Global-is-Asian -- Asian Diaspora Identities in the Context of Globalization, The Asian Pacific American Studies Program, Michigan State University

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• Call for Papers: Global-is-Asian: Asian Diaspora Identities in the Context of Globalization

-- The Asian Pacific American Studies Program

-- Michigan State University

-- 3rd Annual Conference, April 17-18, 2009

-- Visit the website at https://www.msu.edu/~apaspec/.

-- Community and identity formation have never occurred in a vacuum. However, processes of globalization increasingly facilitate connections, both real and imagined, with other parts of the world. This conference focuses on Asian populations in diaspora­ that is, living outside their ancestral homelands. Though the definition of diaspora and its application to various populations has long been debated, in using the term "diaspora" we assert the importance of understanding Asian communities within a global context; as sharing key similarities but as far from homogeneous. We aim to investigate how global forces, both historical and contemporary, have reshaped diasporic forms and analytical categories for examining collective memory, political alliances, transpacific migrations and movements, social spaces and global networks. We hope to explore what Jigna Desai (2004) has called the "heterogeneous connections to both the homeland and to other diasporic locations through such forms as political commitment, imagination, memory, travel, and cultural production."

-- The forms of cultural production -- transnational youth cultures, art, cinema, literature, internet communities, new social movements -- that emerge in the context of globalization hold exciting potential. We are interested in exploring the range of identities that are constructed by Asian diasporic communities, and how these forms are then re-shaped through interactions, on both local and global scales.

-- At the same time, we also hope to question the ways that an overemphasis on "global" or "diaspora" as academic buzzwords which, as Sau-ling Wong has noted, can result in the glossing over of local, regional and national levels of organization, and distract from nation-based identities (such as Asian American) that allow for coalition building and empowerment. These terms can become so broad and all encompassing as to lose their specificity of meaning, or merely become a means of expressing old concepts in new packaging. We cannot ignore the continued power of nation states to define both national and local contexts that shape the constraints under which actors explore and express identities.

-- Please submit proposals to Joseph Villafuerte at <global.is.asian09@gmail.com> no later than January 15, 2009. All proposals must include a 250-300 word abstract, a one-page CV, including full contact information, a list of any audio or visual equipment needed for the presentation.