APARRI 2009


Lost in Transnationalism:  Pacific and Asian North American Religions in a Globalized World

 

2009.August.6-8

Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA

 

The 2009 conference marks APARRI’s first return to Southern California since the network’s initial two gatherings in Santa Barbara in 1999 and 2000.  This year’s conference emphasizes transnational connections and their relationships to religion and, in particular, the Los Angeles area as a site of global transactions.

 

Since 1999, the annual APARRI gatherings have been opportunities for scholars and community leaders involved in work on issues of Asian American and Pacific Islander religion to share research, exchange ideas, and build relationships in a relaxed, supportive conference setting. Emphasis is placed on the development of APA religious studies as a field, the encouragement of emerging scholarship, and the mentoring of scholars and leaders.

 

APARRI 2009 is organized by the PANA Institute at Pacific School of Religion and is co-sponsored and hosted by Claremont McKenna College.

 

Sections to follow below:

This Web page will be continually updated with the latest conference details, presentation abstracts, and logistics information.

  

2009 CONFERENCE THEME

At the end of the first decade of the 21st century global connections of all sorts are receiving more heightened attention than ever before.  The incoming Obama administration is the subject of worldwide scrutiny, not simply because it assumes the White House at a time when U.S. influence on the international stage is met with more ambivalence than it has in a century, but also because the election of an African American signals a sea change in the evolution of American democracy and, consequently, new prospects for democracies all around the globe; the American economy’s precipitous decline over the past year has had the effects not only of American jobs lost, American consumer power diminished, and American companies put at risk, but has negatively impacted the valuations of real property, labor, and investment and expansion opportunities worldwide; and escalating tensions in Southwest Asia, southern Africa, and elsewhere suggest that international interventions and population migrations will be no less an aspect of the early 21st century than it was in the last decades ofthe 20th.  In this context of global connectedness, APARRI 2009 asks what role religion plays in the unfolding of new transnational regimes.  Of what significance is the religious to those crossing national and cultural borders?  How does the networked nature of the world at the end of the first decade of the 21st century impact the expression of religion in America?  Of what significance is the global to the spiritual and vice-versa?

 

Entitled “Lost in Transnationalism: Pacific Asian North American Religions in a Globalized World,” the 2009 conference will be held August 6-8 on the campus of Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, CA.  Located in the Greater Los Angeles region, the conference site emphasizes LA’s roles as a “global city” and a “gateway city” and highlights California’s place in trans-Pacific networks.  For Plenary I on Thursday evening Aug/6, filmmaker Valerie Soe and Prof. Russell Jeung will screen their new video documentary Oak Park Story, about three families negotiating class, culture, and race at a low-income apartment complex in East Oakland, CA. Plenary II on Friday afternoon Aug/7 will feature a panel with various institutional perspectives on the connection between transnationalism and religion in the immediate Los Angeles area.  And Plenary III on Saturday afternoon (Aug/8) will offer insights on faith in a globalized world from within the APARRI academic network.  Concurrent sessions will showcase research-in-progress, and structured mentoring sessions will be available for students and junior faculty members.

  

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Unless otherwise indicated, conference activities will be held in the Founder’s Room in the Bauer Center-North Building at Claremont McKenna College (500 E. Ninth St., Claremont, CA  91711).

 

Thursday.2009.August.6

5:30 PM  Dinner Reception

6:30 PM  Conference Opening

7:00 PM  Plenary I:  Oak Park Story

Presenters:

  • Valerie Soe, San Francisco State University
  • RussellJeung, Ph.D., San Francisco State University

9:00 PM  Organizers’ Introduction

 

Friday.2009.August.7

8:00 AM  Continental Breakfast

8:30 AM  Daily Orientation and General Introductions

9:45 AM  Concurrent Session Block A

12:00 N   Lunch

1:30 PM  Plenary II:  Local Perspectives on Transnationalism and Religion

Panelists: 

  • Varun Soni, Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California
  • The Rev. Ken Fong, Evergreen Baptist Church, Rosemead, CA
  • Cecile L. Motus, Assistant Director, Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
  • The Ven. Jue Wei, Hsi Lai Temple
  • Moderator:  Carolyn Chen, Ph.D., Northwestern University 

3:30 PM  Social Hour and Reception

4:30 PM  Mentoring Sessions

6:00 PM  Dinner on participants’ own

 

