2021–22

Lisa Lowe

Lisa Lowe

Lisa Lowe is Samuel Knight Professor of American Studies at Yale University, and an affiliate faculty in the programs of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. An interdisciplinary scholar whose work is concerned with the study of race, immigration, capitalism, and colonialism, she is the author of Critical Terrains: French and British Orientalisms (Cornell University Press, 1991), Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics (Duke University Press, 1996), and The Intimacies of Four Continents (Duke University Press, 2015), and the co-editor of The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital (Duke University Press, 1997) and New Questions, New Formations: Asian American Studies, a special issue of Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 5:2 (Fall 1997). Lowe’s teaching interests include the study of Asian American studies and critical race and ethnic studies, colonialism and U.S. empire, and cultures of globalization.

Monday, October 25, 2021

Glocal Asian Experiences in Brooklyn and Beyond

The formal welcoming of Lisa Lowe by Brooklyn College administration, followed by an overview of Asian and Asian American experiences in Brooklyn by Vivian Truong (History, Swarthmore College) and Zohra Saed (Asian American Studies, Macaulay Honors College). Lisa Lowe will share her family’s experience of immigrating to and living and working within the United States.

Speakers

  • Lisa Lowe (American Studies, Yale)
  • Zohra Saed (Asian American Studies, Macaulay Honors College)
  • George Stonefish
  • Reverend Samuel Wong
  • Vivian Truong (History, Swarthmore College)

Moderated by Dr. Rosamond S. King, director of the Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities

Video available.

Asian American Studies 101

An overview of the history of, and major topics and trends within Asian American Studies through a conversation between Moustafa Bayoumi (English, Brooklyn College), Lisa Lowe (American Studies, Yale)

Moderated by Yung-Yi Diana Pan (Sociology, Brooklyn College)

Video available.

Disruptive Pedagogies

How can our teaching practices overcome centuries of what Freire calls the “banking model of education”, which treats students as empty vessels to be filled, instead of seeing them as active participants in their own learning?

Speakers

  • Anna Gotlib (Philosophy, Brooklyn College)
  • Stephanie Jensen-Moulton (Music, Brooklyn College)
  • Susan Longtin (Communications, Brooklyn College)
  • Lisa Lowe (American Studies, Yale)
  • María Scharron del Río (Associate Dean of the School of Education and Professor of the School Counseling Graduate Program)

Moderated by Anna Gotlib (Philosophy, Brooklyn College)

Video available.

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

The Subaltern Archive

The adage goes, “History is written by the victors.” If the “victors’ ” voices appear in historical archives more often than “subaltern” voices (i.e., the voices of people who were not of the ruling class/age/gender/race/caste), how do we reclaim those voices and let the subaltern “speak”? And in archives that more regularly collect sources from powerful elites, how can we listen to the voices of more (seemingly) marginalized and (seemingly) undocumented historical figures?

Speakers

  • Colleen Bradley-Sanders (Library & Archives, Brooklyn College)
  • Louis Fishman (History, Brooklyn College)
  • Vivian Louie (Urban Policy & Planning/Asian American Studies Program & Center, Hunter College)
  • Lisa Lowe (American Studies, Yale)
  • Raquel Otheguy (History, Bronx Community College)
  • Gunja Sengupta (History, Brooklyn College)

Moderated by Lauren Mancia (History, Brooklyn College)

Video available.

A Reading Featuring Asian American Alumni of Brooklyn College’s Creative Writing Programs

A reading featuring Asian American alumni of Brooklyn College’s master’s of fine arts in creative writing programs.

Readers

  • Jai Chakrabarti (Fiction Writer)
  • Cherry Lou Sy (Playwright, English, Brooklyn College)
  • Yun Wei (Poet)

Moderated by Madeleine Thien (M.F.A. Faculty, Brooklyn College)

Video available.

Asian Americans in the Brooklyn College Archives

Brooklyn College students and faculty discuss their research into the history of Asian Americans and Asian American studies on campus, Asian Americans in the general archives, and in the COVID Archive.

Speakers

  • Abby Heath (Student, Brooklyn College)
  • Niara Johnson (Student, Brooklyn College)
  • Joshua Leonard (Student, Brooklyn College)
  • Anunna Meem (Student, Brooklyn College)
  • Anum Momin (Student, Listening Project, Brooklyn College)
  • Bridget Squitire (Student, Brooklyn College)

Moderated by Miriam Deutch (Library, Brooklyn College)

Video available.

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

The Secret History of Academic Disciplines

Many of the disciplines and departments of our modern university were formed and developed in the 19th century, at the same time that European countries were colonizing various parts of the world. Panelists will discuss how colonialism shaped various academic disciplines, and how scholars today are attempting to fundamentally decolonize and transform age-old concepts and categories that have historically been foundational to their disciplinary methodologies.

Speakers

  • Yana Kuchirko (Psychology, Brooklyn College)
  • Lisa Lowe (American Studies, Yale)
  • Rhea Rahman (Anthropology, Brooklyn College)
  • Christopher Richards (Art, Brooklyn College)
  • Sophia Suarez (Biology, Brooklyn College)

Moderated by Lauren Mancia (History, Brooklyn College)

Video available.

Student Activist Luncheon

Students who identify as activists focused on any issue have a private, informal opportunity to speak with the Hess Scholar. Current Brooklyn College students who identify as activists can request an invitation, and faculty can suggest students as well, via e-mail.

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Before 1492: Comparative Premodern Colonialisms

We often think about imperialism and colonialism as phenomena that happened in the world after 1500 C.E., as a result of European exploration. But how (and by whom, and of whom) was colonialism practiced before the early modern period, in the premodern world? And how does such premodern history both deepen our understanding of colonialism in modernity and enhance our understanding of the world before European hegemony?

Speakers

  • Lynda Day (Africana Studies, Brooklyn College)
  • Jason Frydman (English, Brooklyn College)
  • Lisa Lowe (American Studies, Yale)
  • Hyunhee Park (History, John Jay College of Criminal Justice)
  • Brian Sowers (Classics, Brooklyn College)

Moderated by Lauren Mancia (History, Brooklyn College)

Video available.

The New Nativism

How do we understand and address the growing xenophobic upsurge in the United States (and elsewhere)? Is it just a matter of economic frustrations and security-focused phobias, or are the voices of nationalist hatred emerging from deeper, and more troubling, waters?

Speakers

  • Alan Aja (Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College)
  • Anna Gotlib (Philosophy, Brooklyn College)
  • Lisa Lowe (American Studies, Yale)
  • Beaudelaine Pierre (Women’s Studies, St. Catherine University )
  • Chandan Reddy (Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies, University of Washington)

Moderated by Anna Gotlib (Philosophy, Brooklyn College)

Video available.

Robert L. Hess Memorial Lecture

A new, original lecture by Lisa Lowe.

Video available.

Brooklyn. All in.