The views and opinions expressed on this site and blog posts (excluding comments on blog posts left by others) are entirely my own and do not represent those of any employer or organization with whom I am currently or previously have been associated.
Academic Version: Applying my personal experiences and academic research as a professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies to provide a more complete understanding of political, economic, and cultural issues and current events related to American race relations, and Asia/Asian America in particular.
Plain English: Trying to put my Ph.D. to good use.
Here are some more announcements, links, and job postings about academic-related jobs, fellowships, and other related opportunities for those interested in racial/ethnic/diversity issues. As always, the announcements and links are provided for informational purposes and do not necessarily imply an endorsement of the organization or college involved.
Call for Participants: BBC Documentary on Viet Nam War
Dear Sir,
I am a BBC journalist writing from London. I work on a history programme called “Witness”, which focuses on significant events in the recent past. The hundreds of subjects that we have looked at have included the trial of Nelson Mandela, the bombing of Hiroshima and the beginnings of the civil rights movement in America — to name just a few. Our programme is broadcast to a large audience around the world.
And in the weeks ahead we very much hope to focus on the stories of those who fled Vietnam by boat at the end of the war there in the 1970s. We are simply looking for interviewees who might be willing to tell us — in quite strong English — what they went through. I realise that, for some, remembering such traumatic events this will not be at all easy. But we would like to be able to remind our listeners around the world what the Vietnamese boat people endured. We want to record their story for our archive.
Would you, I wonder, be able to put me in touch figures in the Vietnamese refugee community who might be able to help in our search for interviewees? They can contact me through my email below.
The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) is kicking off its Scholarship Program for the 2011 academic year. At the national level, JACL offers over 30 awards, with an annual total of over $60,000 in scholarships.
JACL Membership, which is required for applications, is open to anyone of any ethnic group. Membership dues can be paid online or with the application. The 2011 National JACL Scholarship Program informational brochure and applications are posted on the JACL website.
JACL Scholarship applications for Undergraduate, Graduate, Law, Creative & Performing Arts, and Financial Aid. The deadline for these applications is April 1, 2011. These are to be sent directly by the applicants to: National JACL Scholarship Program, c/o Portland JACL, P.O. Box 86310, Portland, OR 97286.
For additional information regarding the JACL National Scholarship Program, please contact Patty Wada at (415) 345-1075 or ncwnp@jacl.org.
Youth Justice Leadership Institute Seeks Applicants for 2011-2012 Program Year
The National Juvenile Justice Network seeks applicants for the pilot year of its Youth Justice Leadership Institute. The Institute’s mission is to create the foundation for a more effective juvenile justice reform movement by developing a strong base of well prepared and well trained advocates and organizers who reflect the communities most affected by juvenile justice system practices and policies.
The Institute’s inaugural year will focus on cultivating and supporting professionals of color. The Institute is a robust, year long program that includes leadership development, training in juvenile justice system policies and practices, and advocacy skills development. The Institute will bring fellows together twice during the year, attach each fellow to a mentor and envelope fellows within the larger juvenile justice reform community.
If you are a professional of color and are interested in applying for the Institute, please visit our web site to download our application packet or contact the Institute’s Coordinator, Diana Onley-Campbell, at diana@juvjustice.org. Applications are due on April 26, 2011.
The “Chinese shop†in all its manifestations (laundry, bakery, restaurant, general store, etc.) has been integrally connected to Chinese migration and the experience of overseas Chinese. Indeed, the Chinese shop has been both a site of economic and symbolic exchange – a complex locus of power and performative societal tensions and identifications. As such, the consideration of Chinese shop space provides an intriguing staring point from which to investigate many key socio-political issues for Chinese diasporic communities.
Hosted at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, this conference aims to bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to investigate how the space and place of the Chinese shop (broadly defined) has been conceived of and experienced for overseas Chinese. In particular, it seeks to explore the transformative socio-cultural, economic and political processes that create the space and place of the Chinese shop both within Chinese diasporic communities and in terms of encounters between the Chinese and their host societies.
We encourage panels and papers with diverse disciplinary approaches to this theme, including those that consider the Chinese shop within transnational, hemispheric and/or comparative contexts. Topics might include, but are not limited to the following:
The representation and imagination of shop space
The political contestations and designations of shop space
Theoretical deliberations on the spatial dimensions of the Chinese shop
The shop as gendered space
The shop as racialized space
The historical, social and economic implications of the Chinese shop
The impact of nationalism, globalization, colonialism, and/or imperialism on Chinese shop space
The deadline for abstracts is Friday, April 29th, 2011. Abstracts and CVs can be submitted online by clicking on the “Submit Abstracts” link in the menu on the right-hand side of the page. Additional questions can be addressed to Dr. Anne-Marie Lee-Loy at: aleeloy@ryerson.ca.
A scholarship fund has been established in honor of Warren E. Miller for participation in the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) 2011 Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research. Professor Miller was not only one of the most prominent figures in modern social science research. He was also the founder of both ICPSR and the ICPSR Summer Program.
The Warren E. Miller Scholarship Fund will provide financial support to outstanding pre-tenure scholars (assistant professors and advanced graduate students) in the social and behavioral sciences so they may attend one or both of the four-week sessions in the 2011 ICPSR Summer Program. Recipients of the Miller Scholarship will receive a fee waiver to cover Program enrollment and a stipend to help with expenses while staying in Ann Arbor. Applicants to the Warren E. Miller Scholarship should have professional interests in one or more of the following areas of research (or in related fields):
Developing a common approach to understanding electoral behavior within or across nations
Understanding the process of democratization in electoral systems
Understanding the link between global politics and local electoral behavior
Understanding how context influences political behavior
Understanding how globalization causes change in political behavior
Application materials for the Miller Scholarship should be submitted electronically, through the ICPSR Summer Program’s online Portal on the Summer Program’s website. Applicants should register for the 2011 Summer Program using the online form and select classes in one or both of the four-week sessions. Note that course selections may be modified and changed later. But, the Miller Scholarship Committee may use an applicant’s preferred courses as a criterion in the selection process for the scholarship. Along with a completed registration, an application must include:
A current vita
A cover letter from the student, explaining how participation in the ICPSR Summer Program will contribute toward completion of the Ph.D.
Two letters of recommendation. For applicants who are faculty members, one of these letters should come from his or her Department Chair. For graduate student applicants, one of the letters should come from his or her faculty advisor or dissertation chairperson. Letters of recommendation should be e-mailed directly to sumprog@icpsr.umich.edu. Letter writers should include “MILLER SCHOLARSHIP RECOMMENDATION†and the applicant’s name in the subject line of the e-mail message.
The application deadline for the Warren E. Miller Scholarship is April 29, 2011. Further information about the ICPSR Summer Program, including course descriptions and the 2011 schedule, is available on the Program website. Also, you should feel free to contact the ICPSR Summer Program by e-mail (sumprog@icpsr.umich.edu) or by telephone (734-763-7400) if you have any questions.
Call for Papers: Critical Refugee Studies
Conference on Critical Refugee Studies
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
November 3-4, 2011
Displacement of populations affects the uprooted as well as communities that receive them. Recognized by international proxy after World War II, the identity category of refugee has a history as long as the incidence of warfare and other crises that result in displacement. This conference uses the 20th century invention of the category of refugee as a means to compare the experiences of displaced persons across time and space.
We invite papers that chronicle and reflect on the experiences and representations of refugee populations. In particular, we are interested in work that expands the idea of the refugee to create comparisons and parallels with the experiences of other groups. Papers that define the term refugee broadly and creatively are most welcome. Among the questions we invite:
How do refugee identities compare to those of other migrants?
As local and global political contexts change, how do refugees conceptualize notions of citizenship and home?
How are refugee identities in dialogue with concepts of place/displacement?
What is the role of memory and the creation of refugee texts?
How is the refugee experience mediated/mass mediated?
Abstracts by May 15, 2011 to: criticalrefugee-studies@uwm.edu.
