York University Assistant Professor Jessica Tsui-yan Li (Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies) contributed to Chinese Canadian studies in her recently published edited volume The Transcultural Streams of Chinese Canadian Identities (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019).

Focusing on the geopolitical and economic circumstances that have prompted migration from Hong Kong and mainland China to Canada, this book examines the Chinese Canadian community as a simultaneously transcultural, transnational, and domestic social and cultural formation.

York contributors include Li, Professor Lily Cho (English), Professor Lucia Lo (geography), Professor Guida Man and graduate student Elena Chou (sociology).

“I am very delighted to see the publication of this book, thanks to the great support of my fabulous colleagues,” said Li. “This research volume engages the leading scholars of the field of Chinese Canadian studies and organizes our scholarship into a sustained and influential dialogue. I will continue to contribute positively to a vigorous research agenda that will reflect well on York University.”

Taking an innovative interdisciplinary approach to the ways in which Chinese Canadians adapt to and construct the Canadian multicultural mosaic, the book explores various patterns of Chinese cultural interchanges in Canada and how they intertwine with the community’s sense of disengagement and belonging.

Essays in this volume argue that Chinese Canadians, a population that has produced significant cultural imprints on Canadian society, have constantly redefined their identities as manifested in social science, literary and historical spheres. These perpetual negotiations reflect social and cultural ideologies and practices and demonstrate Chinese Canadians’ recreations of their self-perception, self-expression and self-projection in relation to others. Contextualized within larger debates on multicultural society and specific Chinese Canadian cultural experiences, this book considers diverse cultural presentations of literary expression, the “model minority” and the influence of gender and profession on success and failure, the gendered dynamics of migration and the growth of transnational (“astronaut”) families in the 1980s, and inter-ethnic boundary crossing.

“This book provides a composite view of Chinese Canadian identities, characterized by performativity, fluidity and diversity, transcending many cultural and national boundaries,” said Li. “Chinese Canadians negotiate their transcultural identities historically, socially and culturally, and thus resulting in continuous multidimensional cultural exchanges, from institutional racism to the gradual adaptation and co-construction of a culturally diverse Canadian society.”

The book is the product of an earlier workshop on cultural translation and Chinese Canadian studies organized by Li and hosted by the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR). The workshop included senior scholars, emerging academics, graduate and undergraduate students, as well as community and business leaders whose work leads them to focus on cross-cultural encounters, movements across borders, processes of displacement and historical change.

The collection was published with support from YCAR and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, as well as the Asian Institute at the University of Toronto and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council.

The Department of Sociology will mark the release of 11 new books by faculty members during a collective book launch on Oct. 23, from 12 to 2 p.m. in Vari Hall’s second-floor staff lounge, Room 2169. There will be a panel discussion and light refreshments will be served.

Faculty launching their books at the event include:

Professor Pat Armstrong, with her book The Privatization of Care. The Case of Nursing Homes (Routledge, 2019). Co-edited with Hugh Armstrong, this book documents moves toward nursing home privatization in six countries and the subsequent consequences.

Armstrong will also launch a second book, co-edited with Ruth Lowndes, called Creative Teamwork: Developing Rapid, Site-Switching Ethnography (Oxford University Press, 2018), which is based on a seven-year project studying best practices at care homes.

Associate professors Deborah Brock, Aryn Martin, Mark Thomas and Rebecca Raby (Brock University) are releasing the second edition of their co-edited volume Power and Everyday Practices (University of Toronto Press, 2019), which uses sociological texts to relate students’ everyday experiences to larger social, political and economic processes.

Brock will also launch Governing the Social in Neoliberal Times (University of British Columbia Press, 2019). The book focuses on how neoliberalism has transformed how we consider our own achievements and how we understand others; it explores how neoliberalism is influencing our ethical reasoning, and how a climate of fear and uncertainty is feeding our willingness to surrender our rights and freedoms.

Thomas has also co-edited the volume Change and Continuity: Canadian Political Economy in the New Millennium (McGill Queens University Press, 2019). The book is an updated analysis of the political-economic transformations shaping contemporary Canadian society.

Associate Professor Ann H. Kim and graduate student Min-Jung Kwak (York University) will launch Outward and Upward Mobilities: International Students in Canada, Their Families, and Structuring Institutions (University Toronto Press, 2019). This edited collection features work by key scholars in the field and considers international students across Canada.

Associate Professor Radhika Mongia will launch Indian Migration and Empire: A Colonial Genealogy of the Modern State (Duke University Press, 2018), which asks critical questions about colonial Indian migration and how states came to monopolize control over migration.

Associate Professor Marcello Musto will launch Marx’s Capital After 150 Years: Critique and Alternative to Capitalism (New York: Routledge, 2019). This edited volume includes the proceedings of the biggest international conference in the world to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Capital’s publication.

Professor Eric Mykhalovskiy and Vivian Namaste (Concordia University) will launch Thinking Differently about HIV/AIDS: Contributions from Critical Social Science (University of British Columbia Press, 2019), which explores the limits of mainstream approaches to the HIV-AIDS epidemic and challenges us to develop alternate solutions.

Associate Professor Hara Singh will launch the Hindi and Marathi translation of Recasting Caste: From the Sacred to the Profane (London: Sage, 2018), which confronts the mainstream sociology of caste system.

Associate Professor and Chair Lesley Wood has co-edited the fourth edition of Social Movements 1768-2018 (New York: Routeledge, 2019), a fully updated and revised version of this comprehensive volume of social movements throughout history.

Everyone is welcome to attend and all books will be available for purchase.