Mimi Khúc, "dear elia: Letters from the Asian American Abyss" (Duke UP, 2023)
Mar 3, 2024
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Exploring Asian American mental health and challenging academic norms through 'dear Elia'. Discussing the intersections of ableism, model minoritization, and the university. Reflecting on past work and embracing new storytelling approaches. Redefining education post-pandemic and advocating for supportive academic spaces. Highlighting community-based citation practices and engaging prompts for self-reflection.
Mental health in Asian American communities challenges conventional wellness practices.
Critique of academic institutions perpetuating compulsory wellness and hyper-productivity.
Shift towards inclusive pedagogy prioritizes care and flexibility in educational settings.
Deep dives
Wellness on Your Terms with Ollie Gummies
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Taste the Mediterranean at Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market presents a limited-time Mediterranean culinary experience, featuring animal welfare-certified products like bone-in beef short ribs and wild-caught sockeye salmon. The sales on products like Parmigiano Reggiano and ground lamb, alongside olive-bouled bread from the bakery and affordable wines, cater to a diverse food palette.
Discussion on Mental Health with Mimi Cook
Mimi Cook, a prominent figure in mental health arts programming, delves into the complexities of mental health in Asian American communities. Through her works like 'Dear Elia' and 'Open In Emergency,' she challenges the conventional notions of well-being, critiquing systems like the mental health profession and academia while advocating for collective care and self-reflection.
Pedagogy of Unwellness in Education
Exploring the concept of 'Pedagogy of Unwellness,' Mimi uncovers how academic institutions perpetuate notions of compulsory wellness and hyper-productivity. She questions the impact of such structures on student well-being, emphasizing the need to prioritize care and mutual support in educational settings.
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Teaching Practices
The pandemic exposed existing shortcomings in traditional educational practices, prompting a reassessment of classroom environments. Mimi reflects on the shift towards accommodating diverse student needs and reevaluating syllabi through an anti-ableist lens, highlighting the importance of embracing care and flexibility in pedagogy.
Mimi Khúc is a PhD, writer, scholar, and teacher of things unwell. She is currently the Co-Editor of The Asian American Literary Review and an adjunct lecturer in Disability Studies at Georgetown University. Her work includes Open in Emergency, a hybrid book-arts project decolonizing Asian American mental health; the Asian American Tarot, a reimagined deck of tarot cards; and the Open in Emergency Initiative, an ongoing national project developing mental health arts programming with universities and community spaces.
Her new creative-critical, genre-bending book on mental health and a pedagogy of unwellness, dear elia: Letters from the Asian American Abyss (Duke University Press, 2024), is a journey into the depths of Asian American unwellness at the intersections of ableism, model minoritization, and the university, and an exploration of new approaches to building collective care.
Julia H. Lee is professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of three books: Interracial Encounters: Reciprocal Representations in African and Asian American Literatures, 1896-1937 (New York University Press, 2011), Understanding Maxine Hong Kingston (University of South Carolina Press, 2018), and The Racial Railroad (New York University Press, 2022). With Professor Josephine Lee, she is co-editor of Asian American Literature in Transition, 1850-1930 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2022. You can find her on Instagram @julia.x.lee.