Symphonic Discourses and Connections for Interracial Alliances in Asian Diaspora and AAPI Communities (ACLA 2025)

Organizer: Liyang Dong

Contact the Seminar Organizers

Commending Goethe’s and Erich Auerbach’s philological approach to world literature, particularly  Goethe’s s holistic understanding of Islamic literature and culture, Edward Said proposes a symphonic and humanistic framework rather than a reductive formulae in treating global literature, culture, history, and populations that have otherwise been ontologically fragmented by a divisive and hierarchical dichotomy of Orientalism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia. The common roots of Orientalism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia which Said has identified, which boil down to the official reductive and Orientalist discourse as well as knowledge production,  and their legacy have been employed and perpetuated by hegemonic powers in the “West” or the “Global North” to wage endless colonial, imperial wars and and reproduce racial capitalistic projects to achieve socio-economic, geopolitical, and military domination. These dominant discourses and means of knowledge production need urgent scrutiny and reflection, particularly in the field of Asian Diasporic studies and AAPI studies. The genocide and brutality endorsed by hegemonic powers share deeper connections and paradigms of  oppression with the surge and persistence of anti-Asia violence and hate crimes in the U.S. and Europe. A primary example of how such official discourses work through state power in legislative arena and social life is the SPD No. 15: Race and Ethnicity Standards in March 2024, which further entrenches ideological bigotry about race and ethnicity, and hardens racial and ethnic divide and animosity. This seminar seeks papers or working projects in written or digital media format that contests dominant discourse of Orientalism, anti-Asian, anti-Arab, Islamophobia and explores symphonic and transdisciplinary approaches to and paradigms of narratives, ways of knowing, knowledge production and its application, affect, and community building on topics of Asian diaspora, AAPI studies, Arabic, and Islamic studies in the field of literature, culture, history, media, archival studies, and the broader digital humanities. Hopefully, this panel will open up more avenues to disentangle and dismantle the deep social structures of imperialistic and racial domination, cultivate meaningful connections and long-term collaborations across disciplines for interracial alliance and transnational liberation of all suppressed and marginalized populations.