2026 Circle of Asian American Literary Studies Conference

This week started off with a bang! For the past two days, June 22-23, 2026, I participated in the fourth biennial virtual conference hosted by the Circle of Asian American Literary Studies (CAALS). As a current CAALS board member, I chose to serve on the virtual conference organizing committee throughout this 2025-26 academic year, which has involved collaborating with fellow CAALS board members Timothy K. August, Leland Tabares, Julia H. Lee, GJ Sevillano, and Karen Siu to plan a two-day slate of panels and roundtables about current trends in Asian American literary studies.

The conference started on Monday, June 20th with a roundtable called "Half-Baked Ideas," in which presenters shared about their ongoing, early-stage research in a workshop-style setting. After each presentation, attendees were invited to offer feedback and questions to assist presenters with developing their projects further. I served as both the moderator for this roundtable and one of the presenters alongside Nancy Carranza, Rajender Kuar, Hyo Kyung Woo, and Maile Young. I greatly appreciated receiving feedback from attendees about the initial ideas for my current book project, Mixed Race Mourning: Double Loss and the Search for Cultural Belonging in Multiracial Asian and Black American Literature. It was also truly inspirational to hear my fellow panelists share about their innovative current research projects.

With my fellow presenters on the "Half-Baked Ideas" roundtable.

The rest of the conference continued to offer even more critical insights and cherished community. It was a true honor to listen to renowned author Karen Tei Yamashita (in conversation with CAALS member Christine Kitano) share about her latest book, Questions 27 & 28 (2026). I also took great inspiration from the sessions on Tuesday, June 23rd. The first was a panel called "Writing Right Now," in which early-career Asian American studies scholars GJ Sevillano, So Young Koo, Karen Siu, Olivia Matsuoka, and Chris Lee shared their latest research on topics as diverse as Asian American speculative fiction, queer Filipino cookbook writing, Cinderella stories, Vietnamese refugee narratives, and Asian American conservatism and counter-activism. The conference ended with a riveting conversation between Mai-Linh Hong and Sameer Panya, two tenured professors who have successfully published works of fiction and poetry, about how to bridge the seeming divide between academic and creative writing. I am truly honored to be part of such a richly intellectual, innovative, and caring community of scholars!