Decoding Desire: Race, Sexuality, Violence & Trangression
speakers:
Margaret Rhee, Ethnic Studies
Laura Horak, Performance Studies
On April 14, 2006, Seung Hui Cho, a Virginia Tech undergraduate student conducted the largest mass shooting on a university campus. Thirty-two students would lose their lives, and many others be wounded before Cho eventually turned his weapon on himself to commit suicide.
To make sense of the violence, scholars, psychologists, journalists, and other experts turned to evidence from Cho's personal life. His self-authored images and creative writings in particular would capture mass media attention and in turn provoke nationwide public discourse(s) on race, gender, and sexuality.
RELOADED: Representing Asian Women Beyond Hollywood
speakers:
Professor Elaine Kim, Ethnic Studies
In her 1988 documentary, Slaying the Dragon: Asian Women in U.S. Television and Film, Professor Elaine Kim, Asian American and Ethnic Studies, critically examined how stereotypical characterizations of Asian American women in film have evolved over time and in response to shifting cultural, historical, or political climates.
The Persisting Plantation: Laborers in the Field & Literature
speakers:
Dr. Sang Lee, College of Natural Resources
Dr. Alia Pan, Center for Race and Gender
The Fall 2009 forum series concluded with Dr. Sang Lee's (College of Natural Resources), examination of an aspect of life that many of us living in the global north take for granted: the ubiquity and seemingly year-round availability of tropical and off-season produce in our local grocery stores.
Words from the Director: Racialized Nationalism in Arizona
speakers:
Professor Evelyn Nakano Glenn
According to the U.S. Census Bureau there are 2.1 million U.S. citizens of Hispanic heritage in the State of Arizona. Under a new law passed by the Arizona legislature and signed by Governor Brewer, each and every single one of these persons—child, adult, elderly, male, female—is now subject to arrest by local police, should an individual officer have reason to believe that said individual is in any way "suspicious" (e.g. a dark complexion or black hair, or even what the policeman perceives to be an “accent”). If the arrested person is not carrying papers that can prove his or her U.S.
