My book talk at Stanford University

On Thursday October 17, 2024, I had the great pleasure of delivering a talk at Stanford University about my recently published book, Refiguring Race and Risk: Counternarratives of Care in the US Security State. Held in the conference room of Stanford's Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE), the event was a great success, attracting an audience of nearly 50 people attending both in person and virtually.

After giving a high-level overview of the book's argument and methodology, I illustrated the book's central queries by providing a close reading of Japanese American internee Miné Okubo's 1946 graphic memoir Citizen 13660. My talk was followed by a robust Q&A moderated by Dr. Paula Moya, CCSRE Director and Professor of English at Stanford. During this conversation, attendees asked me a range of provocative questions, such as why I chose to take a comparative analytical approach by examining differing literary genres and ethno-racial groups, if I could unpack further examples from the book of how I theorize literary resistance against the state's harmful racialization of risk management, and how we might challenge repressive security regimes when the very act of speaking truth to power can place us at risk of punishment. Following this robust conversation, I enjoyed mingling with attendees and signing copies of the book supplied by the Stanford University Bookstore.

This event would not have been possible without the support of many in the Stanford community. I extend deep gratitude to the event's three co-sponsors, the CCSRE, the Asian American Research Center at Stanford (AARCS), and the Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR). In addition, special thanks goes to AARCS Program Associate Chali Lee, who helped with organizing and publicity, my PWR colleague Jennifer Stonaker, who was instrumental in running and moderating the Zoom, and the Stanford University Bookstore, which managed book sales during the event.

Below is the Zoom recording of the full talk and Q&A.