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Cornell University

Public Exposures: Queer History as Social Practice: A Lecture by Amy Sueyoshi (VIDEO)

Photograph portrait of Yone Noguchi

History is often seen as a tool of the victors. Yet, activists have more recently used the discursive and public nature of history to transform conventional thought and bring underserved communities into the limelight. In fall 2020, Amy Sueyoshi in collaboration with Stan Yogi and a community organization called J-Sei launched online the first queer exhibit on the Issei (first generation Japanese immigrants who arrived before World War II). The exhibit sought to inject Asians into a white queer history canon, and dispel internalized myths about Japanese culture as inherently homo and transphobic. The exhibit titled Seen and Unseen was Sueyoshi’s eleventh exhibit, mounted in cooperation with community partners in hopes of bringing queer history to a larger public audience towards social change. In this talk, Sueyoshi will reflect on their curatorial work, exploring how queer Nikkei might have felt being simultaneously queer, immigrant, and Asian in America.

Co-sponsored by the PHI and Asian American Studies.

Portrait of Amy SueyoshiAmy Sueyoshi is the Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, the first and longest standing college of its kind, which houses the five departments of Africana Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Latina/o Studies, and Race and Resistance Studies. Amy is a historian by training with an undergraduate degree from Barnard College and a Ph.D. from University of California at Los Angeles. Their research area lies at the intersection of Asian American Studies and Sexuality Studies. They have authored two books Queer Compulsions: Race, Nation, and Sexuality in the Affairs of Yone Noguchi and Discriminating Sex: White Leisure and the Making of the American “Oriental.” Amy is also a founding co-curator of the GLBT History Museum, seeded the intergenerational Dragon Fruit Oral History Project at API Equality Northern California, and served as co-chair of the inaugural Queer History Conference 2019 hosted by the Committee on LGBT History. They are the recipient of numerous awards including the Clio Award for their contribution to queer history, San Francisco Pride Community Grand Marshal, and the Phoenix Award for their service to the Asian and Pacific Islander queer women and transgender community.

Start Date: October 25, 2021
Start Time: 5:00 pm
End Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Virtual Event