The Delta is in the Heart: Uncovering the Historical Archaeology of Isleton’s Chinese American Community

DR. KELLY N. FONG  (Online)
UCLA

This event will be conducted in person at the Stanford Archaeology Center and on Zoom.  For those joining us on Zoom, please register using the above link.

 

Abstract

This talk explores the potential for interdisciplinary archaeologies of the Chinese Diaspora that center critical understandings of race, racialization, racism, and power.  Dr. Fong will highlight how and why racial theory from Asian American Studies and Ethnic Studies matters to the archaeology of Chinese American communities.  She will use Isleton Chinatown in the Sacramento Delta as an example of how these interdisciplinary archaeologies can investigate the everyday material realities of racialization and racism and the importance of centering nonwhite epistemic privilege in the study of racialized communities.


Bio

Dr. Kelly Fong is a fifth-generation Chinese American, historical archaeologist, and Asian American Studies scholar.  Dr. Fong earned a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and a minor in Asian American Studies at UC Berkeley and a doctorate in archaeology at UCLA.  Her work bridges her passion for Asian American social histories, family histories, and historical archaeology to examine everyday life through materials and memories left behind.  Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the 20th-century Chinese American community in Isleton, California in the Sacramento Delta, particularly interrogating the impact of race, racism, racialization, and power on everyday life for this rural community.  She is currently a lecturer in the Asian American Studies Department at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Date
Wed October 6th 2021, 12:00 - 1:00pm