Featured Reader: July 28th, 2017 Southeast Asian American Studies Conference

In some good news for the week, I'm delighted to accept the invitation to be a featured reader at the 2017 Southeast Asian American Studies Conference, in July in Lowell, MA on July 28th. I look forward to seeing everyone there! https://www.uml.edu/conferences/seaas-2017/ UMass Lowell is a national research university committed to preparing students for work in the real world— solving real problems and helping real people— by providing an affordable, high-quality education.

The 2017 conference will highlight Southeast Asian American communities in New England. Lowell, Massachusetts, is home to the second largest Cambodian American population in the United States, as well as Vietnamese, Lao, Burmese, and Bhutanese Americans. Nearby Dorchester, MA, and Providence, RI, are home to significant Vietnamese and Lao American populations, respectively.

This conference also seeks to build bridges across disciplines (humanities, social sciences, and sciences), and across/among scholars, artists, policymakers, and community members. What are the range of approaches to Southeast Asian American Studies? How might we foster communication and collaboration between fields and disciplines? What interdisciplinary approaches have been fruitful? What are some challenges to working across disciplinary boundaries? Given the opportunities and challenges of community-engaged research, what role can scholarship play in enabling social change for diverse SEAA communities? How can engagement with SEAA communities enrich and inform scholarship, and vice versa?

They seek papers and panels from the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, particularly in the areas of education, health, and public policy.