One with my research

So this post continues the thread begun yesterday over the question of an authorial voice. I speculated and rhetorically questioned whether I, or anyone else for that matter, had the right to research and write about issues that did not match my personal identity. (click here for yesterday's post)

Again, let me be clear, I agree with one of the commenters who avowed that one's subject position and one's research should never be thought to be one and the same. In other words, I think most everyone would agree that it would be ludicrous for someone to tell me that I couldn't teach Jane Austen just because I wasn't a white British woman (or a white person in general). But at the same time, I am well aware that when I walk into my Introduction to Asian American Literature course, the students often expect to see someone who looks like "me" and when I ask them how they would feel if they walked in and saw a white male professor, many disclosed that the credibility of the instructor would fall short based on their preconceived ideas about the "experience" of the instructor as a non-Asian American person versus those of a visible Asian American person.

It does turn out that I am one with my research, as the title of this post states. But it's also true, and more important for my scholarly credibility as well as classroom authority, that my TRAINING has been in the area of Asian American studies and Asian American literature.

A very well-intentioned and beloved former mentor of mine in graduate school, Professor "A" once gently told me that I should not feel pressure to study Asian American literature just because I identify as Asian American--that I was free to study any topic of my choosing. I took what he said as a testament of the times and his own liberal views of the world because I know there are stories from colleagues of mine (and stories that continue to this very day) of departments who pigeon hole graduate students of color into studying African American literature if they are black, Jewish American literature if they are Jewish, and in my case, Asian American literature because I'm Asian American. Or there is an expectation in a job search for 19th century American poetry that the Asian American candidate can be a two-fer and teach both Emily Dickinson and Maxine Hong Kingston--when really, just because a person visibly presents as Asian American doesn't mean that (a) That person identifies as Asian American and more importantly (b) That person has any valuable TRAINING and EXPERIENCE in teaching Asian American literature.

I tried to make this known to a well-intentioned colleague who, on discovering that I was joining the faculty at Southern U. exclaimed that the students would be glad to finally have someone to teach Asian American literature because my predecessor, a lovely man in the Asian Studies department, had taken on the task of teaching an Asian American literature course at the behest of a group of very activist Asian American students. But these students had been decidedly disappointed because my colleague, an older Chinese man (who identifies as Chinese and not Asian American) is trained in classical Chinese poetry and not Asian American literature. My colleague claimed that I, an authentic representation of Asian American-ness, would be able to "relate" to my students better than my predecessor. To which I replied that my PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES teaching Asian American studies classes would certainly benefit students who wished to learn about Asian American literature. I left alone her implication that only Asian American students would find their way into an Asian American lit course and that only I, an "authentic" representation of Asian American-ness would be able to "speak" to them on their level.

[Aside--you can well imagine that at a place like Southern U. I am not teaching classes only filled with Asian American students, although in all fairness I do admit to teaching one first-year seminar on globalization and global Asians (yes, very punny) that was 50% Asian American students, a first for me here since most of my classes have some Asian American representation (as well as African American and Latino) but remain predominantly white. And to the best of my knowledge, I've been able to "relate" to all of them just fine]

I think I'll end with all of that, only to demonstrate that our beliefs and desires about "authenticity" are often tricky--and I share some of those same desires and beliefs, even while questioning them and trying to resist them.