Asian American Studies Commons^™

Aiiieeeee! And I, Bryan Thao Worra

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

No abstract provided.

The Gift Of Aiiieeeee!, David Mura

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

This article chronicles the influence of the groundbreaking Asian American anthology Aiiieeeee! on the work of Japanese American and Asian American author David Mura.

On The Republication Of Aiiieeeee!, Garrett Hongo

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

A note on republication of AIIIEEEEE!

Talking About Casino Gambling: Community Voices From Boston Chinatown, Carolyn Wong, Giles Li

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

This pilot study examined the casino gambling practices of residents and workers in Boston Chinatown. The aim was to learn about the trajectory and life context of individual participants’ gambling activity, including how individual participants describe their motivation, nature and frequency of gambling, and its effects on self and family. The research was conducted by a university based research team in partnership with the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, and with the assistance of the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling.

The stories told by participants illustrate multiple and overlapping risk factors for problem gambling. Our conceptual approach took into account the …

Finding Commonality: The First Principles Of The Leadership Thought Of Theodore Roosevelt And Traditional Chinese Culture, Elizabeth Summerfield, Yumin Dai

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

This paper argues that, while the imperative to find global solutions to complex problems like climate change and resource management is agreed, dominant ethical and intellectual thought leadership in many western nations impedes progress. The Cartesian binaries of western post-Enlightenment culture tend instead toward oppositional binary divides where each ‘side’ assumes to be the whole and not a part. And the present and future similarly assume precedence over the past. The paper points to systems thinking as both a method and a practice of wise leadership of past western and eastern societies, including their conservation of natural resources. Two historical …

The Effects Of Racialization On Sikhs In America: An Intersectional Approach, Harsirjan K. Roopra

Senior Theses

Sikhs have been largely ignored in the literature surrounding social justice and religious tolerance. The many pressures Sikhs face, and the social assumptions that lead to them, must be brought into the broader conversation on these issues so that educators and politicians might help support the well-being of the Sikh community. Sikh identity has been misinterpreted and redefined in modern day American society. The lack of cultural and religious literacy of many Americans, coupled with Sikhs’ distinct visible identity, has led to xenophobic violence against Sikhs since their arrival in the U.S. more than a century ago. The root of …

"U.S.-China Competition In The Post-Covid-19 World: Globalization At A Cross-Roads", Min Ye

Rosenberg Institute Scholars

Strategic competition between the United States and China had been deteriorating much earlier than the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020.1 However, in the past, despite intense political rivalry and geostrategic competition, policy communities and societies in the two countries have maintained active and robust engagement and dialogues. Much of the dialogues focused on complaints against each other’s behavior and intentions. Nonetheless, such dialogues kept information and concerns flowing between the rival powers. Concerned third-party actors often play stabilizing roles by communicating potential fragilities between Washington and Beijing. In short, pre-Covid-19, strategic rivalry between China and the U.S. was intense, but it …

Colonized Loyalty: Asian American Anti-Blackness And Complicity, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

In this essay, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstad argues that solidarity between and within communities of color remains our only chance to fight against the brutal and insidious forces of racism, white supremacy and racial capitalism.

[2020 Honorable Mention] Six Days To Leave Home: The Diasporic Experience Of Japanese Americans To American Incarceration Camps, Evangeline Pabilona

Ethnic Studies Research Paper Award

Using diaspora as a rhetorical framework, this paper analyses the cultural connection between American incarceration camps and the imprisonment of Japanese American citizens during World War II. The forced removal of Japanese American families from their homes to concentration camps emphasizes the negative ramifications of diaspora regarding [forced] cultural assimilation, as well as a loss of culture, language, family, and bodily autonomy.

The U.S. Creation Of The South Vietnamese Air Force, 1955-1975, James C. Jumper Jr.

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

From 1962 until 1973 the United States Air Force (USAF) built a small but effective South Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF). VNAF grew from approximately 4,000 personnel in 1963, flying ninety-six aircraft in six squadrons, to 60,000 personnel and sixty-five squadrons with over 2,000 aircraft by 1973. There was continuous change in the type of aircraft provided to the VNAF as the USAF upgraded VNAF’s capabilities. Training VNAF personnel was a continuing problem for both pilots and support personnel because of the almost constant aircraft upgrades and increase of size of the VNAF. VNAF was growing, developing doctrine, establishing its mission …

Undocumented Asian Immigrants: Securing Higher Education And Cultural Citizenship, Ka Kui Lee

Master's Theses

This research investigates how undocumented Asian immigrants navigate the obstacles of higher education. It inquires how undocumented Asian immigrant students navigated the higher education process and how institutional actors influenced their college experience, revealing the intimate interactions between undocumented students and the institutional actors. The political economy of their college application process is understood through the frameworks of liminal legality, narratives, cultural citizenship, borders and boundaries, and governmentality of migration, all of which frame the process of the data analysis.

