.2 (2000): 191-217. [*]
• Leela Tanikella, “Voices from Home and Abroad: New York City’s Indo-Caribbean Media,” International Journal of Cultural Studies 12.2 (2009): 167-85.[*]
• Natasha Warikoo, “Cosmopolitan Ethnicity: Second-Generation Indo-Caribbean Identities” (pp. 361-92), in Becoming New Yorkers: Ethnographies of the New Second Generation, ed. Philip Kasinitz, John H. Mollenkopf, and Mary C. Waters (Russell Sage, 2004) [*]

Wednesday, August 17

Ethnic Economies and Gendered Labor

How are new Asian immigrant communities incorporated into the existing labor and economic structures of New York City? How is this incorporation segmented by nationality, migration, and gendered patterns? What kinds of representations do we see of Asian immigrant women workers in the mainstream media? In community-produced media/art? How do urban development policies shape the cultural, racial, and economic dimensions of neighborhoods? What possibilities are produced through cross-community collaborations and/or foreclosed through conflict?

Morning Session: 9am–12pm

Roundtable and Discussion, Ethnic Economies and Gendered Labor

• Chaumtoli Huq, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Law@theMargins
• Laura Liu, Associate Professor of Urban Studies, The New School
• Luna Ranjit, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Adhikaar
• Elena Shih, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies, Brown University
• Betty Yu, artist, educator, and community organizer

Lunch on your own 12pm–1pm

Afternoon Session: 1pm–5pm*

2pm: Teaching Tour in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, led by Tarry Hum,  Professor of Urban Studies, Queens College, City University of New York

*includes 1 hour travel time to/from Sunset Park

Readings:  [*] available here ; [+] indicates readings that were not on original list

Readings, required

• Excerpts from Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, Linda Trinh Võ, and K. Scott Wong, eds., Keywords for Asian American Studies (NYU Press, 2015) — “Class” (pp. 25-28), “Enclave” (pp. 71-73), “Gender” (pp. 105-9), “Labor” (pp. 139-44), “Sexuality” (pp. 224-28)
• Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), “Chinatown Then and Now: Gentrification in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia” (2013) — Executive Summary (pp. 2-5)
• Rachel Aviv, “The Cost of Caring,” New Yorker, April 11, 2016.
• Excerpt from Tarry Hum, Making a Global Immigrant Neighborhood: Brooklyn’s Sunset Park (2014) — Chapter 3: The Working Poverty of Neighborhood Revitalization: Industrial Sweatshops and Street Vendors (pp. 73-103)
• Tiffany King, “Labor’s Aphasia: Toward Antiblackness as Constitutive to Settler Colonialism,” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, June 10, 2014.

Readings, recommended

• “America’s War Workers” (2014), episode of Fault Lines.
• Excerpt from Yen Le Espiritu, Asian American Women and Men: Labor, Laws, and Love, 2nd ed. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008) — “Chapter 1: Labor, Laws, and Love” (pp. 1-18) [*]
• Lauren Hilgers, “The Kitchen Network: America’s Underground Chinese Restaurant Workers,” New Yorker, October 13, 2014.
• Excerpt from Miliann Kang, The Managed Hand: Race, Gender, and the Body in Beauty Service Work (University of California Press, 2010) — “Introduction: Manicuring Work” (pp. 1-31) and/or “Conclusion: What Is a Manicure Worth?” (pp. 239-254 ) [*]
• Steven C. McKay, “Filipino Sea Men: Constructing Masculinities in an Ethnic Labor Niche,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 3.4 (2007): 617-633 [+]
• Laura Y. Liu, “Sweatshop City,” GIDEST Seminar, The New School, New York City. 2016. Presentation. [+]
• Nami Mun, Miles from Nowhere (Riverhead, 2009) (This book will be given to participants during the Seminar.)
• Excerpt from Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, Servants of Globalization: Migration and Domestic Work, 2nd ed. (Stanford University Press, 2015) — [*]
• Minh-Ha T. Pham, Asians Wear Clothes on the Internet: Race, Gender, and the Work of Personal Style Blogging (Duke University Press, 2015) — “Introduction. Asian Personal Style Superbloggers and the Material Conditions and Contexts of Asian Fashion Work” (pp. 1-40) [*]
• Excerpt from Jeffrey Santa Ana, Racial Feelings: Asian America in a Capitalist Culture of Emotion (Temple University Press, 2015) — “Introduction: Asian America and Racial Feelings” (pp. 1-30) [*]
• Elena Shih, “Not in My ‘Backyard Abolitionism’: Vigilante Rescue against American Sex Trafficking,” Sociological Perspectives 59.1 (2016): 66-90. [*]
• Podcast episode: Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu on The Beautiful Generation: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion (Duke University Press, 2010), New Books in Asian American Studies
• Chaumtoli Huq,  “Workers’ Rights Through A Gender Lens”  Daily Star, March 25, 2015
• Dina Siddiqui, “Do Bangladeshi factory workers need saving: Sisterhood in the post-sweatshop era” Feminist Review 91.1 (2009): 154-174

Thursday, August 18

Connecting Transnational Practice and Local Experience through Cultural Production

What roles do art and culture play in identity and community formation and in historical memory?  How do immigrant communities forge connections between the locality of New York City and the spaces of their “home” nations? How do the artifacts of cultural production challenge dominant narratives about migration, social relationships, and settlement?