Speakers:
Michael Rios, Director, Sacramento Diasporas Project, University of California-Davis
Romola Sanyal, Lecturer in Global Urbanism, Newcastle University
Ghita Schwarz, New York Legal Aid, Author, Displaced Persons
Shirley Tang, Asian American/American Studies University of Massachusetts, Boston
Dinaw Mengestu, Author, The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears; How to Read the Air (To Be Confirmed)
Call for Papers: Disability in Asian America
Amerasia Journal Special Issue Call for Papers: The State of Illness and Disability in Asian America
Guest Editors: Professor Jennifer Ho (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Professor James Kyung-Jin Lee (University of California, Irvine)
We seek critical essays and articles as well as creative non-fiction and first-person accounts that engage with the intersections of Asian American discourse and illness/disability studies, for a special issue of Amerasia Journal, scheduled for publication in 2012.
Since, as scholar Michael Berube observes, “the definition of disability, like the definition of illness, is inevitably a matter of social debate and social construction,” we are interested in how these social constructions of disability and illness coincide, collide, and converge with those of ethnicity and race, along with other axes of intersectionality such as gender, sexuality, class, region, religion, age, and education.
Critiquing the narrow perspective of the discipline, scholar Chris Bell has noted “the failure of Disability Studies to engage issues of race and ethnicity in a substantive capacity, thereby entrenching whiteness as its constitutive underpinning.” One goal of this special issue is to provide another forum in which to challenge entrenched whiteness within Disability and Illness Studies as well as to bring to the foreground the state of illness and disability within the Asian American community. Contributors to this special issue may consider the following questions:
What is the role of illness and disability within Asian American narratives—be they in fiction, non-fiction, or cinematic form—and/or how is the ill or disabled Asian American body represented within these narratives?
How are illness and disability regarded within Asian American communities and cultural productions?
What are the special needs of Asian Americans who face life threatening and chronic illnesses?
What kinds of accommodations do Asian Americans with disabilities find most challenging in light of their ethnic and cultural backgrounds and/or as a result of their racialization as non-white Americans?
How might Asian American experiences of disability and/or illness invite a reimagination of what constitutes a “good” life practice or way of living, and what kinds of social transformations would be necessary to make this so?
Submission Guidelines and Deadlines:
Due Date for one-page abstracts: June 15, 2011. Due Date for solicited final papers: January 2012. Publication Date: Fall 2012. The editorial procedure involves a three-step process: The guest editors, in consultation with the Amerasia Journal editors and peer reviewers, make decisions on the final essays:
1. Approval of abstracts
2. Submission of papers solicited from accepted abstracts
3. Revision of accepted peer-reviewed papers and final submission
Please send correspondence regarding the special issue on illness and disabilities studies in Asian American Studies to the following addresses. All correspondence should refer to “Amerasia Journal Disabilities Studies Issue” in the subject line.
Professor Jennifer Ho: jho@email.unc.edu
Professor James Kyung-Jin Lee: jkl@uci.edu
Arnold Pan, Amerasia Journal: arnoldpan@ucla.edu
Call for Papers: Mixed-Status Immigrant Families
“In Between the Shadows of Citizenship: Mixed Status Families”
Guest Editors: Mary Romero, Professor, Arizona State University, Justice and Social Inquiry and Jodie Lawston, Assistant Professor, California State University San Marcos, Women’s Studies
Despite the fact that immigration stories are increasingly featured in U.S. popular media discourse and an immigrant justice movement continues to strengthen, little scholarship has focused on the experiences of immigrants and their families, and especially, families who are mixed status in that they are comprised of both citizens and noncitizens. This edited volume aims to examine the experiences of immigrants and mixed status families in terms of work and education, raids, deportations, and detention, and resistance toward anti-immigrant sentiment. We welcome and encourage work that examines not just the experiences of immigrants in the U.S., but the experiences of immigrants around the globe.
The questions we are interested in exploring include but are not restricted to the following: What forms of work do immigrant women engage in to support their families? What are the struggles of undocumented students? How do raids, deportations, and detention affect families? How do such phenomena affect mixed status families? What are the experiences of immigrants, particularly women and children, in detention? How have changes in laws affected undocumented immigrants and their children? What strategies have justice movements used to protect undocumented men, women, and children? How are countries around the world approaching immigration and undocumented immigration, and how does that compare to U.S. policies? We seek explorations and answers to these questions that engage notions of gender, race and ethnicity, place, and culture as well as documentation and analysis of leadership and activism.
The following topical areas broadly outline the subject matter that we see as most relevant to this volume. These can be used as starting points for papers, but authors are not restricted to them:
The effects of detention on immigrant families, particularly in separating those families
The impact of family reunification
The intersection of work and immigration status
The effects of immigration status on students
The effects of raids and/or deportations on families
Changes in laws and resulting effects on immigrants’ lives
Immigrant justice work
Comparative studies of issues related to immigration in different parts of the world
The intersections of race, class, gender, and with immigration status
We are interested in both academic papers and testimonies from immigrant women on the above topics.
Submission Process: Proposals for academic papers or testimonies, no longer than three pages, should be emailed to Jodie Lawston at jlawston@csusm.edu by Wed. June 15, 2011. Author(s) must include all identifying information on the proposal, including name, title, institutional affiliation, address, phone numbers, and email. After the deadline, we will review proposals and contact authors as to which manuscripts we are interested in reviewing for the book. Proposals must include the subject matter of the paper, methods used for your analysis, and the argument you plan to make based on your data.
I presume that by now, you have heard about the furor surrounding UCLA student Alexandra Wallace and her ill-advised video that she posted to YouTube in which she “complains” about Asian Americans talking in the library by mocking them with such offensive phrases such as “Ohhhhhhhhhh ching chong ling long ting tong ohhhhhhhhhh” and makes light of the natural disasters and human suffering in Japan (the video in its entirety is below).
For various reasons, there quickly followed a big backlash and firestorm against her — UCLA’s Chancellor, Dean G. Block, issued a statement condemning the video (but later and separately adding that she would not be expelled because she did not commit a violation of the school’s code of ethnics):
I am appalled by the thoughtless and hurtful comments of a UCLA student posted on YouTube. Like many of you, I recoil when someone invokes the right of free expression to demean other individuals or groups. . . . I believe that speech that expresses intolerance toward any group of people on the basis of race or gender, or sexual, religious or cultural identity is indefensible and has no place at UCLA.
UCLA’s well-respected Asian American Studies Center summed up the sentiments of many in the academic community very well:
[T]his rant — beyond the action of an individual — is clear evidence that we still have much work to do before we can claim to live in a “post-racial” society. . . . “Asians in the Library” is a travesty on many levels, representing an attack on Asian and Asian American students and their families and undermining UCLA as a global university with deep ties to communities and institutions in Asia and other parts of the world.
It entails a “new racism” by foregrounding students who speak Asian languages and have different family traditions, as it insidiously groups and attacks UCLA’s American-born as well as our international students of Asian ancestry. As the only University of California campus without a diversity requirement, UCLA surely needs to implement a diversity requirement that will expose every student to the task of living civilly with people of different origins, backgrounds, orientations, and beliefs, whether they are born here or come from abroad.
I would like to highlight and expand on some of the points raised in UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center statement. Specifically, I see this video rant as another unfortunate and dangerous example of what happens (and is likely to continue happening) when institutional factors intersect with each other, as they are doing right now: White privilege, colorblindness, Asian Americans seen as the quiet ‘model minority,’ and ‘yellow peril’ fears of the rise of Asian countries.
Lesson 1: White Privilege
Let’s start with White privilege. However difficult it is for many White Americans to hear, examples like this video clearly show that many (as in a large number, but certainly not all) Whites implicitly think there’s nothing wrong with invoking cultural stereotypes to portray an entire group of color. I have written about this dynamic many times before, but needless to say, this is certainly not the first time that Whites have tried to “make fun” of Asian Americans or other groups of color on college campuses and elsewhere in society.
In her video, Alexandra Wallace unconsciously invokes White privilege by assuming that she can say whatever she wants about Asian Americans. For the sake of argument, I might accept that she is not aware that such phrases as “Ohhhhhhhhhh ching chong ling long ting tong ohhhhhhhhhh” and calling them “hordes” are deeply offensive and conjure up historical examples of Asians as faceless, sub-human invaders and villains.
But unfortunately, this “lack of awareness” is at the heart of the problem and in fact, forms the basis for much of the racism that Asians and Asian Americans encounter on an everyday basis. In other words, most non-Asians (most of whom are admittedly White) don’t purposely intend to be racist when make jokes or casual comments about Asians.
