A common perception of Asian American studies is that, in emphasizing the centrality of race and rejecting class reductionism, its mission has been to go “beyond” Marxism. This special issue of the journal Amerasia begins from a different premise: Though it is certainly the case that many scholars working in Asian American studies today do not identify as Marxist, we understand the histories of Asian American studies and Marxism in the U.S. to have been deeply and organically interconnected.
The current moment calls for a reassessment of the relationship between Asian American studies and Marxism. We seek articles that recover the conjoined development of Asian American studies and Marxism in history, or push their entanglement in new theoretical directions. Especially desired are articles that reflect on questions of theory and method even when examining concrete case studies or historical examples of social movement activity.
Authors of essays under consideration will be invited to UC Berkeley for a public symposium and manuscript workshop hosted by the Asian American Research Center at UC Berkeley on December 5-6, 2025.
Guest Editors: Calvin Cheung-Miaw (Duke University), Cynthia Yuan Gao (Middlebury College), Colleen Lye (UC Berkeley)
500-word abstracts due June 15, 2025