“Mom, can you help me with my homework?” Identifying Tools and Conditions for Intergenerational Dialogue Among Southeast Asian Refugees and Their Children

The collective memories of the Southeast Asian diaspora are interwoven with histories of war and colonial violence that continue to be felt in everyday experiences as hauntings. Post-war generations are often without access to resources for contextualizing and deconstructing these lived realities. I discuss my reflexive process while interviewing my family about their experiences with the American-Vietnam War and how this ongoing dialogic process has transformed my relationships to my family and community, as well as highlighted sociopolitical tensions within Vietnamese American communities. I identify possible tools for intergenerational dialogue and emphasize the need to engage with these loud silences to support communities displaced by war in negotiating “the ending that are not over” (Espiritu, 2014).

Friday Forum Spring quarter 2017 Schedule:

Fridays 12:30-2pm
Humanities 1 Room 202

A weekly interdisciplinary colloquium series for sharing graduate research across the humanities. Join us for light refreshments and weekly presentations by your fellow graduate students.

April 21, 2017: Jaclyn N. Schultz, History

April 28, 2017: Baizhu Chen, Economics

May 5, 2017: Danielle Crawford, Literature

May 12, 2017: Kristen Laciste, HAVC

May 19, 2017: Kara Hisatake, Literature

May 26, 2017: Yuki Obayashi, Literature

June 2, 2017: Angela Nguyen, Psychology