But when they do so, based on their ignorance of Asians and Asian Americans, they only reinforce and perpetuate their racial privileges as Whites. That privilege also gives them the ability to not have to worry about saying or doing offensive things about other racial groups.
That is, their racial privilege gives them a larger “comfort zone” to say and do things that they think are funny or harmless but ultimately, minorities find very offensive. Even if most Whites don’t have this consciously or even unconsciously in their minds when it comes to Asians, this climate of racial ignorance is a reality and functions to “protect” and “insulate” Whites — whether or not they’re even aware of it — at the expense of people of color.
Of course, many Whites will respond by basically saying that it was just a joke, Asians should just shrug it off, that it was harmless and that we Asians should just lighten up and not take things so seriously. The problem with that argument is that it ignores the larger historical and cultural context and that there are fundamental institutional power differences inherent in situations in which Whites denigrate minorities.
Each time an incident like that happens, it reinforces the notion of White supremacy — that Whites can say and do whatever they want toward anybody at any time without facing any negative repercussions. Ultimately, suggesting to us that we should just “get over it” only serves as another clear illustration of White privilege — of those with in an institutionally superior position telling those below them what to do and what they should think.
Lesson 2: Colorblindness
A contributing factor that functions to reinforce and perpetuate White privilege is the ideology of colorblindness. Again, I have written about the fallacies and failures of trying to be colorblind in U.S. society many times.
In this case, the institutional backdrop to Alexandra Wallace’s rant is the misguided belief that we now live in a colorblind society in which everyone and every racial group is now politically, economically, and socially equal, and that racial/ethnic discrimination, inequality, and racism no longer exist. Further, being colorblind also means that it’s impolite to discuss race or the U.S.’s history of racial oppression and domination — let’s just forget about them since they’re not important anymore, right?
Suffice it to say, and as this video shows, race and racial differences are clearly still very important today. They are still relevant because inequalities still exist and discrimination still takes place, and because colorblindness still provides a crucial foundation upon which White privilege can exist. In other words, if everybody is the same and on an equal playing field, it’s perfectly fine to joke about them however we want, right?
Lesson 3: The Model Minority Image
Another factor that comes into play is the image of Asian Americans as the model minority: smart and high achieving, but also quiet, passive, and obedient. While it is true that on the aggregate level, Asian Americans as a collective group outperform Whites on many measures of socioeconomic achievement, when we look beneath the surface, we see that there are notable differences between ethnic groups (some Asian immigrant groups are more self-selective in terms of their human capital while others are more likely to be involuntary refugees). Further, generalizing the seemingly positive belief that Asian Americans are successful puts extraordinary pressure on all Asian Americans to live up to those standards.
In this particular case, I will hypothesize that Alexandra Wallace (and many others like her) presume that almost all Asian Americans are smart ans successful but also passive and therefore, won’t care if she complains and mocks them. Also, I cannot rule out some degree of resentment about the success of Asian Americans as well, particularly at a university where 40% of the student population is Asian American.
This resentment leads me to my final lesson . . .
Lesson 4: Yellow Peril and Fears About Rising Asia
At the risk of being redundant, again I have already highlighted numerous examples in which U.S. society and U.S. citizens are increasingly feeling destabilized by demographic changes in the U.S. population, the negative effects of globalization, and increased competition with the rising economies of Asian countries such as China and India.
The latter is often referred to as the new “yellow peril” image of Asians “invading” the U.S. and taking over or destroying its institutions and society. It is an image that frequently gets conjured up in times of economic recession and especially when Americans perceive others to be benefiting and prospering at their expense. With the economic and political emergence of Asian countries such as Japan, China, and India in recent decades and the concurrent decline of U.S. superiority, this yellow peril image has gained new life and indeed, seems to be a growing fear, consciously and unconsciously, for many Americans these days.
When people feel that their standard of living or “way of life” is being threatened, they are likely to get defensive, consciously and unconsciously. In that situation, one way to react is to draw a more rigid cultural boundary between “us” and “them.” In this case, Alexandra Wallace invoked this nativist sentiment clearly when she said, “In America, we don’t talk in the library.” Inside Higher Education has a very well-written analysis of this entire episode and journalist Allie Grasgreen quotes Professor Joe Feagin, former President of the American Sociological Association and well-respect expert on White privilege research, on this emerging distinction between “insiders” and “outsiders”:
For Joe R. Feagin, a sociology professor at Texas A&M University and co-author of The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism, Wallace made a blatant statement that Asian students are separate from — and less important than — white students. “A key part of the stereotyping of Asians and Asian Americans is their foreignness,” Feagin said. “She makes the point that not only are Asians and Asian-Americans stereotyped and evaluated from the old, white vs. others — you know, racial framing — but they also face this dimension of not being American. That is, foreign vs. American.”
Taken together, all of these factors form the sociological context within which Alexandra Wallace publicly expressed her anti-Asian sentiments. The sad part of this episode is that she is certainly not the first person to engage in racism against Asian Americans and alas, she will not be the last.
To highlight the continuing growth and vitality of Asian American Studies, the following is a list of recent articles published in academic journals from scholars in the social sciences and humanities that focus on Asian Americans. As you can see, the diversity of research topics is a direct reflection of the dynamic and multidimensional nature of the Asian American population.”
These academic journal articles are generally available in the libraries of most colleges and universities and/or through online research databases. As always, works included in this list are for informational purposes only and do not imply an endorsement of their contents.
Cheng, Yen-hsin Alice and Nancy S. Landale. 2011. “Adolescent Precursors of Early Union Formation Among Asian American and White Young Adults.” Journal of Family Issues 32:209-236.
Abstract: Using a framework that emphasizes independent versus interdependent self-construals, this study investigates the relatively low rates of early marriage and cohabitation among Asian Americans compared with Whites. Data from Waves 1 and 3 of Add Health are used to test five hypotheses that focus on family value socialization and other precursors measured in adolescence. Analyses of early marriage indicate that the Asian-White difference is driven primarily by differences in adolescent sexual and romantic relationship experiences and that several measures of family values play a stronger role among Asian Americans than Whites. Asian-White differences in cohabitation persist net of socioeconomic status and other adolescent precursors, but differences are attenuated when parental value socialization, intimate relationship experiences, and educational investments are controlled. These results are interpreted within a culturally sensitive conceptual framework that emphasizes interdependent construals of the self among Asian Americans.
Greenman, Emily. 2011. “Asian American-White Differences in the Effect of Motherhood on Career Outcomes.” Work and Occupations 38:37-67.
Abstract: U.S.-born Asian Americans are unique among American minority groups in that they lack earnings disadvantages relative to Whites with similar education levels. Controlling for education and age, there is little difference in the earnings of U.S.-born Asian and White men, but Asian women have higher earnings than comparable White women. Using data from SESTAT, this study tests the hypothesis that Asian American women’s high earnings may result from adjusting their labor supply less than White women in response to parenthood, leading to greater work experience over time. Findings show that Asian American women are less likely than White women to reduce labor supply in response to parenthood and that their resulting greater work experience explains their high rate of earnings growth.
Tamaki, Emi. 2011. “Transnational Home Engagement among Latino and Asian Americans: Resources and Motivation.” International Migration Review 45:148-173.
Abstract: Is immigrant groups’ assimilation to host society at odds with their engagement with the country of ancestral origin? This study divides the concept of assimilation into socioeconomic resources and attachment to host society, and argues that assimilation and transnational perspectives are coexisting paradigms. Analyses using the nationally representative samples of Latino and Asian Americans indicate that higher-order generations reduce the odds of home country engagement, i.e., frequent return visits; attachment to American society does not discourage return visits; socioeconomic resources increase frequent visits; and the country of origin is a significant predictor of home country visits.
Greenman, Emily. 2011. “Assimilation Choices Among Immigrant Families: Does School Context Matter?” International Migration Review 45:29-67.
Abstract: This article explores the relationship between social context, measured in terms of school characteristics, and the assimilation of immigrant adolescents. First, it develops a measure of assimilation based on comparing immigrant adolescents to native peers within the same school. Second, it investigates whether immigrant adolescents’ degree of assimilation varies systematically according to school socioeconomic status (SES). Third, it explores the role of parental and adolescent behavior in creating such variation. Results show that both Asian and Hispanic immigrant youth are less assimilated to native youths’ substance use and delinquency patterns in lower-SES schools. This association can be explained by parenting behaviors and adolescent friendship choices for Asian youth, but not Hispanic youth.
