Description
Book SynopsisDeconstructs stereotypes and cultural assumptions made by non- South Asians and South Asians alike
Trade Review"The authors address different social mores for women and men, as well as organizations created to support progressive world agendas and help individuals. Highly recommended."
* Choice *
"It's directly relevant to the immigration debate being waged at a national level. In particular, it reveals how policies such as the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 continue to dictate who gets to come to the U. S. in terms of country."
-- Shiwani Srivastava * International Examiner *
"The resulting interviews were so rich in life experience and so telling in diasporic drama . . . Amy Bhatt and Nalini Iyer have collaborated to share some of these stories in book form and provide context for them within the bigger picture of Pacific Northwest history."
-- Barbara Lloyd McMichael * Bellingham Herald *
"A timely intervention in the field of South Asian diaspora studies . . . this study veritably nuances and complicates the prototypes of South Asian immigrant narratives made popular by fictions of Jhumpa Lahiri and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, to offer an account that, in its diversity and rich detail, is going to be of seminal interest to students and scholars across disciplines."
-- Sreyoshi Sarkar * South Asian Review *
"An intimate, transnational narrative that sheds light on the political turmoil that pushed many emigrants out of their countries in South Asia and the educational and professional opportunities that pulled them to the Pacific Northwest. . . . [A] readable and captivating narrative."
-- Jennifer Macias * Pacific Northwest Quarterly *
"Informative, insightful, and a model for using oral histories as the primary narrative mechanism for driving a publication that has appeal for scholars as well as more general readership. . . . I recommend Roots and Reflections to anyone who considers collaboration to be an opportunity for rethinking methodologies in the social sciences and humanities as well as an integral component to feminist praxis. Overall, the book offers an exceptional model for using oral histories as well as archival material in a manner that is respectful to the narrators and both engaging and informative to the reader."
-- Sarah Dziedzic * Oral History Review *
"Roots and Reflections is an accessible and engaging text. It would be useful in undergraduate courses on Asian American history and help generate productive discussions in other courses about methodology, specifically oral history and community-based scholarship."
-- Seema Sohi * American Historical Review *
Table of ContentsForeword by Deepa Banerjee
Preface
Introduction: Situating Stories
An Introduction to South Asian Communities in the Pacific Northwest
1. “Finding Traces of Our Existence Here”: Pre-World War Two South Asian Migrations
2. Routes and Roots: Stories of Departure and Arrival
3. Creating Professional Classes: Education and Training
4. All in a Day’s Work: Employment, Migration, and Identity
5. Falling from the Tree: Family, Gender, and Generational Differences
6. Seeds Take Root: Growing South Asian Communities in the Pacific Northwest
Epilogue: Meditations on Methodologies
Appendix 1. Interviews in the South Asian Oral History Project
Appendix 2. Narrator Biographies
Notes
References
Index
