ATTENTION: News Desks

08 May 2002
Contact: Carol Hyman, Media Relations
(510) 643-7944

WHAT:
An international conference, sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley's Department of Ethnic Studies, to examine the changes experienced by Asians who have settled in other parts of the world.

"Global and Local Dimensions of Asian America: An International Conference on Asian Diasporas" will host scholars and community leaders from across the United States and around the world. During the three-day conference, some130 papers will be presented on topics including Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley; racial inequality and economic justice; art and literature of Asian-Americans; Vietnamese in California; memories of older Korean immigrants; and Filipino settlements throughout the world.

WHEN:
Friday through Sunday, May 10 - 12. The conference begins at 1:30 p.m. Friday with the keynote speech, "States of Identity: The Diasporic Moment between Ethnicity and Transnationalism," by Wesleyan University professor Khachig Tololyan, founder and editor of Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies.

WHERE:
Radisson Miyako, San Francisco

BACKGROUND:
According to Professor L. Ling-Chi Wang, Coordinator of Asian Studies at UC Berkeley, Asian Americans are experiencing a cultural, linguistic, political and economic diversity that has never before existed in the world. The result is unprecedented demographic transformation and fragmentation among Asian communities along race, class, language, national origin and gender lines. The accelerated process of globalization also has helped cement ties among and transform the Asian communities across national boundaries, he said. Asian American studies and related fields of study are looking for new ways to understand how Asian American communities intersect and how to address issues of racism, sexism, economic injustice and political disenfranchisement.

A complete schedule of events can be found at http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~ethnicst/diasporas/main.html.