Representations of East Asian Migrants and Settlers in the Western United States ca. 1850-1929

Submission:  Please send a 450-word abstract and 2-page curriculum vitae to the appropriate session chairperson by 15 October 2023.

This conference on the theme of Representations of East Asian Migrants and Settlers in the Western United States ca. 1850-1929 provides scholars from universities, museums, libraries, and archives an opportunity to exchange research on the ways Asian American and Euro-American artists represented Asian migrants and settlers in art during the period between the Gold Rush and the Great Depression.

In the first half of the conference, “Daily Life in the West,” participants will discuss images of Asian migrants and immigrants in contexts of work, leisure, worship, or celebration; in the second half of the program, “Contested Claims,” participants will discuss representations of Asians in contexts of discrimination, scapegoating, and violence as well as strategies employed to overcome these circumstances in the form of community organization, public protest, and legal application. On the last day, “Modern and Contemporary Artists,” scholars will reveal how the earliest migrants and settlers constructed identities to negotiate their new surroundings and Asian American artists will share how they have engaged with, referenced, or distanced the past from their unique experiences as generational, transnational, expressive, and/or activist individuals.

Learn more about this opportunity here.