Kim, Chigon and Pyong Gap Min. 2010. “Marital Patterns and Use of Mother Tongue at Home among Native-Born Asian Americans.” Social Forces 89:233-256.
Abstract: This article examines marital patterns and use of mother tongue at home among native-born Asian Americans using the 2005-2007 American Community Survey 3-Year Public Use Microdata Sample. There are variations in mother-tongue use across Asian ethnic groups, but variations among different types of marriage are even greater. Those who marry within their ethnicity (in-married) have a greater likelihood of mother-tongue use at home than those who intermarry. Among the in-married, those having 1.5- and first-generation co-ethnic spouses are far more likely to use a mother tongue than those having native-born, co-ethnic partners. Results of logistic regression analyses indicate that marital patterns are the strongest predictor of mother-tongue use at home, and that ethnic variations in mother-tongue use are significantly reduced when marital patterns are taken into account.
Chhuon, Vichet and Cynthia Hudley. 2010. “Asian American Ethnic Options: How Cambodian Students Negotiate Ethnic Identities in a U.S. Urban School.” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 41:341-359.
Abstract: Research suggests that Cambodian students often endure conflicting ethnic stereotypes from larger society and their school and communities. We examine the ways in which Cambodian youth negotiated their ethnic identities in response to these stereotypes and argue that Cambodian students adopted, rejected, and affirmed certain ethnic identities in relation to perceived advantages associated with different labels across varying school contexts.
Cheng, Wendy. 2010. “‘Diversity’ on Main Street? Branding Race and Place in the New ‘Majority-Minority’ Suburbs.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 17:458-486.
Abstract: The emergence in the United States of an increasing number of spaces across the socioeconomic spectrum with majority nonwhite populations merits close attention because of these spaces’ potential in reconfiguring historical and contemporary claims to place. In an era in which the neoliberalization of urban development has spurred local governments toward more active involvement in defining relationships between race, ethnicity, consumption, and space, ‘majority-minority’ suburbs are particularly important sites of study. In the late 2000s, two branding campaigns in majority-Asian American and Latina/o municipalities in Los Angeles’s San Gabriel Valley-a densely populated region popularly known as a ‘suburban Chinatown’-put forth specific discourses of race, ethnicity, and culture in attempts to actualize specific visions and claims to place, identity, and history. In doing so, these campaigns illuminated and reinforced larger racial, geographic, and ideological divides. ‘Diversity’ on Main Street embraced pluralist multicultural discourses of the nation, while the ‘Golden Mile’ proposal sought to showcase the transformation of a central thoroughfare by ethnic Chinese capital and immigration. A close examination and comparison of these two campaigns shows how struggles over race, geography, and history are intertwined in the contemporary identities of places and integral to the shaping of civic landscapes.
Kim, ChangHwan and Arthur Sakamoto. 2010. “Have Asian American Men Achieved Labor Market Parity with White Men?” American Sociological Review 75:934-957.
Abstract: The emergence in the United States of an increasing number of spaces across the socioeconomic spectrum with majority nonwhite populations merits close attention because of these spaces’ potential in reconfiguring historical and contemporary claims to place. In an era in which the neoliberalization of urban development has spurred local governments toward more active involvement in defining relationships between race, ethnicity, consumption, and space, ‘majority-minority’ suburbs are particularly important sites of study. In the late 2000s, two branding campaigns in majority-Asian American and Latina/o municipalities in Los Angeles’s San Gabriel Valley-a densely populated region popularly known as a ‘suburban Chinatown’-put forth specific discourses of race, ethnicity, and culture in attempts to actualize specific visions and claims to place, identity, and history. In doing so, these campaigns illuminated and reinforced larger racial, geographic, and ideological divides. ‘Diversity’ on Main Street embraced pluralist multicultural discourses of the nation, while the ‘Golden Mile’ proposal sought to showcase the transformation of a central thoroughfare by ethnic Chinese capital and immigration. A close examination and comparison of these two campaigns shows how struggles over race, geography, and history are intertwined in the contemporary identities of places and integral to the shaping of civic landscapes.
Chang, Esther S., Jutta Heckhausen, Ellen Greenberger, and Chuansheng Chen. 2010. “Shared Agency with Parents for Educational Goals: Ethnic Differences and Implications for College Adjustment.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 39:1293-1304.
Abstract: This study proposed and confirmed three ways in which college students can perceive shared agency and two ways in which they can perceive non-shared agency with parents when pursuing educational goals in college. Differences and similarities were examined among participants from four ethnic backgrounds (N = 515; 67% female): East Asian American, Southeast Asian American, Filipino/Pacific Islander American, and European American. Results indicated that Asian American youth reported higher levels of non-shared agency with parents (i.e., parental directing and noninvolvement), lower levels of shared agency (i.e., parental accommodation, support, or collaboration), and poorer college adjustment compared to European Americans. However, ethnic similarities were found whereby perceived shared agency in education with parents was associated with college adjustment. Multiple mediation analyses also indicated that our model of shared and non-shared agency with parents explained differences in college adjustment between Asian and European Americans, though more strongly for comparisons between European and East Asian Americans. Our results suggest that parents continue to be important in the education of older youth but that continued directing of youth’s education in college can be maladaptive.
Abrams, Jessica R. 2010. “Asian American Television Activity: Is it Related to Outgroup Vitality?” International Journal of Intercultural Relations 34:541-550.
Abstract: Applying a uses and gratifications and social identity gratifications approach, the present study explores Asian American television viewing. Specifically, Asian Americans report on the quantity of television they watch, what shows they watch, why they watch, and whether their uses are related to their perceptions of Caucasian vitality. The data reveal that using television for entertainment and to escape/relieve boredom were the most important television uses for this group of Asian Americans. At the same time, these two uses were significant predictors of how vital Asian Americans perceived Caucasians. Although selecting and avoiding television for ethnic identity gratifications were not important relative to other gratifications, television selection for identity gratifications was important to Asian Americans who highly identify with their ethnic group.
Haines, David A. and Karen E. Rosenblum. 2010. “Perfectly American: Constructing the Refugee Experience.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 36:391-406.
Abstract: Over the last 60 years, the United States has accepted some two million refugees for resettlement. Standard opinion polls suggest that the American response to these refugees has been mixed. Yet, despite much ambivalence about particular refugees and where they may belong in the grid of American social and cultural categories, the notion of refuge and the imperative toward support and welcome to refugees endure. As an extended example, this paper considers press treatment of refugees in Richmond, Virginia during the last quarter of the twentieth century—before security concerns and surging numbers of illegal immigrants irrevocably changed the nature of American immigration. Unlike the ambivalent response that emerges in national opinion polls and some other venues, in this case the construction of refugees is neither negative nor ambivalent, but is instead solidly positive. This positive construction extends across a broad range of racial and national-origin groups and is conditioned by a peculiarly American notion of how refugees relate to broader American categories, particularly that of ‘immigrant’. In this local story from the United States lies a broader tale of how refugees are woven into the existing social and cultural categories of the countries in which they resettle.
Hwang, Sean-Shong, Juan Xi, and Yue Cao. 2010. “The Conditional Relationship Between English Language Proficiency and Earnings Among U.S. Immigrants.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 33:1620-1647.
Abstract: Using the 2000 US census data for immigrants of twenty language groups resided in metropolitan areas, we test the hypothesis that the rate of returns (in earnings) to English proficiency is not constant but varies with the language environment (as defined by group size, segregation, linguistic heterogeneity and inequality) in which immigrants are embedded. Results from our hierarchical model indicate that while an increase in the size and segregation of the language group diminishes returns to English proficiency, a rise in linguistic heterogeneity and inequality in the metropolitan area has the opposite effects. This study expands the scope of the previous studies by identifying conditions under which returns to English proficiency among immigrants are modified by a set of contextual factors often overlooked.
Kim, Wooksoo and Robert H. Keefe. 2010. “Barriers to Healthcare Among Asian Americans.” Social Work in Public Health 25:286-295.