Saturday.2009.August.8

8:00 AM  Continental Breakfast and Daily Orientation

8:30 AM  Concurrent Session Block B

10:30AM  Break

11:00AM  Concurrent Session Block C

1:00 PM  Lunch

2:30 PM  Plenary III:  Globalization and Faith: Scholarly Reflections

Panelists:

  • Rebecca Kim, Ph.D., Pepperdine University
  • Anjana Narayan, Ph.D., Cal Poly Pomona
  • Sharon Suh, Ph.D. Seattle University
  • Tim Tseng, Ph.D., Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity and University of San Francisco
  • Moderator:  Janelle Wong, Ph.D., University of Southern California  

4:30 PM  Break

4:45 PM  Closing Session

6:30 PM  Closing Banquet

 

PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS

Concurrent Session Block A, Friday Aug/7, 9:45 AM - 11:45 AM

 

Concurrent Session A1 (Bauer South, Room 25):  Religious Diasporic Southeast Asians
Moderator:  Mimi Khuc, University of California, Santa Barbara

Concurrent Session A2 (Bauer South, Room 34):  Culture
Moderator:  Michael Sepidoza Campos, Graduate Theological Union

Concurrent Session A3 (Bauer South Room 35):  Justice/Rights
Moderator:  Niccole Coggins, University of California, Santa Barbara

Concurrent Session Block B, Saturday Aug/8, 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM

Concurrent Session B1 (Bauer South, Room 34):
Moderator:  Elizabeth Leung, Pacific School of Religion

Concurrent Session B2 (Bauer South, Room 35):  Space/Place
Moderator:  Chrissy Lau, University of California, Santa Barbara

Concurrent Session Block C, Saturday Aug/8, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Concurrent Session C1 (Bauer South, Room 34):  Big Theology
Moderator:  Helen Kim, Harvard Divinity School

 

REGISTRATION

Registration for APARRI 2009 is required, and registration may be completed either online or with a mail-in registration form. Discounted fees are available to Early Bird registrants (registration by Friday.2009.Jun.12) and to those who register for the entire three-day duration of the conference. 

 

THE EARLY-BIRD REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS FRIDAY.2009.JUN.12.  (Standard registration begins Saturday.2009.Jun.13 and runs through Saturday.2009.Aug.8.)  The registration fee schedule is as follows:

  • Registration for the entire conference:  $60 ($80 for standard registration beginning Jun/13).  
    Includes the following conference meals: Opening Reception, light breakfast on Friday Aug/7 and Saturday Aug/8, lunch on Friday and Saturday
  • Per-day registration:  $45.  Includes conference meals on registered days.

(Registration fees are non-refundable.)

 

In-person registration at the conference will also available. (Please see below for additional information on the Closing Banquet, housing, and student travel stipends.)

 

MEALS provided at the conference include the Opening Reception, a light breakfast on Friday and Saturday mornings, and lunch on Friday and Saturday.  Registration fees cover all conference meals on the day(s) for which participant is registered.  Additionally, conference attendees are invited to join the traditional APARRI Closing Banquet ($25/person) at 6:30 PM on Saturday Aug/8.

 

CONFERENCE HOUSING at the newly completed and design-award-winning Claremont Hall on the Claremont McKenna College campus (#15 on the campus map) is available to APARRI participants at subsidized rates.  All accommodations at Claremont Hall are single-occupancy with shared baths.  The housing fees for all three nights are as follows: 

  • Student:  $75
  • Non-student:  $95.

For conference participants who prefer hotel accommodations nearby (a 5-minute drive or a 15-20-minute walk), APARRI has negotiated a special rate of $109 per night ($119.90 with hotel taxes) at the Doubletree Hotel Claremont.  A choice is available of rooms with two double beds or a king-sized bed, and the hotel offers a pool, fitness center, and spa.  The APARRI rate covers the period from Wednesday Aug/5 through Sunday Aug/9 to accommodate those who may wish to arrive early or depart later.  THE HOTEL RESERVATION DEADLINE IS JUL/12, after which rooms, as available, will be offered at the standard rates of $159-$239.  APARRI participants who wish to stay at the Doubletree should contact the hotel directly, referencing APARRI for the special rate.  Contact information for the hotel is as follows:

 

Doubletree Hotel Claremont
555 W. Foothill Blvd.

Claremont, CA  91711

Tel:  909/626-2411

Fax:  909/624-0756

Web site:  claremont.doubletree.com.

