Reclaiming and Reimagining Intersectional Asian Diaspora Experiences as a Praxis of Decolonization and Anticolonialism

Multiple Presenter Session: Alternative Session

Abstract

Asian diaspora educational workers engage in theoretical, analytical, and reflexive research to reclaim and reimagine intersectional Asian diasporic experiences as a praxis of decolonization and anticolonialism to defy racism, reimagine alternate nows, and invigorate otherwise futures. The term ‘Asia,’ rooted in colonial history of the East is constructed as the ‘other’ converse to West/Europe. The imperialist legacy of naming is maintained in the colonial present reflected in the terms ‘native,’ ‘oriental,’ and ‘kungflu’ with implications for people of color who experience racism, xenophobia, and discrimination as everyday reality. Evoking the critical social imagination in taking an anticolonial stand, this symposium is a move toward a praxis of decolonization and transformation of knowledge in education. We join hands with all people of color in claiming identities, histories, experiences, and cultures to proclaim, “They made us into a race. We made ourselves into a people” (Coates 2015, p. 149).

Sub Track

• AESA

Individual Presentations

• From an Epistemic History of ‘Asia’ in the Colonial Present to Reimagining the Asian Diaspora Experience and Beyond - Suniti Sharma, Saint Joseph's University

• Asian Diaspora Teacher Education Curriculum: A Co/Autoethnography of Two Chinese Diaspora Women Faculty - Katrina Liu, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Min Yu, Wayne State University

• Reimagining Asian Diasporic Aesthetics Through the Film Minari: Fostering an Anti-Racist Curriculum - Michelle Bae-Dimitriadis, Pennsylvania State University

• Asian Diaspora Communities and Asian Diaspora Consciousness - Dinny Risri Aletheiani, Yale University

• Decolonizing and Reinventing Asian Diasporic Imaginaries and Futurities - Ming Fang He, Georgia Southern University

Session Organizer

• Suniti Sharma, Saint Joseph's University