Asian American Studies and LGBTQ Studies: Horizons of Intersectional Alliances

Abstract

This essay is a brief reflection on the rich intersectional history of Asian American Studies and LGBTQ studies through an autoethnographic account. It focuses on the emergence of productive conjunctions between the two fields as framed by my own career trajectory in academia and community activism. I want to note that this is not an ego-boosting attempt to locate myself as an exemplary case, but I will unabashedly admit that I was a fortunate witness to and an avid participant in the provenance of the continuing fruitful alliances between the two fields. I map these historical and theoretical meeting points as products of historical and biographical encounters and conditions. I believe the “state” of the fields should not be considered as a description of a present condition but rather, as critical assessment of a process, a persistent unfolding, and a continuous voyage of several communities of scholars. At the heart of this essay is not just a story or a history but rather a reflection on enduring questions that have propelled this intellectual crossroad. I offer an invitation or provocation to scholars to take risks, and to listen more closely and sensitively to the evolving world and to lives on the ground. The “roots” of this intersectional history of the two fields are a product of sensitive, activist, and community responses to problems on existing social injustices. As I will point out later, there is a danger in the institutionalization and official recognition of the works coming out of these conjoined fields, especially around the initial impulse for such collaborations which was taking responsibility to engage with ever-increasing and continuing crises of racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and extreme economic disparities. At