AAAS Roundtable: Teaching Introduction to Asian American Studies (in a time of resurgent ethnonationalism and fascism)

Deadline: October 1

The 2025 Association for Asian American Studies conference, which will be held April 17-19 in Boston, Massachusetts, calls for a re-orientation of the field of Asian American Studies “in terms of the place of South West Asian North African (SWANA), Muslim and Arab Americans in the field, in relation to the violence of the U.S. settler state, and in consideration of the geographical, temporal, and cultural margins and mainstreams of the discipline.” How has–and how might–this call be answered at the 100-level? Introduction to Asian American Studies is a key space for such re-orientations, both for students beginning their orientation to Asian American Studies, as well as those for whom the course will be their sole engagement with the field. Similarly, Introduction to Asian American Studies courses may serve as keystones of broader programs in Asian American Studies or critical ethnic studies; they may also be an isolated offering that can only be offered every few years, when a department is able to hire contingent faculty to cover this missing expertise. The course may be shared amongst many faculty members, with strict content guidelines to ensure a relatively universal content experience; or it might be bespoke, its instructor given full autonomy as to its content and format. It might be held in a lecture hall that seats 100 or in a graduate seminar of ten. Across these many forms and variables, what shapes do Introduction to Asian American Studies courses take, and what shapes have we yet to imagine? What ideas or interventions serve as the introductory core of Asian American Studies, and are these animated in the classroom? How can greater understanding of the different forms and approaches of Introduction to Asian American Studies inform and inspire our own?

This roundtable seeks teacher-scholars eager to share their approaches to Introduction to Asian American Studies in a time of resurgent ethnonationalism and fascism; academic precarity; and student need/desire/fire.

Potential Considerations:
● How does the contextual particularity of your Introduction to Asian American Studies course influence its shape, texts, assignments, or policies?
● What key texts, assignments, frameworks, or learning goals define your approach to Introduction to Asian American Studies?
● What challenges have you addressed–or are you currently facing!–in your teaching of Introduction to Asian American Studies?
● How has your teaching of Introduction to Asian American Studies shifted over time, or responded to current events, student needs, institutional pressures, discursive shifts in Asian American Studies, etc.? Are there any changes you are interested in discussing or
workshopping?

This roundtable hopes to represent a broad range of “Introduction to Asian American Studies” courses, from K-12 to undergraduate to graduate curricula. It seeks teachers from a range of geographies, institutional types, and institutional homes (e.g. Asian American Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, American Studies, English, History). We strongly encourage submissions from those teaching “Asian American Studies”-adjacent courses (e.g. Introduction to Asian Canadian Studies), as well as those working as contingent scholars; and in community colleges; K-12 schools; AANHPI-serving institutions; and institutions where students of Asian or Pacific Islander descent constitute a very small minority.

Format: Roundtable participants will have the opportunity to shape the specific format of our conversation. In a typical roundtable, each participant offers brief opening remarks, followed by dialogue between panelists and attendees. Participants will be invited to share their syllabus and/or sample lessons/assignments with attendees.

Eligibility: Presenters at AAAS can participate in up to two different roles–if you are already presenting a traditional paper, you may also present on a roundtable. Presenters do not need to
be members for the Association for Asian American Studies at the time of submission but will need to individually register for the 2024 conference by the early deadline of March 1 if they wish to be included in the program.

To express interest in participating in this roundtable, please send in an email to Mika Kennedy ([email protected]):

1. your Introduction to Asian American Studies syllabus
2. a few sentences about what you want to highlight about your approach to Introduction to Asian American Studies and/or how your approach is influenced by your geography/type of institution/student body (informal prose is okay!)
3. a speaker bio
4. a brief CV (max 500 words)

Roundtable Proposals Due: October 1, 2024
Roundtable Acceptance Notification: October 3, 2024
Conference Acceptance Notification: late 2024/early 2025