For Immediate Release
July 27, 2009
For Press Information and Author Interviews:
Mary Kao, mugao@ucla.edu
(310) 825-3415
Stephanie Santos, stephaniesantos@ucla.edu
(310) 825-6498
Los Angeles - Thirty-five years after its first special issue devoted to Asian American women, the UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press is pleased to announce the release of Amerasia's newest issue "Where Women Tell Stories," guest edited by Mary Uyematsu Kao and Stephanie D. Santos. The articles in this issue highlight the strong connections between Asian Pacific American women and their communities and challenge both ethnic and feminist studies to recognize the herstories of Asian Pacific American women.
"This women's issue attempts to cross bridges and reconfirm basic issues that a women of color feminism has embraced for the last forty years," states Mary Uyematsu Kao. "The collective experiences from overlapping generations of women represented here show a continuing trend for women of color to seek creative ways to exercise their power as women."
UCLA Asian American Studies Center to Celebrate Amerasia Journal Women’s Issue at “Buildin’ Bridges and Stirrin’ Waters” Event
"This will allow for more dynamic political involvements," offers Stephanie Santos, "whether with undocumented mothers, refugees, immigrant garment workers, or social justice activists."
"Subverting the Hierarchy/Collaborating Narratives" the opening article by Roshni Rustomji and Luz de la Rosa, explores a "salvation paradigm" which has embedded hierarchies of race, class, education, age, and/or social and political power. Creating ways to remove these hierarchies, the authors conduct workshops in Oaxaca, Mexico to learn what the local women know in the aftermath of a revolutionary groundswell in 2006-2007. Filmmaker Dai-Sil Kim Gibson challenges us to learn about Korean "comfort women" that the Japanese military savagely exploited with her piece, "Do You Hear Their Voices?"
One of the highlights of the issue is "'Stirrin' Waters' and Buildin' Bridges: A Conversation with Yuri Kochiyama and Ericka Huggins." These two historic icons of social justice movements of the 1960s share lessons and insights on today's movements. Another important bridge is Laura Pulido's "Immigration Politics and Motherhood," examining how the immigration question has put some U.S. mainstream feminists in the opposition against Mexican immigrant women-raising the specter of nativist racism that continues to plague U.S. social justice movements.
Ketu Katrak examines the differences and similarities that South Asian women face in the home country versus the U.S. and how that affects women's organizing efforts. In a similar vein, "GabNet: A Case Study of Transnational Sisterhood and Organizing" by Annalisa V. Enrile and Jollene Levid reveal an inside view of the U.S. arm of Gabriela, an organization based in the Philippines working for the liberation of women and the nation. Katie Quan's retrospective of the 1982 Garment Workers Strike in New York City's Chinatown is an important account because it comes from a strike organizer's direct experience.
"Practicing Pinayist Pedagogy" by Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales and Jocyl Sacramento demonstrate ways for Filipino women to "connect the global and local to the personal issues and stories of Pinay struggle, survival, service, sisterhood, and strength." And "Three-Step Boogie" by Mary Uyematsu Kao, describes how the race/class/gender framework emerged to work within the 1970s Asian American Movement setting, through the lives of Sansei (3rd generation Japanese American) women activists.
Poets Irene Suico Soriano and Fuifuilupe Niumetolu touch you with tales from the Philippines and the U.S., and one woman's struggle from a Mormon-Tongan upbringing. Tiffany Min, Kimson Kheoum, Amy Horn and Mary Im from Khmer Girls in Action (Long Beach) share in poetry and prose their struggles as young women in a transitional Khmer American culture. Jolie Chea's performance piece creates crucial understandings of the Cambodian refugee experience, while Carrie Usui shares some of the problems specific to Asian Pacific American women when it comes to personal health issues.
This special issue of Amerasia Journal costs $15.00 plus $5.00 for shipping and handling and 9.25 percent sales tax for California residents ($21.39). Make checks payable to "Regents of U.C." VISA, MASTERCARD, and DISCOVER are also accepted; include expiration date and phone number on correspondence. The mailing address is: UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 3230 Campbell Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1546.
Phone: 310-825-2968. Email: aascpress@aasc.ucla.edu
Annual subscriptions for Amerasia Journal are $99.99 for individuals and $445.00 for libraries and other institutions. The institutional price includes access to the Amerasia online database, which has full-text versions of all Amerasia Journals published since 1971. Amerasia Journal is published three times a year: Winter, Spring, and Fall.
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