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China and Inner Asia
.jpg "Neelima Jeychandran photo")
Neelima Jeychandran
Asian Studies and African Studies
Pennsylvania State University, United States
Neelima Jeychandran
Asian Studies and African Studies
Pennsylvania State University, United States
Chenrui Zhao
English
State University of New York, Binghamton, United States
Khatija Khader
Islamic University of Science and Technology, India
Derek Sheridan
Institute of Ethnology
Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Christine Vicera
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Following the resurgence of protests against racialized police violence since May 2020, citizens, activists, artists, and academic communities across the globe have renewed efforts to reflect on and respond to issues of race and racial discrimination. One such measure taken to address structural racism in academia has been an email petition generated by members of the Association for Asian Studies to the board of directors, in which cosigners voice their support for black scholars of Asia and the need to combat racial bias and anti-Blackness within Asian Studies. To expand the epistemic potential of Asian Studies and Global Asia programs, we must center anti-racist pedagogies and review issues of race and culture beyond the existing paradigms of Asian diasporas and Asian migrants.
In this context, we are proposing a two-part panel to present multi-disciplinary and polyvocal perspectives on the current state of race and ethnicity in Asian Studies. Paying attention to processes of racialization, panelists center black perspectives and experiences to address questions such as: 1)What are the ethical challenges of working with marginalized racial communities and individuals in different parts of Asia and around the Indian Ocean?; 2) How might we construct and strengthen transnational pedagogic frameworks on race and ethnicity that mobilize conversations within African and African American Studies so as to restore an understanding of Creole cultures, African Descents, the Black Pacific, and Afro-Arab communities in the study of Global Asias?; 3) What research methods might transcend postcolonial frameworks and existing categories (e.g. Asian Americans, South Asian diaspora, etc.) to express more fluid positionalities and racial solidarities? What theories might open other dynamic categories such as the Indian Ocean and Afro-Asian interactions?