Abstract: The myth of the well-adjusted Asian American resulted from sample-biased research studies that concluded that Asian Americans are physically healthier and financially better off than Caucasians. The myth has been perpetuated by researchers who have often categorized Asian Americans as a single, undifferentiated group rather than as distinct ethnic groups. Consequently, data analysis techniques do not reveal distinctions that may exist had the researchers controlled for ethnic group variation. The authors discussed four major barriers–language and culture, health literacy, health insurance, and immigrant status–to healthcare that may influence within-group disparities among Asian Americans that may go unreported. The authors argue that healthcare policy makers and researchers should consider Asian Americans as members of discrete ethnic groups with unique healthcare needs. Recommendations for health policies and future research are provided.
Here are some more announcements, links, and job postings about academic-related jobs, fellowships, and other related opportunities for those interested in racial/ethnic/diversity issues. As always, the announcements and links are provided for informational purposes and do not necessarily imply an endorsement of the organization or college involved.
Are you bilingual in Vietnamese and English? Are you looking for positions that pays $17.00 an hour or more? Superior Court of Orange County is now accepting applications from candidates that are Bilingual in Vietnamese and English.
The Court has numerous full-time positions and some part-time positions that serve the public and/or work in a call center environment that utilize bilingual skills. Qualified candidates will earn an additional $0.58 or $1.15 an hour on top of the hourly base pay for meeting our bilingual requirements. Current needs are in Laguna Hills; however, we also have work locations in Westminster, Santa Ana, Newport Beach, Fullerton, Irvine, and Orange.
For more information about the positions and how to apply, visit our website.
The Department of English, Hawai’i Pacific University, invites applications for 1 full-time, career-track (in lieu of a tenure system, HPU uses a “career-track” system consisting of 5 years of renewable reappointments (two 1-year and a 3-year contract) culminating in “career” status consisting of a series of 5-year contracts) faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor for a nine-month appointment to begin Fall 2011. We are seeking applicants with a background in film/media studies or world literature. The successful applicant will be expected to teach a combination of 24 credits (typically 8 classes) of courses in first-year composition; general education, literature, film/media studies, and/or cultural studies; and upper-division English courses in the candidate’s area of specialty. Development of upper-level courses related to area of expertise is also expected as is participation in University and community service.
Minimum qualifications: Candidates for the position should have a Ph.D. in English. ABD will be considered if degree can be completed within first year of appointment. Desired qualifications: Evidence of successful teaching in composition and literature, media studies, or culture studies preferred. The successful applicant must also demonstrate a sincere interest and ability in undergraduate teaching in a multicultural environment, a promising record of scholarship, and an interest in faculty/student extracurricular activities and program review.
To Apply: Applicants should apply online. Supporting documents such as curriculum vitae, three letters of reference, a statement of teaching philosophy, evidence of teaching experience, and description of professional development goals may be submitted electronically as Word or PDF files put together in a ZIP file named with the last name and position number (ex: Jones ####) and e-mailed to HR@hpu.edu. Paper submissions of supporting documents are also accepted at Human Resources: Hawai‘i Pacific University HR Department; 1132 Bishop Street, Suite 310; Honolulu, HI 96813. E-mail: hr@hpu.edu. FAX: 808-544-1192. Review of applications may begin on March 15, 2011.
Department Contact address: Dr. Laurie Leach, 808-544-1103.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (The Leadership Conference) is the leading coalition of organizations committed to civil and human rights in the United States and The Leadership Conference Education Fund is the major research and education organization supporting the coalition. We are seeking applicants for the position of field manager with a background in social media organizing, among other qualifications. It’s a great opportunity to work on multiple civil and human rights issues with a diverse range of groups and communities, nationally and at the state and local level.
Description
The Field Manager will be responsible for a variety of tasks within the Department of Field Operations (DFO). The employee in this position will report to the Vice President, Field Operations, with guidance from the Deputy Field Director(s).
Skills and Qualifications
The job requires a commitment to civil and human rights; organizing and outreach experience; a demonstrated ability to manage multiple tasks; planning and coordinating skills; excellent interpersonal skills; and the ability to work in a fast-paced environment and adhere to deadlines. Minimum requirements are a Bachelors degree; a minimum of three years of field/grassroots experience, preferably with a focus on the creation of materials and tools designed for community leaders and grassroots campaigns; and a demonstrated understanding of and proficiency in the use of social media and web activism software, and Microsoft applications.
Excellent writing and verbal skills, particularly as related to drafting and creating field materials and tools; desire and ability to work with diverse groups of people; desire and ability to manage a complex, ever-changing workload; ability to organize time efficiently; ability to work with intra-departmental teams, interns, and community leaders; and a high level of personal energy and commitment to civil and human rights are essential. Hill experience not required, however a plus.
This is a mid-level position at the center of the organizations’ major work. The employee will have the opportunity to work with the DFO to participate in and/or lead field campaigns to activate the grassroots on critical civil and human rights issues. The employee will play a key role in developing and advancing grassroots strategy on the major priority issues of The Leadership Conference. S/he will also be exposed to the most broad-based civil and human rights coalition in the country, and to participatory democracy at its best.
Duties and Responsibilities
Work directly with the Vice President for Field Operations and field team to:
Envision and draft materials, alerts and tools for grassroots activists, community leaders, and the civil and human rights coalition as the DFO develops field campaigns on priority Leadership Conference issues
Work with the field team to devise a strategy around components of online activism, such as Internet action alerts, social networking systems and innovative web-based outreach
Serve as DFO representative on the intra-departmental Online Strategy Group
Devise grassroots outreach and activation strategies on organizational priority issues, with a particularized focus on developing written materials and social media tools for national, state, and local partners’ use
Plan, manage and maintain effective technical support for members of the coalition in their efforts to activate the grassroots and for state and local partner organizations as they implement grassroots campaigns
Drive and monitor the development of field outreach, public education, and capacity campaigns in a set of key states as they relate to the organizations’ priority issues and areas of focus
Work with the DFO to develop grassroots coalitions in key states and to organize national grassroots task force meetings
Participate in department, All-Staff, team, and other meetings as needed
Salary and Benefits
This is a mid-level position with a starting salary in the mid forties.
To Apply
Send resume and cover letter, by March 31, 2011, via email to personnel@civilrights.org with Field Manager in the subject line; fax to (202) 466-3435, or mail to:
The Leadership Conference /The Leadership Conference Education Fund
1629 K Street, N.W., 10th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20006
Attention: Field Manager Search
No telephone inquiries, please.
Reality Show Call for Participants: Asian American Families
We have been commissioned by the BBC to make a programme on family values and parenting in different nations and cultures all over the world. We are now in the 4th series of this very popular programme but have yet to represent a family of Asian origin – and would very much like to do so in the States in the coming weeks.
We are reaching out to families ( with teens) and are hoping that a loving, but disciplined family will be interested in participating in the series whereby they ‘host’ 2 British teenagers for a week, instilling in them the values and morality they demand of their own children. This very popular programme has already met and filmed inspirational families in countries ranging from South Africa to India, US to Lebanon.
If you know of any families who are interested in participating, you can contact me at my email below.
I am a doctoral candidate from the Department of Counseling and Human Development Services at the University of Georgia under the direction of Dr. Brian Glaser. I invite you to participate in a research study entitled “A Study of Scale Construction in the Asian American/Pacific Islander Population”. The purpose of this study is to investigate the values system within the Asian American/ Pacific Islanders (AAPI) population in order to create a scale that accurately quantifies these values.
You are invited to participate in a study investigating value systems in the Asian-American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) population. Any self-identified AAPI or with AAPI heritage, ages 18 and over, are welcome to participate. If you agree to participate, you will be asked to answer a series of question reflecting your values system as part of a larger study to create a measurement scale. Your answers will remain anonymous.
The scale consists of 46 items and will take approximately 5-20 minutes to complete. By taking part in this study, your responses may help improve the conceptualization and treatment of AAPI clients in therapy. If you have any questions or concerns, please refer to the informational letter for further contact information. Your help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Pearl S. Chang, M.Ed., M.A.
