2019 CUNY Conference on Citizenship, Belonging, and Identity in the Age of White Nationalism

The surge in white nationalist violence—from declarations of “you will not replace us” by neo-Nazis to fatal clashes between militant white supremacists and counter-protesters at the Charlottesville riots in August 2017—reveals the tenacious ways in which white supremacy and whiteness attempts to assert and maintain its power.

Beyond the confines of America’s borders, white supremacy has been transnationally emboldened as far-right groups mobilize with increasing violence in Canada, France, the UK (Brexit), Australia, New Zealand, and in other parts of the world. Countless instances of filmed physical and verbal assault depict racial violence as an increasingly everyday civilian encounter. American hate groups and hate crimes have steeply risen. Alongside such blatant and collective demonstrations of racist white nationalism, demands for the end of protections guaranteed to asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants bring to the forefront urgent questions of citizenship, the politics of belonging, and national and racialized identities.

Taking into account considerations of immigration, race, gender, and diaspora, AAARI’s 2019 annual conference asks: What does the meteoric rise of Trumpian racist white nationalism say about the nature of systemic racism in our country today? Why is it now primarily and explicitly rooted in anti-Mexican and anti-Muslim nativist racism, and where do Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) — their diverse ethnic groups — fit (or not fit) in these citizenship orders? How has the higher education research community and the activist community collaborated and how can they continue to strategically collaborate together?