Editors' Preface

Abstract

Editors' Preface Diane C. Fujino and Lisa Sun-Hee Park In this issue, the Journal of Asian American Studies (JAAS) presents two exciting special forums. These are located in a new section of the journal that we initiated to affirm the importance of activist-scholarship and ethnic studies pedagogy in Asian American studies. The activist-scholarship and critical pedagogy call for papers seeks essays that offer "new analytical interventions on the political, ethical, and/or practical issues in producing scholarship for social justice in Asian American studies" or "critically engage pedagogical concerns and/or provide innovative solutions" that shape the field.1 The essays in these two special forums are intended as critical analysis linked to practice on the ground. The essays in both of these forums do a variety of work but are connected through critical reflections engaged with social movement activity. They are further designed as short essays, by contrast to the journal's research articles. In the first special forum, guest editors Sunaina Maira and Roozbeh Shirazi present the activist-scholarship special forum, "Thinking SWANA in Asian American Studies." They are responding to the call by grassroots organizers to have the field of Asian American studies grapple with the category of SWANA or South-West Asian and North Africa. The field and indeed the journal have been involved in interrogating boundaries, whether the borders of nation-states or of disciplines, including our own, and exploring the various meanings this entails. The current essays build on earlier articles in JAAS, notably Sunaina Maira and Magid Shihade's essay in 2006, "Meeting Asian/Arab American Studies: Thinking Race, Empire, and Zionism in the U.S." The current SWANA forum critiques the use of concepts that conceal the political and imperial usages, and yet also recognizes that any term or categorization contains limitations that will lead to different formulations in the future. So while SWANA is not one singular or static definition, and indeed no panacea, it is a term being called into being in this particular historical moment to wrestle with problems of empire, race, [End Page v] and subordination. The authors in this issue examine SWANA studies through the lens of Asian Americanist frameworks that critique imperialism, the global war on terror and anti-Muslim racism; that examine "affects of solidarity"; and that work in relationship to Armenian studies. The forum illuminates SWANA studies through poetic form. It offers curricular frameworks and pedagogical keywords for SWANA studies. And it explores definitional and praxis-based meanings of SWANA as political movement and identity. Sofia Armen offers a valuable insight: "It is in the process of doing SWANA, that SWANA is and has been made and given meaning." It is this conjuncture between the university and movements, or rather the intersections of scholarly and organizing theorizing, that new frameworks for thinking about race, empire, and activism are produced. This intertwined academic and activist knowledge connects the two special forums. The second forum, guest edited by Jocyl Sacramento, Edward R. Curammeng, and Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, explores "Ethnic Studies as Social Movements and Solidarities." They are responding to the outpouring of activist, pedagogical, and curricular work to develop ethnic studies curriculum in K–12 schools and to explore the meanings of Asian American studies pedagogy. The present moment, especially the past decade, represents the most intensive period of grassroots activity for ethnic studies since the field began more than fifty years ago. There are efforts to develop ethnic studies courses more widely and to establish ethnic studies requirements at the high school, community college, and university levels. The opposition to ethnic studies is seemingly equally fierce. Building on ideas in Asian American studies and ethnic studies, the essays explore the relationship between knowledge and action that ask students and teachers to connect classroom learning to communities of change. They view Asian American studies as content knowledge and critiques of power and also as a critical pedagogical approach to learning. The essays explore frameworks for Asian American studies pedagogy and discuss specific projects, namely UCLA Asian American Studies' multimedia textbook on Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences titled Foundations and Futures and the Pin@y Educational Partnership. They argue that writing curriculum has...