Professor Mark Driscoll’s forthcoming book, The Whites Are Enemies of Heaven, considers Western imperialism in Asia in the nineteenth century, and proposes a new theory of “climate caucasianism” that links racism with environmental destruction in an innovative matter, demonstrating the close … Read more

Professor Nadia Yaqub’s recent book Palestinian Cinema in the Days of Revolution (University of Texas Press, 2018) situates Palestinian cinema squarely within mid-20th century political cinema. In her introduction, Yaqub writes “Palestinian Cinema in the Days of Revolution is an … Read more

I welcome the opportunity to write a few words about the career of Professor Lawrence D. Kessler who died at his home near Wilmington on August 10. From my first day on campus in the fall of 1975 I was … Read more

Discussions of the possible launch of a graduate program go back more than a decade in our department, and have involved most of the faculty as well as support from peers in other departments. Ultimately the growth of our undergraduate … Read more

T.J. Turner of Kernersville graduated in the spring of 2020, part of this most unusual class of students who were unable to take part in the standard graduation ceremony and departmental celebrations that typically mark the end of the undergraduate … Read more

As of July 1, 2020, the Department of Asian Studies (DAS) is changing its name to the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (DAMES). The faculty voted unanimously in the fall of 2019 to change our name to more … Read more

Ana Vinea, the department’s newest Assistant Professor, describes herself as “a cultural anthropologist of the Middle East with general research and teaching interests in medicine, occult practices, and popular culture.” In the long-form essay below, she explores themes of language, … Read more

Andrew Nenow is a rising senior with an Asian Studies major and a Computer and Information Science major. He hails from Boone, North Carolina, and came to Chapel Hill as a transfer student from Appalachian State University. He recently was … Read more

2020 has brought us the COVID-19 Pandemic, and its attendant rise in both anti-Asian racism and anti-immigrant actions. Socioeconomic inequities have been amplified by the disease and a host of public health policy failures, with the worst outcomes occurring in … Read more

The Department of Asian Studies stands united with our students, university colleagues, and community members against racism and police brutality. We reject systemic bias and violence against people of color. At this moment in particular—amidst anti-Asian discrimination in the age … Read more