Professors Michael Gill and Susan Thomas will feature in a March 24-25 symposium interrogating the histories and trajectories of anti-Asian violences.
Presented by the Cornell-Syracuse South Asia Consortium and sponsored in part by CFE, “Genealogies of Anti-Asian/Asia Violences” takes place in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the College of Arts and Sciences.
Professor Thomas will provide opening remarks, along with Professor Antonio Tiongson of the Department of English, on March 25 at 9 a.m. in 500 Hall of Languages. Professor Gill will join the 11 a.m. “Cripping Violence, Indigeneity, and Pedagogy: Global Perspectives” panel as a discussant.
Among the many invited scholars, Thenmozhi Soundararajan of Equality Labs will give the opening keynote—“From Cisco to Calstate: A Conversation about the Caste Equity Civil Rights Movement”—at 4 p.m. in 220 Eggers Hall. On March 25 at 3:30 p.m., Professor Iyko Day of Mount Holyoke College will give the talk “Nuclear Antipolitics and the Queer Art of Logistical Failure.” Her closing keynote takes place on March 25 at 3:30 p.m. in 500 Hall of Languages.
This symposium convenes a cohort of scholars, students, and activists whose work can collectively help trace the genealogies and geographies of anti-Asian violence.
The recent surge of racially motivated attacks on Asians in the United States has brought renewed attention to this issue. As the organizers note, it is necessary to situate this rising tide of violence in the broader histories that have produced it.
By taking up “Asia” as a fraught geopolitical category that is formed through imperialist projects, this symposium attends to the underlying logics of violence that are crucial to rendering these histories legible.
Building connections that are enabled by transnational, relational, and critical lenses not only will deepen insights into the discourse of anti-Asian violence, but also will allow a meaningful consideration of the implications of this moment for solidarity and movement building.