Browsing by Author "Hong, Emily"
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- ItemAll That We Are We Carry With Us: Stories and Possibilities of Southeast Asian Organizing(2022) Kaunang, Erica; Hong, EmilyThis project emerged from many questions and emotions I've grappled with through my lived experiences, but are particularly relevant today. As more anti-Asian violence has garnered the attention of people worldwide, it is important now more than ever to explore the complexities of the Asian communities in the U.S. and how we've endured multiple layers of violence. Current discourses surrounding Asian communities emphasize the importance of stopping hate– but what does hate mean? Some even touch upon the importance of stopping Asian violence, but the reality is that these interpersonal acts of violence are rooted in historical patterns of white supremacy, gender violence, and capitalism. And like much of Asian discourses in the US, the experiences and histories of Southeast Asians are homogenized, if not outright erased. In this zine, I collect stories and oral histories from various leaders, organizers, and storytellers from the Southeast Asian diaspora and diving into the local histories and contexts of Philadelphia and New York. While the term Southeast Asian encompasses many different countries and ethnic groups, the stories in this zine come from community members of Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Lao descent. As an Indonesian born and raised in Queens, of Batak and Manadonese descent, many of my reflections are rooted from this particular perspective. How can we trace our various Southeast Asian communities' histories to better understand our needs and potential for organizing? How can we look at Queens, NY and Philadelphia as sites of tensions and transformation for Southeast Asians? How do we process, heal, and organize around the different forms of violence Southeast Asians face in the age of Covid-19? We cannot work through these greater structures of violence without recognizing how these structures manifest in particular ways depending on our local contexts and spaces. We must start with our homes, the people around us, and the spaces we move through everyday in order to build a better future for ourselves.
- ItemChasing the American Dream: How PCDC Provides Aid to Chinese-American Immigrants(2021) Hu, Brian; Hong, EmilyPhiladelphia's Chinatown began when Lee Fong built the first Chinese-owned laundromat in Philadelphia. Once a bachelor society for families trying to flee anti-Chinese sentiment in the West, Philadelphia's Chinatown consisted of a small concentration of the Chinese businesses clustered around Race Street. In the 20th century, Chinatown began to grow and incorporate the many immigrants who moved after the United States' liberalized immigration policies toward the Chinese. From churches to social organizations, the neighborhood and its community strove to improve their new lives, revitalize the local economy, and help new immigrants assimilate to the greater Philadelphia community. However, the neighborhood received many threats to its existence, as Philadelphia's city council has repeatedly threatened the area through urban renewal projects like the Vine Street Renewal Project. But, activist organizations have allowed the community to thrive and persist. This project will help illuminate the ways in which Chinese immigrants cope with the difficulties of assimilation and feelings of disappointment in the United States, and perhaps even offer reasons why many Chinese immigrants may struggle. The hope is that this research will incentivize future scholars to provide more nuanced perspectives of the Chinese immigrant community instead of grouping them into one giant homogenous monolith.
- Item¿Majestad Negra? Understanding Puerto Rican Racial Politics in Philadelphia through Diasporic Performances of Bomba(2020) Spir Rechani, Joseph; Hong, EmilyThis project looks at the intersection between race, national identity, and music within my film, BOMPLÉ, and a récit stemming from an ethnographic encounter during the production process of BOMPLÉ. The film shows the powerful and sonically immersive worlds of Bomba and Plena, two Afro Puerto Rican music genres, and how they evolved from their racialized, highly stigmatized past through the diaspora of Puerto Ricans to North Philadelphia. Through sensory filmmaking and collaborative practices, BOMPLÉ grapples with conversations of racial politics, national identity and diasporic pride. The récit seeks to converse with BOMPLÉ by looking at Bomba as conductor of a constructed, mixed-raced Puerto Rican sense of belonging for islanders living in the diaspora, in a city like Philadelphia. Through a detailed ethnographic vignette, supported by ethnomusicology and personal reflection, the article ultimately grounds itself in the questions, what does it mean to be Puerto Rican; how is Puertoricanness being exhibited and reimagined through Bomba; and how has the blackness of Bomba persisted over time?
