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Lecture Description
This lecture will begin by exploring the ways in which the legacies of Orientalism and the Cold War have shaped US approaches to defining Asia that split its various regions into discrete blocs of nations, such as India, China, and so forth. This has had implications for defining the census categories of peoples included/excluded in "Asian American." Prof. Mazumdar will then take up the ways in which regional histories of the US enable us to develop new perspectives for the study of Asian America and elaborate on the transnational history of the American south.

About the Speaker
Prof. Mazumdar writes: "Two broad questions shape my research: the development of global capital and the commodities world market, and the ways in which local gendered and racialized social formations intersect with migration and international capital flows. I am particularly excited by the intellectual challenges of writing and teaching comparative global history, specifically comparative and connective Asian and Asian American history. My research focuses on the 18th-20th centuries but I regularly teach broad survey courses on Chinese history, as well as courses on comparative East Asian history and Asian American history. My primary research is grounded in the languages and vantage points of Chinese history and Indian history."
"I was trained at UCLA, where I received my B.A and my Ph. D. I worked at the UCLA 's Asian American Studies Center for seven years in various positions ranging from editorial assistant to Amerasia Journal, to Coordinator for Asian American Women's Programs. I was the social sciences editor for the award-winning book, Making Waves: An Anthology by and About Asian American Women ( Beacon Press, 1989). My most recent publication, coauthored and co-edited with Vasant Kaiwar, Antinomies of Modernity: Essays on Race, Orient and Nation (Duke Press, 2003)."