Transpacific Formations of Asian American Education: Unforgetting Cold War Empire and Reenvisioning Relational Methodologies

• In Event: The Power Of (Un)Forgetting, Historical Consciousness And Decolonial Future Of Education

Abstract

This paper advances transpacific inquiry to reframe Asian American education research beyond US-centric racial frameworks. Questioning the disciplinary divide between Asian Studies and Asian American Studies, I argue both fields perpetuate epistemic whiteness by obscuring the imperial foundations of Asian racialization. Bridging Gloria Ladson-Billings’ “education debt” with Jodi Kim’s “debt imperialism,” my analysis situates Asian American subject formation within global histories of transpacific militarism, Cold War legacies, and educational imperialism. This study challenges dominant constructions of Asian Americans as “model minorities” and “perpetual foreigners” by centering anti-imperialism alongside anti-racism. Relational methodologies are proposed to rearticulate Asian American solidarity through shared colonial histories of dispossession, rather than ethnic resemblance, urging education researchers to confront the imperial foundations embedded in equity discourses.

Author

• Sun Young Lee, Wichita State University