University of Georgia
pearl1@uga.edu
Research Supervisor:
Brian Glaser, Ph.D.
bglaser@uga.edu
The Asian American Studies Program at Hunter College (AASP), The City University of New York, currently seeks candidates to develop and teach Asian American Studies courses primarily in the Social Sciences, e.g. Psychology, Political Science, History, Sociology, Human Rights, Economics, etc. In addition, we also seek candidates to develop and teach Asian American Studies courses in Education, Journalism/Media Studies/Communication, and Public Health. Applicants must have at least an M.A. or ABD in a relevant field, as well as a record of successful undergraduate teaching.
About the Program
The Asian American Studies Program (AASP) at Hunter College was founded in 1993 on the initiative of students and faculty. Today, we are a small but dynamic program with a growing number of minors, and we offer approximately 12 courses per semester, ranging from our interdisciplinary survey courses to more advanced courses in Literature, Cultural Studies, and Diasporic community formations — West Asian American, Chinese American, and Korean American in particular. Located in the heart of New York City, the AASP works closely with Asian American organizations to build and sustain ties to local communities and concerns. Affiliated full-time faculty in the College are located in areas as diverse as Urban Studies, Film and Media, Sociology, English, and Dance.
Teaching at Hunter
Applicants should be prepared to teach their classe(es) to a cross-section of undergraduate students from all majors. The majority of our courses are taught by adjunct faculty: as a result the work you will do in our program is crucial to the process of introducing undergraduates to concepts concerning Asian American history and experience. We hope to work with dedicated, effective, and intelligent educators, and we seek to provide a welcoming and supportive work environment for our faculty.
Please email the following documents to: jennifer.hayashida@hunter.cuny.edu
CV
Letter of Intent
Brief Pedagogical Statement outlining your teaching philosophy
Contact information for at least 3 references
Jennifer Hayashida, Acting Director
Asian American Studies Program
Hunter College, CUNY
695 Park Avenue, Room 1037HE
New York, NY 10065
Hello! I am the publisher of MySavvySisters.com a website dedicated to empowering women. I want all races to be represented on our website and I would love for you to pass along the names of any outstanding women that you know of who are enjoying their lives or careers. I would love to profile them and introduce them to our readers.
Please feel free to check out our site with tips on women I can profile.
2009: Gary Locke and the Future of Asian American Identity As Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke prepares to become the U.S’s new Ambassador to China, I look at how he represents the forging of a new identity for Asian Americans as they contribute to strengthening American society in the 21st century.
2008: Korean Americans Going to Korean Colleges As another example of transnationalism and cultural globalization, Korean Americans are increasingly choosing to go to college in South Korea.
2005: Koreatown in Northern Virginia The emergence of a Korean American enclave in northern Virginia revitalizes a community but leads to tensions as well.
In light of the disasters from the recent earthquakes and tsunami in Japan, if you would like to make a donation to help those in need, here are some links to respected organizations to make your donation, along with a couple of links to more information about locating victims:
Here are some more announcements, links, and job postings about academic-related jobs, fellowships, and other related opportunities for those interested in racial/ethnic/diversity issues. As always, the announcements and links are provided for informational purposes and do not necessarily imply an endorsement of the organization or college involved.
The School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College announces a Pre-Doctoral Diversity Fellowship for 2011-12. The fellowship supports promising scholars who are committed to diversity in the academy in order to better prepare them for tenure track appointments within liberal arts or comprehensive colleges/universities.
Applications are welcome in the following areas: Anthropology, Communication Studies, Education, English, History, Religion, and Sociology. The school also houses a number of interdisciplinary minors that may be of interest to candidates: African Diaspora Studies, Jewish Studies, Latino/a Studies, Latin American Studies, Muslim Cultures, Native American Studies, and Women’s Studies. Fellows who successfully obtain the Ph.D. and show an exemplary record of teaching and scholarship and engagement in academic service throughout their fellowship, may be considered as candidates for tenure-eligible appointments anticipated to begin in the fall of 2012.
Terms of fellowship: Fellowship is anticipated for the academic year (August 16, 2011 to May 31, 2012) and is non-renewable. The fellow will receive a $30,000 stipend, $3,000 in travel/professional development support, office space, health benefits, and access to Ithaca College and Cornell University libraries. The fellow will teach one course in the fall semester and one course in the spring semester and be invited to speak about her/his dissertation research in relevant classes and at special events at Ithaca College.
Enrollment in an accredited program leading to a Ph.D. degree at a U.S. educational institution, evidence of superior academic achievement, and commitment to a career in teaching at the college or university level required. Candidates must also be authorized to work in the United States.
Prior to August 15, 2011, the fellow must be advanced to candidacy at his or her home institution with an approved dissertation proposal. Preference will be given to those candidates in the final writing stages of their dissertation. Candidates from underrepresented groups whose exclusion from membership in the American professoriate has been longstanding are strongly encouraged to apply.
Successful candidates will show evidence of superior academic achievement, a high degree of promise of continuing achievement as scholars and teachers, a capacity to respond in pedagogically productive ways to the learning needs of students from diverse backgrounds, sustained personal engagement with communities that are underrepresented in the academy and an ability to bring this asset to learning, teaching, and scholarship at the college and university level, and a likelihood of using the diversity of human experience as an educational resource in teaching and scholarship.
Ithaca College is located in Ithaca, New York, a city of about 30,000 people in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Ithaca is rated by Kiplinger’s as one of the top 10 places to live in the U.S. Ithaca is approximately a 1.5 hour drive from Syracuse, a 2 hour drive from Rochester, a 4 hour drive from Buffalo and a 5 hour drive from New York City.
Interested individuals should apply online at www.icjobs.org, and submit a C.V./Resume, a cover letter, a list of references and a transcript. Questions about the online application should be directed to the Office of Human Resources at (607)274-8000. Screening of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.
Assistant Director, Asian American Cultural Center
Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Asian American Cultural Center (AACC) promotes cross-cultural understanding of Asian American and Asian international experiences, and provides educational and cultural support for Asians and Asian Americans in our university community. The campus has a vibrant Asian community with approximately 5000 Asian American students, 5000 Asian international students, and 1000 Asian American faculty/staff. The campus recently was named one of the top ten universities for Asian American college students.
Nature of Position:
The Assistant Director is a full-time academic professional staff member in the Asian American Cultural Center, a unit of the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations, a department of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. Primary responsibilities include developing and coordinating programs and activities of the center, advising student organizations, and assisting in supervising student employees and volunteers. Programs of the center are primarily oriented toward college students, but also serve faculty-staff, alumni, and community members.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Develop and coordinate programming of the center
Collaborate with campus units and student organizations on programming
Provide advising and leadership development to student organizations
Coordinate alumni network and faculty-staff network
Coordinate resource collection, artist showcase
Evening and weekend hours as needed
Assist in the supervision of student staff
Perform other duties and additional responsibilities as assigned
The assistant director reports to the director of the center
Minimum Qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree
Experience with coordinating cultural, social, and/or educational programs
Two years experience, as a professional or as a student, with Asian American organizations
Strong interpersonal and organizational skills
Preferred Qualifications:
Master’s degree, preferably in higher education administration, student affairs administration, or counseling
Professional experience advising students and/or student organizations
Experience in student affairs or in Asian American community development
Coursework in Asian and/or Asian American studies
Appointment Type:
Permanent full time, twelve month, 100% academic professional appointment. Salary commensurate with experience.
For full consideration, please create your candidate profile at http://jobs.illinois.edu and upload a letter of application, resume, and three references by March 25, 2011. All requested information must be submitted online for your application to be considered. For further information, please contact Misty Oakley, moakley@illinois.edu or 217-333-1300.
The Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) is currently seeking full-time undergraduates and recent graduates for the 2011 Summer Internship Program in Washington DC. Online Applications are due by Monday, April 4th at 11:30pm EST.
OCA Summer Internship Program
Purpose: To cultivate future leadership for the Asian Pacific American (APA) community by providing opportunities to work in the public sector and learn about issues affecting the APAs. Based in the nation’s capital, interns will build relationships, engage in weekly discussions on APA issues, go on legislative visits and participate in OCA’s National Convention in New York on Aug. 4-7. All are welcome to apply. Students of Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, South Asian, and Southeast Asian descent are highly encouraged to apply.
Deadline: All materials must be received by Monday, April 4th at 11:30 pm EST.
