"Asian Americas": Asian Migration and the Making of the Americas

IGS/IHRC GLOBAL RACE, ETHNICITY, MIGRATION SEMINAR

Monday, March 7, 2011
12:00-1:00PM
308 Andersen Library, West Bank

Abstract: Asians have a long and diverse history in the Americas and have played central roles in the distinct national histories of countries in the region. But Asians have also been part of the "Asian Americas," the interconnected and transnational worlds of Asians in the Americas across, beyond, and underneath national boundaries. The Asian Americas were part of a global relationship between Asia and the Americas, but they were also distinctly American; the product of hemispheric histories, discourses, and power relations as well as ongoing connections to the Atlantic and Pacific worlds. Examining the transnational relationships between and amongst Asians in the Americas and their links to the wider world not only helps us revise our understandings of "Asian America," it also inspires us to write new global histories of the Americas.

Erika Lee is an Associate Professor of History and Asian American Studies and Director of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of, most recently, Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America (Oxford University Press, 2010).