The Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus

Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus

Scholarship. Mentorship. Community.

We support, connect, mentor, and encourage Asian and Asian American scholars of Classics and the ancient Mediterranean.

ANNOUNCING NEW AAACC OFFICERS!

Our members have voted, and we’re excited to announce the newly-elected AAACC Officers! As per AAACC Bylaws, officers serve for 2-year terms, and are elected by a vote of current members. To read more about their official duties, click here. To learn more about the individual officers, click here. And if you are interested in becoming a member, click here.

Co-chairs: Arum Park and Chris Waldo
Financial Officer: Lorraine Abagatnan
Mentorship Coordinator: Kate Meng Brassel
Outreach Officer: Tori Lee
Programming Officer: Ethan Ganesh Warren
Secondary Education Liaison: Annie Huynh

Registration now open for our 2nd APIDA in Classics Event! See here for details.

Our two interns, Rupert Chen and Sara Kumar, attended the National Junior Classical League convention in July 2022 and delivered a presentation called “Parallels Between Asian and the Greco-Roman Mythology.” Rupert is a junior at the Harker High School in San Jose, CA and Sara is a junior at the University of Chicago Laboratory High School in Chicago, IL. In their presentation, Rupert and Sara explored the intersection of Greco-Roman mythologies and those of the Asian world. The convergence of these two civilizations is often overlooked. However, their presence within one another is profound. Focusing on specifically the East Asian and South Asian regions, this presentation bridged perceived cultural divides and showed the interconnected nature of the ancient world. Greek and Roman mythology in particular has been popularized for centuries, with deities such as Poseidon and Hercules permeating modern Western culture. However, the similarities between gods such as Duryodhana, the antagonist in a Hindu epic, and Achilles, the hero of the Trojan war, may seem impossible but are deeply present. Rupert and Sara hope to continue to bring new meaning to the study of the classics and prove its relevance to those who may not feel connected to Greco-Roman myths.

Announcing our new Officers!

The votes are in! Please join us in welcoming the new AAACC officers!

To learn more about the new officers, click here.

Not a member and want to be? Click here.

Secondary Education Liaison: Annie Huynh

Sign up to be an AAACC member today!

Happy Lunar New Year and welcome to the AAACC’s inaugural membership drive!

You can contribute to our membership drive no matter your employment status. Memberships are FREE and you can donate via Paypal or Venmo (@aaaclassicalcaucus) if you choose.

As a member, you…

gain access to the much-lauded AAACC mentorship program
can attend workshops in career diversity, experimental learning, and
professionalization
support rising scholarship in Asian/American classical reception
support grassroots initiatives in BIPOC coalition-building

Donations support the following:

Artist honoraria
Undergraduate paper prizes
Workshop organization
Day-to-day costs of running a nonprofit organization, e.g. website!

We encourage any and all supporters of the AAACC to contribute to our membership drive. Please spread the word!

CALL FOR PAPERs

2022 Annual Meeting AAACC Panel

“Orientalisms”

Organized by Arum Park (U of Arizona) and Stephanie Wong (Brown U)

2022 Society of Classical Studies Annual Meeting

January 5-8, 2022

San Francisco, CA

“Orientalism is a form of paranoia.”1

For our third panel at the annual meeting of the Society for Classical Studies (SCS) in San Francisco, CA (January 5-8, 2022), the Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus invites abstracts for presentations that broadly explore the concept of “orientalism” as applicable to the study of the ancient Mediterranean. As Edward Said articulated, “Orientalism was ultimately a political vision of reality whose structure promoted the difference between the familiar (Europe, the West, ‘us’) and the strange (the Orient, the East, ‘them’).”2 Possible topics include but are not limited to: ancient Mediterranean constructions of difference, Asian and AAPI receptions of Western antiquity, the intellectual history of Classics, Orientalism in pedagogy, or non-Western conceptions of Classical antiquity.

We welcome proposals for diverse forms of interpretation; scholarly papers are always welcome but other proposed formats might include visual or literary art, performance, or discussions of political activism. In an effort to pluralize the definition of orientalism and explore its myriad uses in all geographic antiquities (Eastern, Western, or otherwise) as well as in the present day, we encourage abstract submissions that subvert imperial hegemonies, trouble heteronormative conventions, and question eurocentric ideologies. Who constitutes “us” and “them,” and why must these categories constantly be redefined?

Abstracts of no more than 400 words should be submitted as a pdf email attachment to AAACCabstracts@gmail.com by Friday, March 5, 2021. The subject line of your email should be “SCS 2022: Orientalisms abstract.” The text of your abstract should follow the guidelines available on the SCS website and should not mention the name of the author. Abstracts will be evaluated anonymously by the panel organizers. The AAACC is committed to fostering a collaborative and supportive environment for the sharing of innovative ideas; as such, we welcome submissions from students, educators, artists, and activists of all stages and disciplines.

Should you have any questions, please contact Arum Park (arumpark@arizona.edu) and Stephanie Wong (stephaniewong@brown.edu).

1 Edward Said, Orientalism, 71.

2 Said 42.

Panelists from our inaugural AAACC panel at the 2020 SCS/AIA Annual Meeting.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

We are dedicated to protecting the lives and livelihoods of Black people in both ideology AND material resources.

Here’s how the AAACC has pledged to support the Black Lives Matter movement:

Members of our executive committee have committed to donating to various organizations that directly support the Black Lives Matter movement. We hope you can pledge the same.