Stipend: $2,500 for 10 weeks of full time work
Requirements:
Full-time undergraduate student (Minimum age of 18. Seniors are eligible)
U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident
Demonstrated interest in APA issues
Excellent written and oral communication skills
Commitment to work 10 weeks in Washington DC within the period of June 6 – August 19
We are delighted to announce the publication of the latest special issue of Modern Asian Studies, “From Subjects to Citizens: Society and the Everyday State in India and Pakistan, 1947-1970.” The special issue explores the shift from colonial rule to independence in India and Pakistan, with the aim of unravelling the explicit meanings and relevance of “independence” for the new citizens of India and Pakistan during the two decades after 1947.
The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) is now accepting applications for the 2011 JACL Mike M. Masaoka Fellowship. The 2010 Masaoka Fellow is Mike Misha Tsukerman, who is serving in the office of Senator Daniel K. Inouye. National JACL President, David Kawamoto, said: “We encourage young members of the JACL who are college graduates to apply for this Fellowship which offers a unique experience in the nation’s capital.”
The Mike M. Masaoka Fellowship Fund was established in 1988 to honor Mike M. Masaoka for a lifetime of public service to the JACL and the nation. Masaoka was the JACL’s national secretary, field executive, national legislative director of the JACL’s Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the JACL Washington, D.C. Representative. He worked tirelessly to advance the cause of Japanese Americans during difficult times.
The Fund was set up by good friends of Mike Masaoka. Dr. H. Tom Tamaki of Philadelphia administered the program for the JACL for twenty years since its inception. The JACL Washington, D.C. office now administers the program. JACL Masaoka Fellows are placed in the Washington D.C. Congressional offices of members of the United States Senate or the House of Representatives for a period of six to eight months. The major purpose of the Masaoka Fellowship is to develop leaders for public service. They are expected to be future leaders of the JACL.
Floyd Mori, National Executive Director of the JACL, stated: “The Mike M. Masaoka Fellowship is a flagship program of the JACL. We are grateful to those who had the foresight to set up such a fund and program to develop young leaders. This is a great opportunity to work in the office of a member of Congress.”
Information and application materials are on the website. Applications should be submitted to the JACL Washington, D.C. office via email to: policy@jacl.org. The deadline has been extended to May 2, 2011. The announcement of the selected Fellow is expected to be made by June 15.
As part of this blog’s ongoing mission of making academic research and data more easily accessible, understandable, and applicable to a wider audience, and for readers who like to keep on top of the latest sociological research, I highlight new research and studies in academic journals about Asian Americans and other racial/ethnic groups as I hear about them. An article’s inclusion is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily mean a full endorsement of its complete contents.
The widely-respected Amerasia Journal has just released a special issue that focuses on globalized and diasporic Asian communities around the world:
The UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press announces Amerasia Journal’s latest issue: “GlobaLinks: Community Institutions & Practices across Nations.” Guest edited by Michel Laguerre and Joe Chung Fong, both of the Berkeley Center for Globalization and Information Technology, the special issue brings together research on globalized diasporic communities in the U.S. and Asia from scholars based throughout the Pacific Rim. The contributions to “GlobaLinks” provide new insights on Asian American spaces and places from a wide array of intellectual perspectives, including history, cultural anthropology, urban studies, sociology, ethnic studies, and political science.
“GlobaLinks” recognizes that Asian and Pacific American communities are no longer limited by their institutional identities within local boundaries or defined by their political, cultural, or economic activities within national borders alone. Amerasia has worked with our guest editors to put together a selection of studies which examine social phenomena such as the self-political identity of communities, trans-Pacific youth, banking, voting and political campaigns, and community cultural development.
At a conceptual and theoretical level, “GlobaLinks” urges scholars to rethink and reconsider what key terms such as globalization and transnationalism mean in light of rapidly changing Asian and Pacific American communities. In his introductory essay, for instance, Michel Laguerre coins the term “cosmonation” to make the case that the global and the local are mutually implicated in a complex network of relationships that is not “top-down” or hierarchical as a nation-oriented model of homeland and hostland is.
A number of the articles present thorough historical studies and painstaking fieldwork in local communities to explain how they are connected to larger global frameworks. Through a detailed account of the original Little Saigon in Orange County, Christian Collet and Hiroko Furuya examine the lived and imagined spaces of Little Saigons to reveal how these local diasporic sites have transformed conceptions of ethnic identity and nation. Shenglin Elijah Chang and Willow Lung Amam use the neologism “glocal” to address the global experiences and local placemaking that transnational Taiwanese youth participate in on both sides of the Pacific, in Silicon Valley and the high-tech suburb of Hsinchu in Taiwan. Elaborating on the relationship between economic matters of community development and ethnic cultural practices, Eric Estuar Reyes explores the cultural formations and spatial conceptions of Filipino American community in southern California.
Other selections describe how local immigrant communities must negotiate larger social structures, be they economic or local. Banking, for instance, is a particularly fruitful field of investigation for Joe Chung Fong, since it reflects the dynamics of global capital flows as well as the cultural practices of overseas ethnic populations at the local level of the neighborhood. James S. Lai brings politics front-and-center to the global-local concerns of Asian American Studies, focusing on Chinese American political strategies in two suburbs — Cupertino in Silicon Valley and Sugar Land in the Houston area — with populations that are transnational, multiethnic, and multiracial.
This issue of Amerasia Journal costs $15.00 plus $5.00 for shipping and handling and 9.25 percent sales tax for California residents ($21.39). Make checks payable to “Regents of U.C.” Visa, MasterCard, and Discover are also accepted; include expiration date and phone number on correspondence. The mailing address is: UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 3230 Campbell Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1546.
Below are a few more recently-released books that highlight Asian Americans, immigration, and/or other racial/ethnic groups along a variety of historical and contemporary sociological issues. A book’s inclusion is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily mean a full endorsement of its contents.
South Asia occupies a very interesting position in the field of Asian Studies and Asian American Studies — countries and cultures such as India, Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh share many similarities with those in East Asia and Southeast Asia but at the same time, such South Asian countries and cultures feature very unique histories and characteristics. South Asians here in the U.S. frequently disagree among themselves about whether they should be part of the larger “Asian American” category as well. To help us examine these intricacies in more detail, the follow books focus on the histories, experiences, and identities of people from South Asia.
Through a lyrical narrative of her journey to Tibet in 2007, activist Canyon Sam contemplates modern history from the perspective of Tibetan women. Traveling on China’s new “Sky Train,” she celebrates Tibetan New Year with the Lhasa family whom she’d befriended decades earlier and concludes an oral-history project with women elders.
As she uncovers stories of Tibetan women’s courage, resourcefulness, and spiritual strength in the face of loss and hardship since the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1950, and observes the changes wrought by the controversial new rail line in the futuristic “new Lhasa,” Sam comes to embrace her own capacity for letting go, for faith, and for acceptance. Her glimpse of Tibet’s past through the lens of the women – a visionary educator, a freedom fighter, a gulag survivor, and a child bride – affords her a unique perspective on the state of Tibetan culture today – in Tibet, in exile, and in the widening Tibetan diaspora.
Gracefully connecting the women’s poignant histories to larger cultural, political, and spiritual themes, the author comes full circle, finding wisdom and wholeness even as she acknowledges Tibet’s irreversible changes.
Providing a useful analysis of and framework for understanding immigration and assimilation narratives, anupama jain’s How to Be South Asian in America considers the myth of the American Dream in fiction (Meena Alexander’s Manhattan Music), film (American Desi, American Chai), and personal testimonies. By interrogating familiar American stories in the context of more supposedly exotic narratives, jain illuminates complexities of belonging that also reveal South Asians’ anxieties about belonging, (trans)nationalism, and processes of cultural interpenetration. jain argues that these stories transform as well as reflect cultural processes, and she shows just how aspects of identity, gender, sexual, class, ethnic, and nationality are shaped by South Asians’ accommodation of and resistance to mainstream American culture.
Mohanty has assembled an innovative volume of essays situated at the intersection of at least three multi-disciplinary fields: postcolonial and subaltern theory; comparative literary analysis, especially with a South Asian and transnational focus; and the study of “alternative†and “indigenous†modernities. This definitive new work grounds the political insights of postcolonial and subaltern theory in close textual analysis and challenges readers to think in new ways about global modernity and local cultures.
