Working Group Symposium on A/P/A Studies and Crisis

The A/P/A Graduate Student Working Group‘s Spring 2024 Symposium “A/P/A Studies and Crisis” will explore how the concept of “crisis” can expand understandings of what Asian/Pacific/American studies are and what they could be. Crisis is defined here as any rupture that forces critical reflection upon what it means to place geographies, histories, identities, and cultures of “Asian,” “Pacific,” and “American” together as scholarly, political, and social formations.

Through the lens of crisis, this symposium hopes to engage with the interconnected dimensions of Asian, Pacific, and American worlds, particularly as they relate to empires and colonialisms. Graduate student presenters will share work that spans different fields of analysis, whether that be geographic (e.g. Middle East Studies in conversation with Pacific studies), disciplinary (e.g. area studies in conversation with critical ethnic studies), or demographic (e.g. Asian American studies in conversation with Latine studies).