In this episode, we are joined by Prof. Andrea Mendoza, Assistant Professor of Japanese and Comparative Literature at the University of California, San Diego. Professor Mendoza's work combines the studies of 20th and 21st century East Asian and Latin American literatures and visual cultures; transpacific studies; feminist and gender studies; critical race studies; and intellectual history. Her current projects focus on developing an intersectional and transpacific approach to comparing philosophical, literary, and cinematic discourses on race and racism in Mexico and Japan and their role in constituting ideas about national identity in the twentieth century. Prof. Mendoza is joined in conversation with JSAP contributors Sophie Hasuo, Rachel Willis, Harrison Watson, and Prof. Reginald Jackson. Topics of discussion include: identifications and positionality; growing up in Mexico and New Jersey as a racialized migrant; attending primarily white schools; Orientalism; Black feminist theory and scholarship; The Bridge Called My Back; Sara Ahmed; micro- and macro-aggressions in the academy; Othering in Japanese Studies; Abe Sada; Prof. Mendoza's article "Nonencounter as Relation;" transpacific studies; antiracist practice and pedagogy; undisciplinary shifts; astrology. 

To learn more about Professor Mendoza's research, please watch her JSAP webinar, "Confronting the “Ends” of Area: On Transpacific Accountability" or read her article "Nonencounter as Relation: Cannibals and Poison Women in the Consumption of Difference" in Verge: Studies in Global Asias. She is on twitter @andbrea_m.

This podcast is created with generous support from the University of Michigan’s Center for Japanese Studies.  Recording, editing, and transcription support came from Reginald Jackson, Justin Schell, Sophie Hasuo, Rachel Willis, Harrison Watson, Robin Griffin, and Allison Alexy. Please see the Japanese Studies and Antiracist Pedagogy homepage for more information.