Asian American Studies Spring Lecture Series

"From Devon Avenue to Diaspora Internationalism" led by Dr. Ishan (Ashutosh Department of Geography and Asian American Studies Program, Indiana University)

This presentation provides an evaluation of the concept of diaspora as the term has shifted in my work and in the social sciences more generally. I suggest that the promises and pitfalls of the concept, in scholarship and in our everyday lives, are centered on how the ‘homeland’ is configured. I begin by returning to my work about Chicago’s Devon Avenue, the city’s first South Asian business district. My research on Devon Avenue sought to illuminate the transnational dimensions of this space and to challenge the district’s dominant representations in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. I then turn to my more recent interest in the histories of diaspora internationalism, or the political solidarities forged in diaspora that grappled with the limits of national identity, belonging, and action. At the very moment in which select diaspora groups have become an important source of extra-territorial power of nation-states, I want to conclude by suggesting that diaspora remains a vital concept for thinking and feeling beyond the nation and in alternatives to rights secured by the state.

Zoom Registration Link:https://niu-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwkcu-rqj8oHtKMxCUYQiq1b-PKepJyYUEB