- ItemMothering the Patriarchy: An auto-ethnography of three generations of women(2022) Flynn, Fiona; Hong, EmilyThis auto-ethnographic thesis aims to uncover the complex lives of four familial women, cross generationally, to see how patriarchal structures have influenced not only their outlook on life, and femininity, but their practices in raising their own daughters. Through personal interviews, I ask my family members to recall times in which they have experienced sexism in their lives, whether that be in school, the work place, or in daily interactions, to see how those moments may have subsequently affected the ways in which they interacted with their own daughters (or influenced their views of women in general), to be able to fit within the confines of the patriarchal system. I have also included my own personal reflections regarding the interview process, as to not distance myself from those I am analyzing and critiquing. I believe that through my own vulnerability, acknowledging the ways in which I myself have played into and benefitted from the patriarchy, I was able to engage in more raw and open conversations with my family members about their own experiences along the same lines, despite any potentially clouding feelings of shame or regret. I am not using this thesis to critique their actions personally; I am using it to analyze the effects of certain societal structures on the behaviors of women. Overall, this thesis acts as a personalized family study, weaving in feminist and psychoanalytical theory, and anthropological methods to conceptualize the role of the patriarchy in personal and familial relationships.
- Itemskating pretty: contradiction and community in the queer & girl skate scene(2021) Zavala-Arbelaez, Valentina; Hong, EmilyIn this project, I use autoethnography to explore contradiction and community emergent in the queer and girl skate scene from 2017 to 2021. With a focus on my experiences in skate meet-ups, and perceptions of media and commercial representation of girl and queer skaters, I demonstrate how community is maintained and challenged with folks of marginalized genders in skateboarding. Iuse José Esteban Muñoz's notion of queer futurity to analyze moments of bonding in the safe spaces of meet-ups. I posit that meet-ups challenge hegemony within skateboarding and illuminate a queer and inclusive skateboarding future.
- ItemSlow Boats to China(2021) Jia, Jixin; Hong, EmilySlow Boat to China is a film about diasporic body and diasporic consciousness. I casted myself and my friend, Margin Zheng, to together capture a sense of solitude and rootlessness that are entangled with both dream and reality. Besides us, water and boat are also the main characters of this movie. They are historically significant as symbols of the "roots and routes'' of Chinese diaspora, and therefore carry memories, pains and pleasures generation after generation. I did not come to the U.S through a boat, neither did Margin, but that is because we were born in the age of airplanes and high speed railways. Boats are slow, and that is why they are no longer an experience that is available for many. Yet slowness is so important in an age of acceleration, especially for the Chinese diaspora community in the U.S. We are often seen as the agents of transnational capitalism that centers around high mobility and fast accumulation of wealth. This film is made to provide an alternative to that through a deliberate use of slow-pace editing and meditative soundscape.
- ItemThe Portal of Serendipity: Public Libraries, Children's Rooms, and the Importance of Public Space to Caregiver(2024) Dallman, Zora; Hong, EmilyThis thesis offers an exploration of children’s rooms in public libraries as a critical resource for parents and caregivers of young children. Through a case study of the Jones Library in Amherst Massachusetts, I engaged in participant observation and semi-structured interviews to understand the library as both a physical environment as well as a social sphere. I present the library as a portal of serendipity, representing the ways that libraries serve as a necessary and unique third space through providing opportunities to bring together people of multiple ages and multiple needs and create joyful encounters and experiences without any expectations in return. I frame my argument through using an anthropological lens of space and through positioning the library in the current historical moment.
- ItemThe Solution, Not the Problem: The Unseen Experiences of Living with Chronic Illness at Haverford College(2024) Cohen-Shields, Maya; Hong, EmilyIn this thesis, using photovoice methodology, I strive to better understand and find commonalities among the experiences of students with chronic illness, including myself, at Haverford College. With this greater understanding of the ways in which these students cope, function and succeed in a college space, I am able to understand how the ableist foundations of higher education impact students with chronic illnesses, and how their experiences can give insight into moving past those foundations. Through understanding disability models and the concepts of normalization and disability as a problem, I argue that those with chronic illnesses are still pushed into the idea of normalization and “compulsory able-bodiedness” but show by our lived experiences how we are pushing those boundaries and finding ways to still be able to succeed in these spaces. However, what is now needed is for colleges to look to students with chronic illnesses to understand how they can better shift the college’s policies and fundamental functioning to move beyond seeing disability as a problem to be fixed and more as people needing to be included and set up for success within the higher education system itself.