Book talk with Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi (UCLA) with panel discussion and book signing to follow and refreshments will be provided

Tuesday, April 26, 2022
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM (Pacific Time)
Fowler Museum Barbara and Joseph Goldenberg Terrace
308 Charles E Young Dr N
Los Angeles, CA 90024

Author: Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi (UCLA)

Discussants: Keith Camacho (UCLA), Thu-Huong Nguyen-Vo (UCLA), and Loubna Qutami (UCLA)

Books will be on sale at the event. Payment can be made with credit card only.

What happens when refugees encounter Indigenous sovereignty struggles in the countries of their resettlement?

From April to November 1975, the US military processed over 112,000 Vietnamese refugees on the unincorporated territory of Guam; from 1977 to 1979, the State of Israel granted asylum and citizenship to 366 non-Jewish Vietnamese refugees. Archipelago of Resettlement analyzes these two cases to theorize what Gandhi calls the refugee settler condition: the fraught positionality of refugee subjects whose resettlement in a settler colonial state is predicated upon the unjust dispossession of an Indigenous population. This groundbreaking book traces two forms of critical geography: first, archipelagos of empire, examining how the Vietnam War is linked to the US military build-up in Guam and unwavering support of Israel, and second, corresponding archipelagos of resistance, tracing how Chamorro decolonization efforts and Palestinian liberation struggles are connected through the Vietnamese refugee figure. Thinking through distinct yet overlapping modalities of refugee and Indigenous displacement, Gandhi offers tools for imagining emergent forms of decolonial solidarity between refugee settlers and Indigenous peoples.

Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi is an assistant professor of Asian American Studies at UCLA. Her interdisciplinary research engages critical refugee studies, settler colonial studies, and transpacific studies. Her first book, Archipelago of Resettlement: Vietnamese Refugee Settlers and Decolonization across Guam and Israel-Palestine, published by University of California Press, examines Vietnamese refugee resettlement in Guam and Israel-Palestine as a means to trace two forms of critical geography: first, archipelagos of empire — how the Vietnam War is linked to US military build-up in Guam and unwavering support of Israel; and second, corresponding archipelagos of resistance — how Chamorro decolonization efforts and Palestinian liberation struggles are connected via the Vietnamese refugee figure. This project analyzes what she calls the “refugee settler condition”: the vexed positionality of refugee subjects whose very condition of political legibility via citizenship is predicated upon the unjust dispossession of an Indigenous population. You can check out Dr. Gandhi’s films on Vimeo.  She also hosts a podcast, Distorted Footprints, through her Critical Refugee Studies class. 

NOTE ON IN-PERSON EVENTS: Patrons attending events at UCLA must comply with all applicable UCLA COVID-19 protocols. We ask that you wear a face mask during the event when not eating or drinking. Please sign in at the the door before entering the event venue.

Cost : All are welcome

Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Asian American Studies Center, Asian American Studies Department , Critical Refugee Studies Collective