Morning Session: 9am–12pm

Roundtable and Discussion, Cultural Production and Transnational/Diasporic Frameworks

• Lawrence-Minh Bui Davis, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, and Co-Editor-in-Chief, Asian American Literary Review
• Emily Hue, UC Chancellor’s postdoctoral scholar in Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages and Ethnic Studies
• DJ Rekha (Rekha Malhotra), artist, curator and founder of Basement Bhangra, Bollywood Disco and co-founder of Mutiny club nights
• Claro de los Reyes, arts-based educator, My Baryo, My Borough: Oral Histories of Filipino America in Queens
• Jaret Vadera, Interdisciplinary Artist and Cultural Producer

Lunch on your own 12pm–1pm

Afternoon Session: 1pm–5pm*

2pm: Teaching Tour with Mekong NYC, Bronx

*includes 1 hour travel time to/from the Bronx

Readings: [*] available here ;[+] indicates readings that were not on original list

Readings, required

• Excerpts from Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, Linda Trinh Võ, and K. Scott Wong, eds., Keywords for Asian American Studies (NYU Press, 2015) — “Culture” (pp. 41-44), “Food” (pp. 95-97), “Media” (pp. 149-53), “Memory” (pp. 153-57), “Performance” (pp. 185-89)
• Excerpts from AALR issue on Local/Express: Asian American Arts and Community in 90s NYC (2013) — Anantha Sudhakar, Jaishri Abichandani, Vivek Bald, Gayatri Gopinath, Madhulika Khandelwal, Rekha Malhotra, and Naeem Mohaiemen, “Crafting Community: South Asian American Arts and Activism in 1990s New York City”; and Swati Marquez and Tamina Davar (Lettering by Ji-Hee Seuk), “DesiFax: Fragments We Recall” [*]
• Excerpts from AALR issue on (Re)Collecting the Vietnam War (2015) — Viet Thanh Nguyen, “On True War Stories” (pp. 140-45); Anida Yoeu Ali, “What’s in a Name?” (pp. 146-49); Thi Bui, “Sài Gòn, 1968” (pp. 239-46); Sylvia Shin Huey Chong and Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis, “Me No Love You Long Time” (pp. 255-63); and Huong Nguyen, “Is This Trash?” (pp. 280-87) [*]
• Poems from Frances Chung, Crazy Melon and Chinese Apple (Wesleyan University Press, 2000) (This book will be given to participants during the Seminar.)
• Ashley Dawson, “Desi Remix: The Plural Dance Cultures of New York’s South Asian Diaspora,” Jouvert 7.1 (2002).
• Tanwi Nandini Islam, Bright Lines: A Novel (Penguin, 2015)
• Anne Cong-Huyen, “Asian/American and the Digital-Technological Thus Far,” Verge: Studies in Global Asias 1.1 (2015)[*][+]

Readings, recommended

• Asian American Writers’ Workshop, “After Yi-Fen Chou: A Forum” (2015)
• Asian American Writers’ Workshop, “We’re in the Room, Calvin Trillin” (2016)
• Vivek Bald, “American Orientalism,” Dissent, Spring 2015.
• Anne Cong-Huyen, “Toward a Transnational Asian/American Digital Humanities: A #transformDH Invitation” (forthcoming) [*]
• Excerpt from Shilpa Davé, LeiLani Nishime, and Tasha Oren, eds., Global Asian American Popular Cultures (NYU Press, 2016) — “Introduction” (pp. 1-12)
• Excerpt from Vanita Reddy, Fashioning Diaspora: Beauty, Femininity, and South Asian American Culture (Temple University Press, 2016) — “Introduction: Beauty Matters” (pp. 1-33) [*]
• Lena Sze, “Chinatown Then and Neoliberal Now: Gentrification Consciousness and the Ethnic-Specific Museum,” Identities 17.5 (2010): 510-29. [*]
• Lysley Tenorio, Monstress: Stories (Ecco, 2012)
• Excerpt from Stanley I. Thangaraj, Constancio R. Arnaldo, Jr., and Christina Chin, eds., Asian American Sporting Cultures (NYU Press, 2016) — “Introduction: You Play Sports? Asian American Sporting Matters” (pp. 1-16)
• Selected Poetry
  • Cathy Linh Che, “Language Came to the Door for Me” and “Pomegranate”
  • Bao Phi, “No Question” (with video) and “You Bring Out the Vietnamese in Me”
  • Margaret Rhee, “Theft of Color”
  • Ocean Vuong, “Aubade with Burning City” and “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong”

Friday, August 19

Asian/American Racialization, Cross-Racial Relationships, and Diaspora: A Conversation in Critical Ethnic Studies

How is Asian/American racialization shaped by anti-black racism? How are certain Asian ethnic groups “blackened”” while others are “whitened”?  How does centering a Critical Ethnic Studies approach to Asian/American racialization reveal the existence of intra-ethnic group fissures and oppression?  What do the linkages between racial, caste, and religious oppression reveal about discourses of culture and nationalism? What does a critical engagement with gender/sexuality in Asian American studies offer for a contemporary theorization of race and ethnicity in the US?

