16 Un-American Geographies: Transpacific Thinking and Asian American Studies

Abstract

Abstract:Attending to the relationship between geography and knowledge, this essay considers Asian American studies in relationship to Native Pacific Islander studies, Southeast Asian American studies, and transpacific inquiries. The deepening exchanges across these fields show us that transpacific thinking has re-radicalized the past and present Asian American studies agenda by eliciting the longue durée of US imperialist entrenchment. As critical transpacific perspectives continue to re-politicize Asian American affiliations as undisciplined and un-American, Asian American studies as an unruly "activist interdiscipline" promises to offer alternative geographies that refuse the reiteration of US geopolitics or any other form of state-governed interpellations.