"Eccentric Locations"
2003-2004 Asian American Studies Program Workshop Series

The Asian American Studies Program is pleased to announce a 2003-2004 Workshop series, "Eccentric Locations." The workshop provides an important site throughout the academic year for interested faculty and students to exchange ideas in relation to an important theme that helps structure the discussion. Each session of the Workshop will focus on one scholar's work in progress.

The workshop environment is designed to enhance interaction among participants and to strengthen scholarly research. It provides an informal, personal, and enjoyable setting for participants interested in research in Asian American Studies. The workshop format makes it possible to discuss research in detail, to provide feedback to writers who are working to complete projects, and to investigate research questions and problems beyond a surface level. Such a forum is key to the development of an intellectual community of scholars built on trust and the open exchange of ideas.

The roots of Asian American Studies are grounded in criticism of structural powers relations that serve to foster the marginality of Asian Pacific Americans in mainstream society. While the field has become more institutionalized, hierarchical structures within the field have emerged which continue to marginalize certain groups such as Filipinos, South Asians, and Southeast Asian Americans. We chose this year's theme to ask how Asian American Studies might be transformed by placing issues focusing on marginalized groups stood at the center. What are the implications for history, criticism, the arts, and the human sciences? We hope that interested faculty and students will use this series to engage these and other questions to reframe and rethink Asian American Studies.

All workshops take place at the AAS building, 1208 West Nevada Street in Urbana. For more information, contact the AASP at 244-9530,aasp@uiuc.edu.

Workshop Presenters, Spring 2004

Junaid Rana, Post-doctoral fellow, Asian American Studies Program University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. "Terror and Asian American Studies: Peril, Panic and Racism," Monday, February 16, 2004, 1-3pm. The recent exposure of Muslims in America, and their long history of vilification, can be located in a genealogy of various national perils and panics. By asking how this form of racism has shifted in time, this paper draws parallels from the history of Asian America. Further, the often tenuous position of Muslims in Asian American Studies is brought into question through the challenge of ethnic-based and issue-based models of inclusion.

Emily Ignacio, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Loyola University Chicago- Lake Shore Campus and Rick Bonus, Associate Professor, Asian American Studies and Pacific Islander American Studies, University of Washington. "A Filipino is Not. And Neither is an American: New Directions in Filipino American Studies," Tuesday, March 30, 2004, 3-5pm. In this joint workshop, Ignacio and Bonus will discuss new directions in Filipino American Studies which includes research on the creation of and the role of religious rituals in community building within the Chicago Filipino community. The workshop will also lend insight into new ways to understand and define the Filipino American experience.

Catherine Ceniza Choy, Assistant Professor of American Studies, University of Minnesota. "Institutionalizing International Adoption: The Historical Origins of Korean Adoption in the United States," Tuesday, April 13, 2004, 3-5pm. In the second half of the twentieth century, the migration of Korean adoptive children to the United States and other Western nations comprised the first mass wave of international and interracial adoptions in world history. This work-in-progress seeks to analyze the ways that a complex network of social service agencies and independent organizations enabled and encouraged Korean international adoption.

There will be a Fall 2003 Asian American Studies Open House on Thursday, September 18, 2003 from 5:30pm-7:00pm at the AAS building, 1208 West Nevada. All are welcome to attend and meet the Program faculty and staff. Refreshments will be served. The Chancellor will be delivering welcoming remarks at 6:00pm. To RSVP please email Mary Ellerbe at ellerbe@uiuc.edu.

Latina/o Studies and Asian American Studies presents a talk:
"Memories for the Future: 'Undocumented' Connections across Latina/o and Asian Immigrations"

by Lisa Cacho, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellow
Thursday, October 23, 2003
3:30pm
Location: Asian American Studies conference room, 1208 W. Nevada

This talk will examine how Mexican undocumented immigration to California is, in some ways, shaped by the history of undocumented immigration from China. By centering Asian immigrants within histories of Latina/o immigration, we find that we are not only always imbricated in each other's present experiences, but that we also inherit a shared history of possibility and potential. It is this undocumented history that can help find new ways of imagining alliances and coalitions for the future.

For more information, contact the AAS at 244-9530, aasp@uiuc.edu

Virtually Asian: The Matrix
A talk by Brian Locke, Assistant Professor of English, University of Utah and
Post doctoral fellow, Asian American Studies Program, University of Illinois

Wednesday, October 29, 2003
1:00pm-3:00pm

AAS Conference Room, 1208 West Nevada, Urbana.

For more information, contact the AASP at 244-9530, aasp@uiuc.edu

This talk argues that the heroes and villains of The Matrix (directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne) are ambiguous signs. They signify as both white and Asian. The talk shows that one of the effects of this ambiguity is to tacitly scapegoat Asians for white mistreatment of black people, especially after the Rodney King beating (March 1991) and the subsequent acquittal of his LAPD assailants (April 1992).

"Eccentric Locations"
2003-2004 Asian American Studies Program Workshop Series

The Asian American Studies Program is pleased to announce a 2003-2004 Workshop series, "Eccentric Locations." The workshop provides an important site throughout the academic year for interested faculty and students to exchange ideas in relation to an important theme that helps structure the discussion. Each session of the Workshop will focus on one scholar's work in progress.

The workshop environment is designed to enhance interaction among participants and to strengthen scholarly research. It provides an informal, personal, and enjoyable setting for participants interested in research in Asian American Studies. The workshop format makes it possible to discuss research in detail, to provide feedback to writers who are working to complete projects, and to investigate research questions and problems beyond a surface level. Such a forum is key to the development of an intellectual community of scholars built on trust and the open exchange of ideas.

The roots of Asian American Studies are grounded in criticism of structural powers relations that serve to foster the marginality of Asian Pacific Americans in mainstream society. While the field has become more institutionalized, hierarchical structures within the field have emerged which continue to marginalize certain groups such as Filipinos, South Asians, and Southeast Asian Americans. We chose this year's theme to ask how Asian American Studies might be transformed by placing issues focusing on marginalized groups stood at the center. What are the implications for history, criticism, the arts, and the human sciences? We hope that interested faculty and students will use this series to engage these and other questions to reframe and rethink Asian American Studies.

All workshops take place at the AAS building, 1208 West Nevada Street in Urbana. For more information, contact the AASP at 244-9530, aasp@uiuc.edu.

Workshop Presenters, Fall 2003

S. Mitra Kalita, Reporter for the Washington Post. "Suburban Sahibs." Wednesday November 12, 2003, 3-5pm. How have immigrants redefined suburbia? This talk will describe the demographic, economic, and cultural trends of South Asian migrants in central New Jersey and the impact of their transformation of a once white commuter's suburb through the stories of three Indian families.