This is Democracy – Asian American History and Exclusion

Guest: Madeline Y. Hsu is Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin and served as Director of the Center for Asian American Studies eight years (2006-2014).  She is president of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society and vice-president of the International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas.  She was born in Columbia, Missouri but grew up in Taiwan and Hong Kong between visits with her grandparents at their store in Altheimer, Arkansas.  She received her undergraduate degrees in History from Pomona College and PhD from Yale University.  Her first book was Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home: Transnationalism and Migration between the United States and South China, 1882-1943 (Stanford University Press, 2000).  Her most recent monograph, The Good Immigrants: How the Yellow Peril Became the Model Minority (Princeton University Press, 2015), received awards from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, and the Association for Asian American Studies.  Her third book, Asian American History: A Very Short Introduction was published by Oxford University Press in 2016 and the co-edited anthology, A Nation of Immigrants Reconsidered: U.S. Society in an Age of Restriction, 1924-1965 was published in 2019 by the University of Illinois Press.

This week, after the racially-motivated attacks in Atlanta, Georgia, Jeremi and Zachary talk with Professor Madeline Hsu about Asian American History and exclusion in the United States. Zachary reads his poem, “Like a Bullet.”

Yesterday, UT’s Department of History issued a statement in support of UT’s Asian & Asian American community. Read the full statement at http://bit.ly/3tGGQBA. Colleagues at the department website, NOT EVEN PAST, have compiled and are still currently collecting resources & information on the mass shootings in Atlanta: http://bit.ly/3f8yJK7.

About This is Democracy

The future of democracy is uncertain, but we are committed to its urgent renewal today. This podcast will draw on historical knowledge to inspire a contemporary democratic renaissance. The past offers hope for the present and the future, if only we can escape the negativity of our current moment — and each show will offer a serious way to do that! This podcast will bring together thoughtful voices from different generations to help make sense of current challenges and propose positive steps forward. Our goal is to advance democratic change, one show at a time. Dr. Jeremi Suri, a renowned scholar of democracy, will host the podcast and moderate discussions.