Two of the contenders vying for the hearts, minds, bandwidths, and pocketbooks of the world’s consumers of popular are India and South Korea. “Bollywood” and “Hallyu” are increasingly competing with “Hollywood”―either replacing it or filling a void in places where it never held sway.

Pop Empires connects films, music, television serials, stardom, and fandom to nation-building, diasporic identity formation, and transnational capital and labor. The contributors of this anthology examine how popular culture intersects with race, gender, and empire in relation to the global movement of peoples, goods, and ideas.

Please join two of the editors, S. Heijin Lee and Robert Ji-Song Ku, along with special guest Linta Varghese, for the launch of Pop Empires.

RSVP HERE! $5 Suggested Donation at the Door.
No one will be turned away for lack of funds. All donations go to AAWW public programs. The Asian American Writers’ Workshop is a national nonprofit dedicated to the idea that Asian American stories deserve to be told.

S. Heijin Lee is an assistant professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. Her research explores the imperial routes of culture and media. She is the author of The Geopolitics of Beauty, which maps plastic surgery in South Korea, Asia, and Asian America. She is also the co-author of two anthologies—Pop Empires and Fashion and Beauty in the Time of Asia, which tracks fashion and beauty as formations of Asian modernities.

Robert Ji-Song Ku is an associate professor of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University of the State University of New York. His research interests include Asian American studies, food studies, and studies of Korean popular culture. He is the author of Dubious Gastronomy: The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA and co-editor of two anthologies—Pop Empires and Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader. He is currently completing a book tentatively titled, “Korean Food in the Age of K-pop.”

Linta Varghese is an assistant professor in the Center for Ethnic Studies at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. She is currently finishing a project analyzing employer engagement and the caring economy in the domestic workers’ movement in the United States. Her prior research focused on domestic work in the South Asian American community and the economic cultures forged in the relationships between the Indian state and the Indian diaspora. She is a co-editor of a special issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly on the theme of Together that will be published in November 2019.

This event will be live-streamed on the Asian American Writers’ Facebook page.

NOTE ON ACCESSIBILITY
* The space is wheelchair accessible. No stairs. Direct elevator from ground floor to 6th floor.
* We strongly encourage all participants of the space/event to be scent-free.
If you all have any other specific questions about accessibility, please email Tiffany Le at tle@aaww.org with any questions on reserving priority seating.