National Council on Public History

GVGK TANG, INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR

Proposal Type

Roundtable

Seeking

• Seeking Additional Presenters
• Seeking Specific Expertise
• Seeking General Feedback and Interest

Related Topics

• Memory
• Public Engagement
• Social Justice

Abstract

History is a lens through which we reflect on and conceptualize our own lives. In seeking to navigate queer Asian Pacific Islander (API) identity, we fashion a composite experience from a network of ancestors, like roots and branches, to call our own. What emerges from our makeshift narratives are overarching themes that span time and place. Queer API diasporas are thrown in sharp relief when studied alongside the white lesbigay experience. Queer API histories evoke real and relevant connections between the past and present, that keep us grounded even when we are scattered.

Description

Nationalistic divides between Asian-ness and American-ness mirror racial divides between Asian-ness and white-ness. Multigenerational narratives of immigration, culture and legacy are complicated by the queer experience. This understanding of Asian American identity—its facets and fissures—may be contrasted with predominate white lesbigay narratives perpetuated by popular historical consciousness. In other words, what does it mean to be a queer API?

I am seeking queer API-identified activists and scholars to engage the past, present, and potential role of public history in queer API community building and identity formation. Non-East Asian and trans folks’ perspectives are especially welcome. This session could be a roundtable or collaborative conversation—depending on participant interest.

Potential discussion themes/questions include:

• Queer people of color often seek to reclaim an “indigenous,” precolonial past as a means of decolonizing their sexual experiences and self-conceptions. What role has, does, or can public history play in this process of (a)historical validation? Why and how does the past confer a sense of legitimacy, especially for queer API in the diaspora?
• In an American context, API stereotypes abound—the model minority, the perpetual foreigner, sexless or sexful. Meanwhile, queer API are rendered “the minority of the minority”—stifled, invisible, nonexistent. How have we internalized these frameworks and allowed them to circumscribe our queer historical imaginings—who we were and are, and what we could become? What role has, does, or can public history praxis play in perpetuating or disrupting this false narrative construction?
• How do we find each other and ourselves? What are concrete and constructive examples of queer API community building and identity formation—past, present, and future? What role does historical consciousness play in this process, and is it exceptional to other modes of grassroots work? In other words, what can queer API bring to the table—to synthesize queer of color critique and public history theory for the benefit of political organizing and spiritual meaning-making?

If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: GVGK Tang, [email protected]

All feedback and offers of assistance should be submitted by July 1, 2019. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.

Discussion