Terrifying Muslims highlights how transnational working classes from Pakistan are produced, constructed, and represented in the context of American empire and the recent global War on Terror. Drawing on ethnographic research that compares Pakistan, the Middle East, and the United States before and after 9/11, Junaid Rana combines cultural and material analyses to chronicle the worldviews of Pakistani labor migrants as they become part of a larger global racial system.
At the same time, he explains how these migrants’ mobility and opportunities are limited by colonial, postcolonial, and new imperial structures of control and domination. He argues that the contemporary South Asian labor diaspora builds on and replicates the global racial system consolidated during the period of colonial indenture. Rana maintains that a negative moral judgment attaches to migrants who enter the global labor pool through the informal economy. This taint of the illicit intensifies the post–9/11 Islamophobia that collapses varied religions, nationalities, and ethnicities into the threatening racial figure of “the Muslim.â€
It is in this context that the racialized Muslim is controlled by a process that beckons workers to enter the global economy, and stipulates when, where, and how laborers can migrate. The demonization of Muslim migrants in times of crisis, such as the War on Terror, is then used to justify arbitrary policing, deportation, and criminalization.
Here are some more announcements, links, and job postings about academic-related jobs, fellowships, and other related opportunities for those interested in racial/ethnic/diversity issues. As always, the announcements and links are provided for informational purposes and do not necessarily imply an endorsement of the organization or college involved.
Today is the last day to help take the Queer Southeast Asian (QSEA) Census, March 1, 2011. As of now, we have collected 380 surveys nationally by Hmong, Thai, Laotian, Vietnamese and Cambodians who are LGBTQ living in the US. We need 20 more surveys to be taken to reach our goal of 400 and it would be fantastic if we surpass that goal!
I wanted to reach out to you all again in hopes that if you haven’t taken the survey yet, to please do so, as this is historical and ground breaking data that we have been needing to
help support our work and bring visibility to our communities that do exist for over 30 years in the US. And for those that have taken it or don’t fit the criteria, please help us outreach it to your family, friends and network until midnight via Facebook, social networks, website and email.
Our QSEA Census is directed towards Queer Southeast Asians that have been affected by the Vietnam War living in the countries of Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Leadership in Action (LIA) is an eight-week paid summer internship program designed to develop emerging young leaders by providing college students with practical leadership skills and the opportunity to work hands-on in the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community in Southern California.
Approaching its 14th year, the program takes learning beyond the classroom, and places the student interns in a range of API community based organizations in order to gain real-life experience working at nonprofits. The intern will be paid $2,000 for the eight-week internship.
The intern’s weekly schedule is comprised of 4 days at their assigned community based organization (CBO) and 1 day at LEAP. At the CBO, the intern works with their assigned supervisor on a meaningful project. At LEAP, the intern’s day is devoted to leadership development training, issue discussions, CBO site visits and a community impact project. Nationally recognized trainers deliver workshops in critical skill areas. Issue discussions are on local or timely topics of interest and are facilitated by local community leaders/activists and LEAP trainers.
The community impact project will give the students interns an opportunity to flex their leadership skills in a safe setting, as well as allow them to contribute a service that has lasting impact on to the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. The 2011 program will be held in Los Angeles from June 20 – August 12, 2011.
The application process for interns is now open. Applications are due Friday, March 11th, 2011. There are two rounds in the application process. The first round is where a committee reviews all the applications and decides who they want to come in for an interview. The second round is the actual interview either at LEAP or by teleconference. The results will be decided by the end of March and interns will be notified by the first week of April.
Junior Faculty Development Workshop, Penn State
On June 2-4, 2011, the East of California Caucus and the Pennsylvania State University will sponsor a junior faculty development workshop for early-career Asian Americanists. The workshop reflects EOC’s historical commitment to mentoring junior faculty and providing support to those working to increase the disciplinary and curricular visibility of Asian American Studies in higher education. Specifically, the workshop will help professionalize junior faculty by focusing on how to:
Create extra-institutional networks of support
Identify meaningful research projects and develop vocabularies for how to talk about such projects with a variety of audiences (department chairs, audiences outside of Asian American Studies, potential editors)
Confront pedagogical challenges
Establish effective collegial relationships
Navigate the tenure process successfully
To accomplish these goals, the workshop will feature panel discussions, breakout sessions, and work-in-progress workshops. Please note that space will be limited to ensure a high level of interaction among all participants. Interested scholars should submit a brief letter of application outlining what the applicant hopes to gain by attending the workshop, a draft or excerpt of approximately 7-15 pages of the article or book chapter being proposed for workshop development (only work that has not yet been published is eligible), and a c.v. Please send materials to Tina Chen tina.chen@psu.edu and Eric Hung msumeric@gmail.com; questions should be directed to Tina Chen.
This event is funded by the Penn State Asian Studies Program (ASP) with additional support from the Center for American Literary Studies (CALS). The workshop will begin on Thursday evening (6/2) and conclude at 12:30 on Saturday (6/4). PSU will cover lodging and all meals during the event (specifically, 2 nights of lodging; dinner on Thursday; all meals on Friday; and breakfast and lunch on Saturday).
Out of the Margins: Asian American Movement Building. A two-day conference on the past, present, and future of activism and social change. March 25-26, 2011 at the University of Michigan.
Highlights:
Conversation between Grace Lee Boggs and Michael Hardt on the Next American Revolution (3/25, 4pm, Michigan League Ballroom)
Asian American performers showcase with Geologic (from Blue Scholars), Kiwi and DJ Phatrick, comic Hari Kondabolu, and Nobuko Miyamoto (3/25, 7:30pm, Michigan League Ballroom)
Panel discussions on immigrant rights, youth organizing, cultural activism, building multiracial coalitions and campus/community connections (3/26, 9am to 6pm, Trotter Multicultural Center)
Join students, scholars, artists, and community organizers from the University of Michigan and across the nation in this historic event. See our website for updated information and free registration.
Sponsored by:
University of Michigan Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Program
Committee on Institutional Cooperation
Asian American Association
Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives
Rackham Graduate School
United Asian American Organizations
Asian American Studies Program (Ohio State University)
Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs, Asian/Pacific Islander American Heritage Month
Examining the Resettlement & Integration Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Refugees
Intensive Internship Yielding Thesis-Level Stand-Alone Report and Publication
[10-week Program from June 13th to August 19th]
ORAM (Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration) is a California-based non-profit organization with a mission to advocate for refugees fleeing sexual or gender based persecution. ORAM conducts international education and advocacy on behalf of these highly vulnerable individuals. It also provides legal counseling and representation as these persons struggle to find security and safe haven. We work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and with community-based groups in the U.S. and abroad to achieve our mission. More information is available at www.oraminternational.org.
Project: Conducting a Survey on the Resettlement Experiences of LGBTI Refugees
ORAM is looking for exceptionally committed and highly qualified interns to conduct and report upon a survey documenting the experiences of LGBTI refugees in the United States. Each intern will be assigned a geographic area corresponding to his/her location. After contacting local resettlement organizations and locating LGBTI refugees, the intern will conduct in-person interviews with the persons identified. ORAM will provide translation services on an as-needed basis. Basing their work on a survey designed by ORAM, interns will inquire into areas including the refugees’ access to medical and mental health care, ability to find employment, and access to safe housing.
Participants’ stand-alone papers based on these interviews will be appropriate for use as graduation theses, upon school approval. ORAM will utilize the information gathered to compile a high quality analytical advocacy report, along with extensive recommendations for organizations and government agencies resettling LGBTI refugees. As in all ORAM projects, student contributors will be fully credited in the final published work.
Requirements
Anthropology, sociology, gender studies, social work and journalism students are encouraged to apply. Applicants must have excellent interviewing, listening and writing skills. High-level fluency in a second language, including (but not limited to) Spanish, Arabic, French or Farsi is highly desirable. Applicants receiving academic credit for this internship are strongly preferred. Interns are unpaid. They will work a minimum of 20 hours of work per week during a 10-week period in the summer of 2011. Interns will report to an ORAM supervisor and will be required to attend a weekly meeting via Skype.
Application Procedures
Interested applicants should send (1) a resume, (2) a cover letter, and (3) an original, non-fiction writing sample to ORAM Internship Coordinator at internship@oraminternational.org. Please write “Resettlement Experiences Internship Application” in the subject line of the email. Applications will be evaluated on an ongoing basis until May 1, 2011.
