Keynote Presentation: Christine R. Yano
Critical Empathy: The Role of Education Amidst Xenophobic Pandemonium Wednesday, January 6 | 15:15-16:00 | Hawaii Standard Time (UTC-10)
How does race shape some of the responses to the ongoing global pandemic? How does the pandemic shape the experience of race – in politics and in everyday lives? How might education play a role in strategizing answers to these fraught conditions? These questions structure my approach to discussing anti-Asian racism amid the pandemic with the goal of developing strategies of action for the targets of such racism, as well as for others for whom race-based violence is anathema. I argue that education must take responsibility for developing leadership based in critical empathy – that is, reaching out to others with both hearts and minds. In doing so, we teach not only tolerance and respect, but also actions of engagement. Through critical empathy we commit ourselves and future generations to embrace the full humanity of the community.
Christine R. Yano Christine R. Yano, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawai'i, has conducted research on Japan and Japanese Americans with a focus on popular culture. Beginning in March 2020 she serves as the President of the Association for Asian Studies. Her publications include Tears of Longing: Nostalgia and the Nation in Japanese Popular Song (Harvard, 2002), Crowning the Nice Girl; Gender, Ethnicity, and Culture in Hawaii’s Cherry Blossom Festival (Hawaii, 2006), Airborne Dreams: “Nisei” Stewardesses and Pan American World Airways (Duke, 2011), and Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty and its Trek Across the Pacific (Duke, 2013). She has also co-edited a number of volumes: Modern Girls on the Go: Gender, Mobility, and Labor in Contemporary Japan with Alisa Freedman and Laura Miller (Stanford, 2013), Making Waves: Travelling Musics in Hawai'i, Asia, and the Pacific with Fred Lau (Hawaii, 2018), and Straight A’s: Asian American College Students in Their Own Words with Neal Akatsuka (Duke, 2018).
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