KU Center for East Asian Studies to host Migration Symposium

LAWRENCE — Members of the University of Kansas community and the public are invited to attend the upcoming interdisciplinary symposium on migration organized by the KU Center for East Asian Studies. The free symposium is the culmination of its Title VI-funded, migration-themed programming, which also included a film series and guest speakers.

The Migration Symposium will take place from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. April 5 in Forum A of the Burge Union and 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. April 6 in the Parlors Room of the Kansas Union.

The first day of the symposium, “Art, Music, and Language through the Lens of Global Asia,” is organized around a keynote speech and faculty-led panels that address diverse issues and concerns, not limited to human migration. 

Leslie Bow, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of English and Asian American Studies and Dorothy Draheim Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will deliver the keynote speech, “AI’s Race Fetish: Techno-Orientalism at the end of the American Century” at 9:30 a.m. In conjunction with the symposium and as part of the Global Asia Speaker Series on migration, Bow will also give a book talk on her recently published “Racist Love: Asian Abstraction and the Pleasure of Fantasy” at 5 p.m. April 4 in the English Room of the Kansas Union.

 The second day of the symposium, “Asia in Motion: Migration, Movement, and Exchange,” is dedicated to KU graduate student presenters from history, history of art and film & media studies. The event was solely organized by Graduate Scholars in East Asian Studies (GSEAS).

“This is the first and largest academic event they have ever organized,” said GSEAS adviser Ayako Mizumura. “These young scholars did it all from proposing the symposium to implementing their vision. As a co-sponsor, CEAS is very proud of their accomplishment and excited to see the results of their hard work this week.”

Maki Kaneko, professor of the history of art and member of the CEAS migration steering committee, said the study of migration is both timely and urgent.

"Addressing the complexities of migration is crucial in our increasingly globalizing societies, necessitating both an academic investigation of its multifaceted impacts and concrete political actions,” she said. “Our symposium, which will feature not only scholars but also curators, teachers and composers, aims to shed light on the challenges and opportunities presented by migration and to emphasize the importance of crafting informed, empathic policies and practices."

Additional information is available on the symposium website.