The Politics of Care: Asian American Student Organizing at Emory University Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

As colleges see increasing incidence of student protest, organizing, and activism, university administrative and health systems are constantly creating and updating best practices of care to allow students to continue “business as usual.” Asian American students face unique strains under these systems. Positioned as high achieving and self-sufficient, yet rendered invisible when expressing distress or needing support, there is a profound lack of understanding of how experiences of Asian American identity impact navigation through these systems, further contributing to the festering of unwellness, as scholar and author Mimi Khúc has coined the term. This thesis probes how Asian American student organizers reconcile care with their own positionality at Emory University, by interrogating Emory’s cultural understandings of student organizing, and the institutionally sponsored and touted care it provides in response. Drawing on feminist studies, Asian American studies, social justice theories, and visual arts, this thesis engages with student organizer testimony through interviews about their experiences within and against Emory’s moral economy on organizing. I posit that Emory’s systems of care are fueled by an emphasis on productivity and contribution to the university, even as they attempt to provide resources for student wellbeing and thus contribute to Asian American unwellness. My thesis points beyond these existing systems, imagining what these systems of care could look like in relation to how students express themselves amid and against the institutional constrains of academia, and how universities can continue to grow in conversation with students themselves. An education shouldn’t require accepting unwellness but rather provide avenues for systematically confronting and dismantling it.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Institutional Discourses of Critique/Organizing

Care, Universities, and Shared Responsibility

Asian America as Unwell: Racialization as the Model Minority

Formalized Care in Campus Contexts

DEI as Bodies in Time and Space

Research Question and Methodology

Chapter Breakdown

Chapter 1: (Mis)Alignments of Care, Caring-For or Caring-About

Understandings of Care

The current moment of student activism: “Elite capture,” the neo-colonial university, and a moral economy

Care and its (Mis)Alignments

Current Institutional Care

Caring Contradictions

Chapter 2: The Moral Economy, Necessity, and Urgency of Student Organizing

SNCC, the TWLF, and the Importance of Racial Solidarities

Care as: Power in the Institution

Care as: Enduring, “Morality” as a Response

Care as a Necessary Response: Tensions Within the Student Organizing Movement

Activist vs. Organizer Rhetoric: Self-Policing

Tensions Beyond the Self: Racial Conflict in Student Organizing

Chapter 3: The Model Minority as: ____, Student Organizing as: _____

The Model Minority as “Myth”?: Active Racialization, “Passing”, and a Success Frame

“Passing” through Asian America(n)

Model Minority as: Complicating Institutions and Student Organizing

Model Minority as: The Stakes of Your Life, the Debt that Remains

Model Minority as: Contingency

Student Organizing as: Rejection, but, Freedom!

Student Organizing as: Transnational Dimensions and Racial Solidarity

The role of an Institution: Moving forward at Emory

Conclusion: Where do we go now?

Bibliography

Appendix 1: Chronological List of Interviews

Appendix 2: Interview Guideline

Appendix 3: waves

Appendix: 4 An Abstract for the Mental Health on College Campuses Conference at the University of Michigan.

Appendix 5: Student Staff Concerns

About this Honors Thesis

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Emory College
Department	Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Asian American Studies Psychology, Behavioral
Keyword	Care Critical University Studies Student Organizing
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Julia Tulke, Emory University
Committee Members	Abigail Lott, Emory University Erica Kanesaka, Emory University

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