Burning Issues in Asian American Studies

Public Lecture by Dr. Huping Ling
Professor of History, Truman
Award-winning historian and Author

Tuesday April 19, 2011
7:30-8:30pm
BH 251

Sponsored by SSAS
Multicultural Affairs

For Asian American Heritage Month
At Truman

令狐萍教授：亚美研究热辨

*How does the status of Asian Americans in the United States change over times?

*How do we face the new challenges in a “China-Ascendance and US-Decline” global environment?

An internationally renowned historian and prolific and influential writer, Ling is Professor of History at Truman and Executive Editor of The Journal of Asian American Studies for the Association for Asian American Studies. A prize-winning author, she has published eleven books and over one hundred articles on Asian America. Her book Chinese St. Louis: From Enclave to Cultural Community (2004) is a classic work on ethnic American communities in the Midwest. Her recent book Asian American History and Culture: An Encyclopedia (2010) is the winner of Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin Editors’ Choice 2010 Award. She is frequently invited to lecture on China and Asian America nationally and internationally and routinely appears on lists of notable Asian Americans and authors. She is a consultant to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Guangdong Provincial Government, and a Guest Professor at Wuhan Theoretical Research Center of Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council in China.

History Professor Jerrold Hirsch was the keynote speaker at the Writing Democracy conference in March 2011.

News Release:
Huping Ling’s Book Asian American History and Culture:
An Encyclopedia Won Awards!

Asian American History and Culture: An Encyclopedia
Edited by: Huping Ling; Allan W. Austin

Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin Editors’ Choice

Huping Ling’s book Asian American History and Cultures: An Encyclopedia (Two volumes, with Allan W. Austin, M. E. Sharpe, 2010) has won the Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin Editors’ Choice Award in 2010.

With overview essays and more than 400 A-Z entries, this exhaustive encyclopedia documents the history of Asians in America from earliest contact to the present day. Organized topically by group, with an in-depth overview essay on each group, the encyclopedia examines the myriad ethnic groups and histories that make up the Asian American population in the United States.

Asian American History and Culture covers the political, social, and cultural history of immigrants from East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Pacific Islands, and their descendents, as well as the social and cultural issues faced by Asian American communities, families, and individuals in contemporary society. In addition to entries on various groups and cultures, the encyclopedia also includes articles on general topics such as parenting and child rearing, assimilation and acculturation, business, education, and literature. More than 100 images round out the set.

Reviews have highly recommended the book. “Here is a unique reference work focusing on the history, culture, contributions, and challenges of a variety of Asian-origin groups in the U.S. … This is an excellent resource that will be used wherever there are immigrant communities or where students need a starting point for research topics. Great for high-school, college, and public libraries.” Booklist (starred review)

“This well-realized introduction to the culture and history of 21 ethnic groups includes the largest and most prominent–those that have their origins in China, the Philippines, India, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan–as well as smaller groups such as Bangladeshi-, Burmese-, Mongolian-, and Tibetan-Americans. … The text is clear and balanced, and occasionally profound. … This excellent, up-to-date resource will prove valuable to general readers and students.” School Library Journal

(http://www.mesharpe.com/awards.asp)

Marc Becker has published Pachakutik: Indigenous Movements and Electoral Politics in Ecuador with Rowman & Littlefield.

This authoritative book provides a deeply informed overview of one of the most dynamic social movements in Latin America. Focusing on contemporary Indigenous movements in Ecuador, leading scholar Marc Becker traces the growing influence of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), which in 1990 led a powerful uprising that dramatically placed a struggle for Indigenous rights at the center of public consciousness. Activists began to refer to this uprising as a “pachakutik,” a Kichwa word that means change, rebirth, and transformation, both in the sense of a return in time and the coming of a new era. Five years later, proponents launched a new political movement called Pachakutik to compete for elected office. In 2006, Ecuadorians elected Rafael Correa, who many saw as emblematic of the new Latin American left, to the presidency of the country. Even though CONAIE, Pachakutik, and Correa shared similar concerns for social justice, they soon came into conflict with each other.

Becker examines the competing strategies and philosophies that emerge when social movements and political parties embrace comparable visions but follow different paths to realize their objectives. In exploring the multiple and conflictive strategies that Indigenous movements have followed over the past twenty years, he definitively documents the recent history and charts the trajectory of one of the Americas’ most powerful and best organized social movements.

David Robinson was interviewed on his research and forthcoming publications for Fechner Day, October 22 at http://ahp.apps01.yorku.ca/?p=883.

Huping Ling, professor of history and executive editor for the Journal of Asian American Studies, served as a visiting professor of history at the University of Missouri-Columbia during the 2009-2010 academic year, where she was actively engaged in a variety of research and service activities.

Ling interviewed Asian Americans in Mid-Missouri, researched in area archives and museums and wrote a book manuscript entitled “Chinese Chicago: Race, Transnational Migration, and Community.” Additionally, Ling gave public lectures on Asian American studies to classes and student organizations at the University of Missouri-Columbia, public schools and libraries, as well as to community organizations. She also presented papers at national and international professional conferences and conducted a lecture tour in Asian countries.

In May 2010, Ling was invited to give a lecture tour as a Distinguished Lecturer on various topics on Asian American studies at universities, research institutions and government agencies in Asian countries including Singapore, Malaysia, China and Korea.

The topics of Ling’s lectures included “The Rise of China as Reflected in the Changing Images of the Chinese Americans,” and a lecture series on the following topics: “The Critical Issues of Asian American Studies,” “A Critical Review of Chinese American Women Studies,” “Cultural Community—A New Theory on Ethnic American History,” “Rethinking Transnationalism: Ethnic Networking and the Overseas Chinese Communities” and “Chinese Chicago: Connections between the Transnational Communities and the Native Places.”

