Falguni A. Sheth presents “Technologies of Race and South Asian American Identity” as part of the Philosopher’s Holiday Lecture series.

Is “South Asian” a racial category in the same way that African American is, or in the same way that Muslim identity has been racialized? Sheth examines how racialization shapes South Asian American identity through narratives of “good” and “bad” immigrants. She explores how residence and visa status, including guest worker visas and claims for asylum or refuge, become markers used to categorize and marginalize populations. By contrast, narratives of “good South Asians” extend beyond the “model minority” myth to reinforce the “good immigrant” ideal and the image of a “nation of immigrants.”

Sheth is the chair of Emory University’s Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and holds a degree in philosophy. Her research examines the intersections of violence, security, and political ontology, focusing on race and racialization as strategies for managing populations. Her work brings together philosophy of race, critical race theory, postcolonial feminist theory, and political philosophy to expand feminist theory to include “feminist security studies of race.”

The Philosopher’s Holiday Lecture is sponsored by the Philosophy Department.

Campus community only, please.