Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have such different histories, cultures, and racializations, not to mention the vast heterogeneity within each group. Why do we put them together in #AAPIHeritageMonth, or study them together in an AAPI literature course? Should we separate them in our scholarship and activism? Visiting Assistant Professor Nozomi Nakaganeku Saito and Priscilla Lee ’25 interrogate the problems of “AAPI” as a term, and also explore what generative tensions it can offer — through reading “Hooked” by Marshallese poet Kathy Jetnil-Kjiner, as well as discussing Okinawan indigeneity under Japanese and American imperialism. 

Episode notes and further reading: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14_G5mMlndVtRJcwmn1gh1lree8yzkE3i7lqJsFdKhvE/edit?usp=sharing