From Truman Today

Jerry Hirsch has published the edited volume (with Lawrence Rodgers) America’s Folklorist: B. A. Botkin and American Culture (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010).

Folklorist, writer, editor, regionalist, cultural activist—Benjamin Albert Botkin (1901–1975) was an American intellectual who made a mark on the twentieth century, even though most people may be unaware of it. This book, the first to reevaluate the legacy of Botkin in the history of American culture, celebrates his centenary through a collection of writings that assess his influence on scholarship and the American scene.

Through his work with the Federal Writers’ Project during the New Deal, the Writers’ Unit of the Library of Congress Project, and the Archive of American Folksong, Botkin did more to collect and disseminate the nation’s folk-cultural heritage than any other individual in the twentieth century. This volume focuses on Botkin’s eclectic but interrelated concerns, work, and vision and offers a detailed sense of his life, milieu, influences, and long-term contributions.

Just as Botkin boldly cut across the boundaries between high and low, popular and folk, this book brings together reflections that range from the historical to the philosophical to the disarmingly personal. One group of articles looks at his career and includes the first extended analysis of Botkin’s poetry; another probes the fruitful relationships Botkin had with leading musicologists, composers, poets, and intellectuals of his day. This is also the first book to bring together a collection of Botkin’s best-known writings, giving readers an opportunity to appreciate his wide-ranging mind and clear, often memorable prose.

For Botkin, the blurring of art and science, literature and folklore was not just a philosophy but a way of life. This book reflects that life and invites fans and those new to Botkin to appraise his lasting contributions.

Johns Hopkins University Press has published Dan Mandell’s new book King Philip’s War: Colonial Expansion, Native Resistance, and the End of Indian Sovereignty.

King Philip’s War was the most devastating conflict between Europeans and Native Americans in the 1600s. In this incisive account, award—winning author Daniel R. Mandell puts the war into its rich historical context.

The war erupted in July 1675, after years of growing tension between Plymouth and the Wampanoag sachem Metacom, also known as Philip. Metacom’s warriors attacked nearby Swansea, and within months the bloody conflict spread west and erupted in Maine. Native forces ambushed militia detachments and burned towns, driving the colonists back toward Boston. But by late spring 1676, the tide had turned: the colonists fought more effectively and enlisted Native allies while from the west the feared Mohawks attacked Metacom’s forces. Thousands of Natives starved, fled the region, surrendered (often to be executed or sold into slavery), or, like Metacom, were hunted down and killed.

Mandell explores how decades of colonial expansion and encroachments on Indian sovereignty caused the war and how Metacom sought to enlist the aid of other tribes against the colonists even as Plymouth pressured the Wampanoags to join them. He narrates the colonists’ many defeats and growing desperation; the severe shortages the Indians faced during the brutal winter; the collapse of Native unity; and the final hunt for Metacom. In the process, Mandell reveals the complex and shifting relationships among the Native tribes and colonists and explains why the war effectively ended sovereignty for Indians in New England.

Huping Ling, professor of history, has edited two recently-published books.

“Asian American History and Cultures: An Encyclopedia,” is a two-volume set published by M.E. Sharpe, an award-winning publisher of reference books, textbooks, general interest books and journals.

With overview essays and more than 400 A-Z entries, this encyclopedia documents the history of Asians in America from earliest contact to the present day.

Organized topically by group, with an in-depth overview essay on each group, the encyclopedia examines the myriad ethnic groups and histories that make up the Asian American population in the United States.

“Asian American History and Culture” covers the political, social and cultural history of immigrants and their descendents from East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Pacific Islands, as well as the social and cultural issues faced by Asian American communities, families and individuals in contemporary society.

In addition to entries on various groups and cultures, the encyclopedia also includes articles on general topics such as parenting and child rearing, assimilation and acculturation, business, education and literature.

Ling also edited “Asian America: Forming New Communities, Expanding Boundaries,” available through Rutgers University Press.

The last half-century witnessed a dramatic change in the geographic, ethnographic and socioeconomic structure of Asian American communities. While traditional enclaves were strengthened by waves of recent immigrants, Asian Americans also created new urban and suburban communities with or without geographical boundaries.

“Asian America” is the first comprehensive look at post-1960s Asian American communities in the United States and Canada. From Chinese Americans in the Chicago metropolitan area, to Vietnamese Americans in Orange County, this multidisciplinary collection spans a wide comparative and panoramic scope.

From Truman Today

Sylvia Macauley has been named the new director of the McNair Program.

Macauley, an associate professor of history, has been at the University since 1999. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Sierra Leone, as well as doctorate and master’s degrees in history from Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Among her professional accomplishments, Macauley has published journal articles and contributed chapters to several books dealing with issues such as education, religion, health and gender in Africa. She has received several awards, including funded fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Sasakawa Foundation in Japan. She is a member of the African Studies Association, the American Association of University Professors and the Mid-America Alliance for African Studies.

The McNair Program is a federally funded TRIO program established to assist low-income and first-generation college students, and students from other underrepresented groups in higher education attain doctoral degrees. The program prepares the participants for doctoral studies through mentoring relationships with faculty, involvement in research and other scholarly activities, assisting with GRE preparation and the graduate school application process.

After participants graduate from Truman, the program tracks their progress through to the successful completion of their PhD.

Truman received its first McNair grant in 1992 and has continued to have a program ever since. In the past year, the McNair Program was under the interim leadership of Janet Gooch, associate professor and chair of the Department of Communication Disorders.

From Truman Today