Cathy Schlund-Vials is a professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. In addition to numerous articles and book chapters, Dr. Schlund-Vials is the author of two monographs, including “War, Genocide, and Justice: Cambodian American Memory Work.” In it, she studies refugee subjectivity, international law, and human rights, particularly with regard to the so-called “Killing Fields era” (1975-1979). Despite the passage of more than 35 years, two regime shifts, and a contested U.N. intervention, only three former Khmer Rouge officials have been successfully tried and sentenced for crimes against humanity in an international court of law (in 2010 and 2014). It is against this backdrop of war, genocide, and denied justice that her work explores, evaluates, and analyzes the work of a generation and a half of Cambodian American artists and writers.
Critical Refugee Studies
Event Overview
This webinar brings together three leading scholars of critical refugee studies to explore these questions and more. Our panel will look at a range of humanitarian efforts, refugee and migration policies, and artistic/cultural practices and performances that have formed in the wake of U.S. wars in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. They’ll share their scholarly, curatorial, and community work focused on Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong communities in the U.S. and beyond to reveal how critical refugee studies contribute unique ways of understanding issues of migration, movement, and memory work in our world today.
What You'll Learn
- The history of Southeast Asian refugee migration and community formation in the U.S.
- How Southeast Asian refugees and their communities are mobilizing around issues such as the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, deportation, and socioeconomic challenges
- How different generations and community-based groups understand the refugee experience, community formation, and diasporic connections
- Interdisciplinary methods for studying refugee experiences and memory
Speakers
Ma Vang is Assistant Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Merced. Dr. Vang’s research focuses on critical race theory; critical refugee studies; feminist epistemologies; war and U.S. imperialism; and Hmong, Southeast Asian, and Asian American histories and cultures. She is a founding member of the Critical Refugee Studies Collective, a four-year initiative funded by the University of California Office of the President; co-editor of the Critical Refugee Studies book series at the University of California Press; and chair of the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies major at UC Merced. Dr. Vang is the author of the recently published “History on the Run: Secrecy, Fugitivity, and Hmong Refugee Epistemologies” and co-editor of “Claiming Place: on the Agency of Hmong Women.”
Originally from Việt Nam, Yến Lê Espiritu is a Distinguished Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego. An award-winning author, she has published extensively on Asian American panethnicity, gender and migration, and U.S. colonialism and wars in Asia. Dr. Espiritu’s most recent book, ”Body Counts: The Vietnam War and Militarized Refuge(es),” charts an interdisciplinary field of critical refugee studies, which reconceptualizes “the refugee” not as an object of rescue but as a site of social and political critiques. She has also served as the President of the Association of Asian American Studies and Vice President of the Pacific Sociological Association. Dr. Espiritu is a founding member of the Critical Refugee Studies Collective, whose aim is to integrate scholarly, policy, artistic, legal, diplomatic, and international relations interests with the everyday experiences of refugees.
Cathy Schlund-Vials is a professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. In addition to numerous articles and book chapters, Dr. Schlund-Vials is the author of two monographs, including “War, Genocide, and Justice: Cambodian American Memory Work.” In it, she studies refugee subjectivity, international law, and human rights, particularly with regard to the so-called “Killing Fields era” (1975-1979). Despite the passage of more than 35 years, two regime shifts, and a contested U.N. intervention, only three former Khmer Rouge officials have been successfully tried and sentenced for crimes against humanity in an international court of law (in 2010 and 2014). It is against this backdrop of war, genocide, and denied justice that her work explores, evaluates, and analyzes the work of a generation and a half of Cambodian American artists and writers.
Ma Vang is Assistant Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Merced. Dr. Vang’s research focuses on critical race theory; critical refugee studies; feminist epistemologies; war and U.S. imperialism; and Hmong, Southeast Asian, and Asian American histories and cultures. She is a founding member of the Critical Refugee Studies Collective, a four-year initiative funded by the University of California Office of the President; co-editor of the Critical Refugee Studies book series at the University of California Press; and chair of the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies major at UC Merced. Dr. Vang is the author of the recently published “History on the Run: Secrecy, Fugitivity, and Hmong Refugee Epistemologies” and co-editor of “Claiming Place: on the Agency of Hmong Women.”
Originally from Việt Nam, Yến Lê Espiritu is a Distinguished Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego. An award-winning author, she has published extensively on Asian American panethnicity, gender and migration, and U.S. colonialism and wars in Asia. Dr. Espiritu’s most recent book, ”Body Counts: The Vietnam War and Militarized Refuge(es),” charts an interdisciplinary field of critical refugee studies, which reconceptualizes “the refugee” not as an object of rescue but as a site of social and political critiques. She has also served as the President of the Association of Asian American Studies and Vice President of the Pacific Sociological Association. Dr. Espiritu is a founding member of the Critical Refugee Studies Collective, whose aim is to integrate scholarly, policy, artistic, legal, diplomatic, and international relations interests with the everyday experiences of refugees.
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