Anti-Asian Bias and Asian Empowerment Movements Scholarly Resource List

As ACLS President Joy Connolly wrote in our statement following horrific events in Georgia on March 16, 2021 and increased acts of violence linked to the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year, ACLS strongly condemns acts of hate and violence against Asians and people of Asian descent in the United States and around the world. 

ACLS is committed to elevating perspectives on the human experience, and we believe the humanities and social sciences provide essential learning necessary to help us better understand history, including systemic factors of oppression and inequity, as well as how best to approach change.

As a subseries of our “Race and Society” scholarly resource page and part of our Inclusive Excellence work, we highlight the work of our fellows and member societies, as well as resources they recommend, to help educate and empower each other to elevate the discourse on race as the US and much of the world continues to reckon with the grim and violent impact of racism and white supremacy.

The following resources focus on histories of societal anti-Asian bias and the movements that have stood against them.

We welcome ACLS fellows and members to share any additional contributions with us at [email protected].

Scholarly Resources by ACLS Fellows

ARTICLES

• “Anti-Asian racism and COVID-19” – Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine, April 8, 2020
  Written by Jennifer Ho, President of ACLS Member Society the Association for Asian American Studies and Professor of Ethnic Studies and Director of the Center for Humanities & the Arts, University of Colorado Boulder
• “America’s Anti-Chinese Bigotry Has A Very Old Stench” – Zócalo Public Square, February 25, 2021
  Written by Hsuan L. Hsu F’18, F’12, Professor of English, University of California, Davis
• “Racial Transmittances: Hemispheric Viralities of Anti-Asian Racism and Resistance in Mexico” – Journal of Asian American Studies, Volume 23, Number 3, October 2020
  Written by Rachel Haejin Lim F’20, Visiting Assistant Professor and ACES Fellow, History, Texas A&M University

BOOKS

• The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America (Harvard University Press)
  Written by Beth Lew-Williams F’12, F’10, Associate Professor, Department of History, Princeton University
• Missing: Youth, Citizenship, and Empire after 9/11 (Duke University Press)
  Written by Sunaina Maira F’19, Professor, Asian American Studies, University of California, Davis
• The 9/11 Generation: Youth, Rights, and Solidarity in the War on Terror (NYU Press)
  Written by Sunaina Maira F’19, Professor, Asian American Studies, University of California, Davis
• After Camp: Portraits in Midcentury Japanese American Life and Politics (University of California Press)
  Written by Gregory J. Robinson F’04, Professor of History, l’Université du Québec À Montréal
• A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America (Columbia University Press)
  Written by Gregory J. Robinson F’04, Professor of History, l’Université du Québec À Montréal
• By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans (Harvard University Press)
  Written by Gregory J. Robinson F’04, Professor of History, l’Université du Québec À Montréal

JOURNALS

• Women’s Studies Quarterly: Asian Diasporas, Volume 47, Numbers 1 & 2: Spring/Summer 2019
  Edited by Lili Shi & Yadira Perez Hazel, with contributions by Peggy Kyoungwon Lee F’20, ACLS Emerging Voices Fellow, Feminist Research Institute and Visiting Assistant Professor, Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies, University of California, Davis 
• Open in Emergency 2nd Edition – Asian American Literary Review’s multimedia issue on Asian American mental health
  Edited by Mimi Khúc, with contributions by Peggy Kyoungwon Lee F’20, ACLS Emerging Voices Fellow, Feminist Research Institute and Visiting Assistant Professor, Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies, University of California, Davis

PODCAST

• “The Deep History of Anti-Asian Violence in the U.S.” – The Takeaway by WNYC Studios, March 18, 2021
  Podcast features Beth Lew-Williams F’12, F’10, Associate Professor, Department of History, Princeton University

PRESENTATION

• “The Hypersexualization of Asian Women in America: From Stereotype to Massacre”
  Written by Susie Lan Cassel F’20, Professor, Literature and Writing Studies, California State University, San Marcos

VIDEOS

• “Becoming Less Racist: Lighting the Path to Anti-Racism” with Jeff Yang and Phil Yu – Anti-Racism as a Spiritual Practice, Religion News Service, July 9, 2020
  Hosted by Simran Jeet Singh F’18, Visiting Professor at Union Seminary
• “Rabbi Angela Buchdahl” – Anti-Racism as a Spiritual Practice, Religion News Service, February 17, 2021
  Hosted by Simran Jeet Singh F’18, Visiting Professor at Union Seminary

Resources Recommended by ACLS Fellows

ARTICLES

• “Xenophobia in the time of pandemic: othering, anti-Asian attitudes, and COVID-19” – Politics, Groups, and Identities, May 28, 2020
  Submitted by Ruijie Peng F’20, Doctoral Candidate, Sociology, University of Texas at Austin
• “Anti-Asian violence and US imperialism” – Race & Class, Volumer 62, Number 2, August 27, 2020
  Submitted by Ruijie Peng F’20, Doctoral Candidate, Sociology, University of Texas at Austin
• “Anti-Asian Violence in America Is Rooted in US Empire” – The Nation, March 19, 2021
  Submitted by Kyle Kajihiro F’20, ACLS Emerging Voices Fellow, Institute for Research in the Humanities
• “The history of fetishizing Asian women” – Vox, March 19, 2021
  Submitted by Kyle Kajihiro F’20, ACLS Emerging Voices Fellow, Institute for Research in the Humanities

BLOG

• “Love Note to and Mourning for Asian American Atlanta” – Tropics of Meta: Historiography to the Masses, March 18, 2021
  Submitted by Sunaina Maira F’19, Professor, Asian American Studies, University of California, Davis 

BOOKS

• Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics (University of Washington Press)
  Submitted by Elizabeth W. Son F’19, F’10, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre, and Director, Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama Program, Northwestern University
• Our Voices, Our Histories: Asian American and Pacific Islander Women (New York University Press)
  Submitted by Elizabeth W. Son F’19, F’10, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre, and Director, Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama Program, Northwestern University
• Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown (University of California Press)
  Submitted by Ruijie Peng F’20, Doctoral Candidate, Sociology, University of Texas at Austin