Gendering the Trans-Pacific World: Diaspora, Empire, and Race
Session Abstract
This roundtable engages with the themes of “Global Migrations: Empire, Nations, and Neighbors” by foregrounding two important analytics. First, the speakers will explore a “Pacific World” framework to understand the connections between the lands, people, cultures, and environments that are in and border the Pacific Ocean. Inspired by the scholarship on the Atlantic World, a Pacific World perspective examines the social disruptions caused by cross-oceanic forms of migration, colonization, globalization, and environmental assault as well as the forms of political and cultural resistance against these miseries. Second, the roundtable speakers will emphasize and analyze the gendered nature of the Pacific World. Gender and sexuality have been and continue to be integral aspects of diaspora, militarism, empire, race, and community formation. The speakers will examine how gender signifies power in the Pacific World and how gender can also be the basis for political mobilization. This roundtable is being sponsored by scholars and editors associated with a new book series by Brill, entitled “Gendering the Trans-Pacific World: Diaspora, Empire, and Race.”