PORT ANGELES — Catherine Ceniza Choy, author of the book “Asian American Histories of the United States,” will introduce her work and engage in a dialogue with Studium Generale Coordinator Kate Reavey on Thursday.
The free Studium Generale will be at 12:35 p.m. at the Little Theater on the Peninsula College campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles.
It also will be on Zoom at https://pencol-edu.zoom.us/j/83024542567. The meeting ID is 830 2454 2567.
Choy’s book features the themes of anti-Asian hate and violence, erasure of Asian American history, and Asian American resistance to what has been omitted in a nearly 200-year history of Asian migration, labor and community formation in the U.S. She argues that Asian American experiences are essential to any understanding of U.S. history and its existential crises of the early 21st century.
Her first book, “Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History,” published in 2003, explored how and why the Philippines became the leading exporter of professional nurses to the United States.
“Empire of Care” received the 2003 American Journal of Nursing History and Public Policy Book Award and the 2005 Association for Asian American Studies History Book Award.
Choy’s second book, “Global Families: A History of Asian International Adoption in America,” published in 2013, unearths the little-known historical origins of Asian international adoption in the United States beginning with the post-World War II presence of the U.S. military in Asia. She is also the editor of the Brill book series “Gendering the Trans-Pacific World.” This book series explores the gendered nature of the Pacific World by focusing on three phenomena: diaspora, empire and race.
Choy has been interviewed in many media outlets, including ABC’s 20/20, The Atlantic, CNN, Los Angeles Times, NBC News, New York Times, ProPublica, San Francisco Chronicle, Time and Vox, on the disproportionate toll of COVID-19 on Filipino nurses in the United States, anti-Asian, coronavirus-related violence, and racism and misogyny.
Reavey is gathering questions from faculty, staff and students, who are asked to contact her if they want to have their questions brought into the dialogue. Email her at kreavery@pencol.edu.
The event is co-sponsored with House of Learning, PC Longhouse.
