Asia Pacific American and Native American Religions: A Dialogue on Food, Spirituality, and Land
Dana Lloyd | Assistant Professor, Global Interdisciplinary Studies | Villanova University
Elisha Chi | Graduate Student, Theology and Religious Studies | Villanova University
Himanee Gupta | Professor and Associate Department Chair, Historical Studies | Empire State University
SueJeanne Koh | Graduate Futures Program Director | University of California, Irvine
This working group brings into dialogue scholars of Asia Pacific American religions and Native American and Indigenous religions to critically examine the relationship between food, land, and spirituality. Land and spirituality have been central to the study of Native American and Indigenous religions but remain understudied in the academic field of Asian American religions. Bringing these scholarly communities together will allow each of us to learn from each other in ways that have the potential to open new avenues of inquiry in both disciplines and yield new insights. This interdisciplinary working group brings together scholars from various career stages to create a reading group that will meet every month virtually over six months and then meet in person for three days in April 2024 to use fresh insights gained from the reading group to create a collective podcast series and write a white paper, to be disseminated widely.
Keywords: Food, Indigeneity, Land, Native American, Pacific Islanders, Spirituality
Mapping & Exploring Indigeneity in Asian-Pacific Islander-American Religions
Melissa Borja | Associate Professor, American Culture | University of Michigan
Nathan Samayo | Graduate Student, Religion and Society | Princeton Theological Seminary
Quincy Yangh | Graduate Student | Yale School of the Environment
Kai Ngu | Graduate Student, Anthropology and History | University of Michigan
Dakota A. Limón | Graduate Student, Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion | California Institute of Integral Studies
What is “Indigeneity” in Asian and Pacific Islander (API) American communities? Our working group project seeks to map the existing literature on Indigenous API religiosity across the American landscape to expand the field of AAPI Religious Studies. The literature we read will focus on ecology, nationalism, and health which will illuminate how Asian- Pacific Islander- American communities navigate and organize themselves around different social and environmental conditions, structural oppressions, and political commitments. Through hosting guided book readings, group discussions, and author dialogues on Zoom, participants will join us in discussing existing literature on Indigenous API religions and create academic resources to be shared with relevant academic organizations and public scholarship platforms. We will also present our findings at the 2025 AAAS Conference and 2025 APARRI conference. We will increase awareness of existing literature on Indigenous API religiosity and encourage research and mobilization for the decolonization of API communities.
Keywords: Decolonialism, Ecology, Health, Indigeneity, Nationalism