  

STUDENT TRAVEL STIPENDS

Student travel stipends of up to $300 each (towards airfare and mileage only) are available in limited number on a first come/first served basis to students participating in all three days of the conference who apply for the stipends on their registration forms. Priority will be given to students presenting papers or moderating sessions. Students who are awarded the stipends will be notified and should submit their receipts for travel upon arrival at the conference. Reimbursement checks will be issued shortly afterwards.

  

PRESENTATION ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DETAILS

In additionto plenary sessions emphasizing the conference theme, break-out sessions dedicated to the presentation of research-in-progress and small-group discussions on more focused topics is a consistent feature of APARRI conferences.  Participants are encouraged to present individual papers and/or to organize moderated panels (of three to four participants) on their areas of study and engagement. Individual papers are allotted fifteen minutes each for presentation (followed by a ten-minute moderated discussion/question-and-answer period), and panels are allotted a total of one hour each (followed by forty minutes of engagement with the audience).

 

There will be three concurrent-session blocks at this year’s conference:  Concurrent Session Block A on Friday morning Aug/7 and Blocks B and C on Saturday morning Aug/8. Abstracts must be submitted for all papers and panels, and THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS FRIDAY.2009.JUNE.12. Submissions will be considered by a review committee, and applicants will be notified by the committe of its decision. Accepted abstracts will be posted on this Web site. While all presenters of individual papers areeach required to submit an abstract, organizers of discussion panels need submit only a single abstract for their group. To submit an abstract, go to the Presentation Abstract Submission Form Web page, copy the page into an MS Word document, and submit the completed form as an attachment in an e-mail to Christopher Chua at cchua@psr.edu.

All abstract submissions are required to include the following: 

  • The name of the presenter/panel organizer, her/his institutional affiliation, and a contact e-mail address, which unless otherwise requested, will be posted with the abstract on this Web site, so that other interested parties may ask questions or engage the presenter/panel organizer on the topic
  • (For panels only: the names, institutional affiliations, and contact e-mail addresses of the panelists)
  • The paper/panel title
  • A brief one-to three-paragraph description of the paper/panel
  • A listing of audio-visual equipment needs.

 

MENTORING SESSIONS

A key component of APARRI is the nurture of younger scholars and faith community leaders, and the conference is deliberately structured to allow for extensive interaction of persons at different levels in the academy and in faith communities. At this year's conference we will have organized opportunities for students, junior faculty members, and junior-level faith-community leaders to receive mentoring from more senior personnel in their respective areas. Mentoring sessions will be held from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM on Friday Aug/8. Conference participants wishing to receive mentoring should select this option on their registration forms.

  

LOGISTICS INFORMATION

DATES/TIMES:  APARRI 2009 begins with an Opening Reception at 5:30 PM on Thursday Aug/6, and the conference formally ends with the conclusion of the Closing Session at 5:30PM on Saturday Aug/8. Participants are, however, encouraged to join the Closing Banquet at 6:30 PM on Saturday Aug/8. Socializing at this Saturday evening event has become an APARRI tradition.

 

CONFERENCE LOCATION AND DIRECTIONS:  The primary conference site for APARRI 2009 is the campus of Claremont McKennaCollege (CMC) at 500 E. Ninth St., Claremont, CA  91711, #35 on the campus map.  (Driving directions.) The town of Claremont is 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, and the closest airport is Ontario International Airport, 10 miles to the east.  (Ground transportation options from Ontario International.)

 

PARKING:  Parking for conference attendees is available in the lot to the east of Bauer Center-North, the main building we will be using (500 E. Ninth St., Claremont, CA  91711).  The entrance to the lot is on E. Ninth St.

 

HOUSING LOCATION:  Primary conference housing is located at Claremont Hall, #15 on the campus map, on the Claremont McKenna College campus.  Hotel accommodations with APARRI’s special rate are at the Doubletree Hotel Claremont, 555 W. Foothill Blvd., Claremont, CA  91711 (see ‘CONFERENCE HOUSING’ section above for more details).  Both housing locations are within close proximity of Bauer Center-North, the hub for the conference.  (Claremont Hall is less than a 5-minute walk from Bauer Center-North, and the Doubletree Hotel Claremont is a 5-minute drive or a 15-20-minute walk away.)

  

CONTACTING THE CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS

Questions about APARRI 2009 may be directed to APARRI Program Executive Christopher Chua (cchua@psr.edu) or APARRI Program Assistant Eunice Park (epark@psr.edu) at 510/849-8210.

 

The contact telephone number over the dates of the conference (Aug/6-8) is: 909/921-7577.