Event recordings:
- selected presentations from the June workshop are now available here.
- keynote address, "The White Elephant in the Room: The History and Present of Anti-Asian Racism" by Henry Yu (UBC) is available here.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak began in early 2020, there have been a growing number of attacks towards people of Asian (especially Chinese) descent. The “Shadow Pandemic” of Anti-Asian racism has exacerbated the impact of COVID-19 on Asians in various ways, including their mental health, interracial relationships, stigmatization and representation. This is by no means new, as with earlier outbreaks such as SARS in 2003, there were also increased incidents of racial profiling, which prompted all levels of government and civil society to combat both the spread of the virus and discrimination in Canada. Asian Canadians thus are facing a recurrent prejudice that needs to be addressed from both historical and contemporary perspectives.
In a two-day virtual workshop hosted by the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) on 10–11 June 2021, we aim to address the following questions of anti-Asian racism in Canada and beyond:
1) What explains the rising anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic?
2) In what ways does anti-Asian racism affect Asian communities and interracial relations?
3) How can the escalation of anti-Asian racism be mitigated?
The call for papers is available here. The deadline is Thursday, 28 January 2021.
The workshop is made possible with the support from the Canada-China Initiatives Fund at York University and the Canadian Institutes of Health.
For general inquiries, please contact the York Centre for Asian Research at ycar@yorku.ca. For academic-related questions, please contact Xiao Alvin Yang (musicianalvinyang@gmail.com).