Through the interviews of college-graduated undocumented Asian immigrants and ethnography at a local high school in the San Francisco Bay …

Identity, Activism, And Rap In The Filipino American Diaspora, Scott Cooper

Master's Theses

For close to two decades, an established network of Filipino American rap artists have developed on the West Coast of the United States. These artists share musical narratives exploring their working-class immigrant experiences as well as the impact of colonization in the Philippines. Outside of music, these artists often engage in community organizing and activism, but few scholars have explored hip hop's effect within these spaces. Recently, a younger generation of Filipino American youth actively make use of hip hop in community organizations and activist groups. This paper will specifically examine how the identity of 1.5 and second generation Filipino …

Incarcerated, T.Willaim Wallin

Toyon: Multilingual Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Do You Wanna Go Dancing?, Anthony Kascak

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The transdisciplinary art work within Do you wanna go dancing? unpacks the experience and perception of my interpersonal relationships, as well as the role that touch and introspection has in my visual arts practice and everyday life. I am interested in pairing the act of looking with the sensation of touching through specific installation and arrangement of intimate imagery, ceramic fragments and frames, and manual or digitally fabricated surfaces. The negotiation of these installations orient the viewer to consider their positionality within space, as well as the extent in which distance, intimacy, and vulnerability fluctuate inside these psychological spaces.

The …

"They Called Me Kimchi Breath" And Other Short Narrative Essays: A Study In Composing Asian-American Identity In Short Nonfictional Essays, Teddy Kim

Honors Theses

The heterogenous lifestyle of Asian-Americans is one of duality. For this ethnic group, personal identity is a mix between American standard practices and inherited Asian traditions. However, even if their cultural practices are primarily American, Asian-Americans are often “Otherized” and outcast when claiming an American identity, forcing them to be regarded as “just Asian.” As such, they are Americans being rejected by America, and as a result have no other place to call home . In this project, I seek to heal the strife this rejection creates, attempting to confront these tensions and resolve them. As a hyphenated American, I …

Yone Noguchi And Miss Morning Glory: American Humor, Identity, And Cultural Criticism In The Works Of Yone Noguchi, Evan Connor Alston

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Yone Noguchi’s novels, The American Diary of a Japanese Girl and The American Letters of a Japanese Parlor-Maid, both published with the first decade of the twentieth century, have been the subject of study for scholars in the humanities for the past few decades. The research examines both novels in historical context and against his personal communications and his subsequently published works, understanding Noguchi not just as a Japanese immigrant but also a member of an American literary community. I compare the larger structing of the Diary to the works of his literary peers and mentors and demonstrate that understanding …

Racialized Tax Inequity: Wealth, Racism, And The U.S. System Of Taxation, Palma Joy Strand, Nicholas A. Mirkay

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article describes the connection between wealth inequality and the increasing structural racism in the U.S. tax system since the 1980s. A long-term sociological view (the why) reveals the historical racialization of wealth and a shift in the tax system overall beginning around 1980 to protect and exacerbate wealth inequality, which has been fueled by racial animus and anxiety. A critical tax view (the how) highlights a shift over the same time period at both federal and state levels from taxes on wealth, to taxes on income, and then to taxes on consumption—from greater to less progressivity. Both of these …

Voices Of Mixed-Race Asian Students On College Campuses, Amy Sara Lim

Honors Papers and Posters

Research suggests that there are a growing number of people who identify as mixed-race Asian Americans, and thus there is a growing need to understand and document their experiences (Literte,2009; Sims 2010; Tamai, Nakashima, Williams, 2017). The central question of this study is: how do mixed-race Asian students’ racial identities affect their identities as learners within social, emotional, academic and physical contexts? The goal of this research project is to explore the educational experiences of mixed-race Asian students at a Southern California university with the intention of developing a critical mixed-race pedagogy for educators and scholars. Through mixed methodologies involving …

La Construcción Del Imaginario De Una Ciudad Multicultural: El Barrio Chino De Buenos Aires Como Exhibición Pública De Cultura, Yiran Lin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En el marco de la globalización, ha surgido una nueva competencia entre las ciudades contemporáneas donde su multiculturalidad se convierte en símbolo de prosperidad. El imaginario urbano se creó en la intersección de los espacios públicos y los espacios sociopolíticos, de las culturas y sus representaciones, de lo ideal y la realidad. Estas dualidades nos hacen preguntarnos: ¿cómo afecta la espacialización pública de la cultura a la comunidad misma y a la sociedad receptora? ¿Quién se incluye en este imaginario y a quién se excluye? En este estudio, examinamos el Barrio Chino de Buenos Aires como caso de estudio de …

Behind The Curtain: The Cultural Capital Of Pilipino Cultural Nights, Xavier J. Hernandez

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This study examines the phenomenon of Pilipino Cultural Nights in higher education through the lens of community cultural wealth. While in name, Pilipino Cultural Nights pay homage to the native culture of the Philippines, the processes through which these performances are produced and reproduced as annual traditions exhibit a distinct Filipino American cultural experience that is facilitated by the higher education environment. As under-represented and under-served students, Filipino American students utilize their various forms of community cultural wealth to create one of the most visible performances on their campus and a cornerstone coming of age experience for Filipino American youth. …