Morning Session: 9am–12pm

Roundtable Discussion, Building a Community-Centered Critical Ethnic Studies

• Fahd Ahmed, Executive Director, Desis Rising up and Moving (DRUM)
• Cathy Deng, Executive Director, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
• Thenmozhi Soundararajan, transmedia artist and activist
• Carl Lipscombe, Legal and Policy Manager, Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI)

Lunch on your own 12pm–1pm

Afternoon Session: 1pm–5pm

Goals and timelines for Seminar Pedagogical/Curricular Projects; Reflections and Evaluation

Readings: [*] available here; [+] indicates readings that were not on original list

Readings, required

• Excerpt from Vivek Bald, Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America (Harvard University Press, 2015) — “Chapter 5: Bengali Harlem” (pp. 160-188)
• Excerpts from Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America (Penguin, 2008)– “Preface” (pp. 1-12) and “Rasha” (pp.13-44)
• Democracy Now! episode with Hertencia Petersen (Akai Gurley’s aunt), Cathy Dang, and John Liu, April 21, 2016.
• DRUM, “Education Not Deportation: Impacts of New York City School Safety Policies on South Asian Immigrant Youth” (2006)
• Excerpts from Deepa Iyer, We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future (New Press, 2015) — “Chapter 3: Surveillance Nation” (pp. 55-70); “Chapter 7: Ferguson is Everywhere” (pp. 141-155); “Chapter 8: We Too Sing America” (pp. 156-173)
• JAAS Editor’s Forum: “Has Asian American Studies Failed?” Journal of Asian American Studies 15.3 (2012). [*]
• Prachi Patankar, “Ghosts of Yogas Past and Present,” Jadaliyya, February 26, 2014.
• Thenmozhi Soundararajan, “The Black Indians,” Outlook, August 20, 2012.

Readings, recommended

• Excerpt from Leslie Bow, Partly Colored: Asian Americans and Racial Anomaly in the Segregated South (NYU Press, 2010) — “Introduction: Thinking Interstitially” (pp. 1-22)
• Excerpt from Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, When Half is Whole: Multiethnic Asian American Identities (Stanford University Press, 2012) — “Chapter 6: I am Your Illusion, Your Reality, Your Future” (pp. 97-116) [*]
• Rhitu Chatterjee, “Beyond Class Part V: Indians in America Adrift from Caste,” PRI, May 23, 2012.
• Democracy Now! interview with Black Lives Matter founders on Immigration and the Fight for “Safety Beyond Policing”
• Excerpt from Helen Heran Jun, Race for Citizenship: Black Orientalism and Asian Uplift from Pre-Emancipation to Neoliberal America (NYU Press, 2011) — “Introduction” (pp. 1-12) [*]
• Excerpt from Sunaina Maira, Missing: Youth, Citizenship, and Empire after 9/11 (Duke University Press, 2009) — “Introduction: South Asian Muslim Youth in the United States after 9/11” (pp. 1-36) [*]
• Thenmozhi Soundararajan and Sinthujan Varatharajah, “Caste Privilege 101: A Primer for the Privileged” The Aerogram, February 10, 2015.
• Valliammal Karunakaran, “The Dalit-Bahujan Guide to Understanding Caste in Hindu Scripture,” Medium, July 13, 2016
• Valliammal Karunakaran, “Spearheading a Survey of Caste in South Asian Diasporas,” Medium, August 11, 2016

Saturday, August 20

Jackson Heights Past, Present, and Future: Diversity, Surveillance, and Gentrification

How are immigrant communities mapped onto specific neighborhoods? How are these neighborhoods narrativized (and policed) through frames of difference, incorporation, and threat? What are the particular dynamics of gentrification in immigrant neighborhoods, particularly at the intersections of migration, sexuality, class, and religion.

Morning Session: 10am-12pm

People’s Walking Tour of Jackson Heights, led by Amy Paul, activist and writer

*The tour will start in Jackson Heights at 10am; please allow adequate time for travel

Working Lunch in Jackson Heights: 12pm-3pm  

Location TBA

Readings: [*] available here

Readings, required

• Martin F. Manalansan IV, “Race, Violence, and Neoliberal Spatial Politics in the Global City,” Social Text no. 84-85 (2005): 141-55
• Thomas L. Mariadason, “A Tiger by the Tail, Part 1” (2014)
• Ines M. Miyares, “From Exclusionary Covenant to Ethnic Hyperdiversity in Jackson Heights, Queens,” Geographical Review 94.4 (2004): 462-83.  [*]
• Bushra Rehman, Corona (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2013)
• Patricia Park, Re Jane (Viking Penguin, 2015)