Critical Reflections on the New Wave of Anti-Asian Racism and Violence

Monday, May 10, 2021
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
(Pacific)

Online via Zoom

Speaker: 

The REDI task force invites you the next event in our Critical Conversations: Race in Global Affairs series: a panel discussing the troubling rise of anti-Asian racism.

The recent rise of anti-Asian hate and violence in the midst of the pandemic and ongoing BLM movements makes us rethink race and racism in today’s America. This panel will examine historical roots of anti-Asian racism and how racial stereotyping, including the seemingly positive model minority stereotype, hurts the life chances of Asian Americans. The panel will also shed light on how this troubling moment can present an important opening for Asian Americans to challenge racialization and fight White supremacy in a transformative way. Two Asian American experts, Min Zhou (UCLA) and Eujin Park (Stanford) will share their insights on these pressing issues and engage in a conversation with REDI director Gabrielle Hecht, moderated by Shorenstein APARC director Gi-Wook Shin. This event is co-sponsored with CCSRE and Shorenstein APARC.
 

About the Speakers:

Gi-Wook Shin is the director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center; the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea; the founding director of the Korea Program; a senior fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; and a professor of sociology, all at Stanford University. As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on social movements, nationalism, development, and international relations.

Eujin Park is an incoming IDEAL Provostial Fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She draws upon Critical Race Theory, Asian American Studies, and community-engaged research to examine how Asian American youth and families negotiate with race in and through educational institutions. She recently conducted an ethnographic investigation of community-based educational spaces in the Chicago-area Asian American community, which highlighted the role of community spaces in youths’ educational experiences and understandings of racializing discourses. In addition to publishing and presenting her work in multiple academic venues, Dr. Park draws upon her research in her work with Asian American youth in community-based organizations.

Min Zhou is Professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies, Walter and Shirley Wang Endowed Chair in US-China Relations and Communications, and Director of the Asia Pacific Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her main research areas are in migration & development, race and ethnicity, Chinese diaspora, and the sociology of Asia and Asian America, and she has published widely in these areas.  She is the co-author (with Lee) of the awarding winning book The Asian American Achievement Paradox (2015) and editor of Contemporary Chinese Diasporas (2017) and Forever Strangers? Contemporary Chinese Immigrants around the World (2021). She is the recipient of the 2017 Distinguished Career Award of the American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on International Migration and the 2020 Contribution to the Field Award of the ASA Section on Asia and Asian America. 

Gabrielle Hecht is the Frank Stanton Foundation Professor of Nuclear Security at CISAC, Senior Fellow at FSI, Professor of History, and REDI Task Force Chair. She is Vice-President/President-Elect of the Society for the History of Technology. Her current research explores radioactive residues, mine waste, air pollution, and the Anthropocene in Africa. Essays based on this research have appeared in Cultural Anthropology, Aeon, Somatosphere, the LA Review of Books, and e-fluxArchitecture. Hecht's graduate courses include colloquia on "Infrastructure and Power in the Global South," "Technopolitics," and "Materiality and Power." She teaches a community-engaged undergraduate research seminar on "Racial Justice in the Nuclear Age," in partnership with the Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates (BVHPCA). She is currently working with BVHPCA and other partners to develop knowledge infrastructures to underpin community-driven public history that supports racial equity and environmental justice.