Shows
APA Religions 101Japanese, Jewish, Queer, and Clergy with Rev. Laura CheifetzJapanese, Jewish, Queer, and Clergy with Rev. Laura Cheifetz Bradley Onishi interviews Reverend Laura Mariko Chaffetz, discussing her experiences as a multiracial queer Asian American Christian minister with Jewish heritage. They examine how APA religious communities navigate the black-white binary in the U.S., the impact of anti-Asian racism during the pandemic, and the dynamics of Christian identity in various contexts. The conversation highlights the importance of recognizing and valuing the diverse and rich religious practices among Asian Pacific Americans.Laura Cheifetz is the co-author and editor of "Church on Purpose: Reinventing Discipleship, Community, & Justice" (J...2024-06-1033 min
APA Religions 101Caste Privilege in the United States and India with Dr. Himanee GuptaBrad speaks with Dr. Himanee Gupta, Professor in the Department of Historical Studies at SUNY Empire State and the author of "Muncie, India(na): Middletown and Asian America," about howt South Asians in the United States who grew up in the Hindu faith are caste-privileged or savarna (which means having varna, a term often equated to having spiritual purity). By contrast, Dalits like Soundararajan are avarna (without varna) and thereby deemed within this system as impure. These categorizations have found legitimacy through the promulgation of a Brahmanical form of Hinduism that shares affinities with the conservative pro-Hindu politics of...2024-06-1038 min
APA Religions 101Beyond Whiteness: Conservatism and Fascism in Asian American Evangelical and Catholic Communities with Drs. Jane Hong and Adrian De LeonMany wonder how and why religious minorities in the USA adopt conservative – and even fascist – political identities when it seems that the American Right is anti-immigrant and in many cases explicitly racist. Scholars Dr. Jane Hong (Occidental) and Dr. Adrian de Leon (USC/NYU) argue that Asian American (religious) conservatism should be understood not just as an imported phenomenon from outside these communities, but as something structural within the formation of Asian America itself.Special Issue of Amerasia: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00447471.2023.2167934Dr. Jane Hong is the author of Opening the Gates...2024-06-1041 min
APA Religions 101Asian Americans and Affirmative Action with Dr. Janelle WongIn June 2023, the SCOTUS ruled that race cannot be used in the college admissions process. Many in and outside of the Asian American community see the ruling as positive for Asian American students who are supposedly disadvantaged by affirmative action policies. Brad talks with Dr. Janelle Wong of the University of Maryland about what the data tells us concerning Asian American acceptance rates, how this ruling will affect BIPOC Americans on the whole, and the ways the model minority myth is used to divide and conquer people of color and Black Americans in the United States.Dr...2024-06-1032 min
Straight White American JesusBetween Mother India and Jim Crow with Philip DeslippeBrad speaks with journalist and scholar Philip Deslippe about the origins of yoga in the United States as a response to the precarity of South Asian lives in 20th century America. "A century ago, students of yoga in the United States, like many practitioners today, believed that they were engaging in something pure, ancient, and Indian. In reality, the yoga they were doing was a bricolage of the metaphysical and mundane presented to them in an exotic, Orientalized package by largely educated and worldly immigrants from India. These teachers were themselves responding and adapting to a nativist and racist cl...2024-06-0542 minPremium Ad-Free: Straight White American JesusBetween Mother India and Jim Crow with Philip DeslippeBrad speaks with journalist and scholar Philip Deslippe about the origins of yoga in the United States as a response to the precarity of South Asian lives in 20th century America. "A century ago, students of yoga in the United States, like many practitioners today, believed that they were engaging in something pure, ancient, and Indian. In reality, the yoga they were doing was a bricolage of the metaphysical and mundane presented to them in an exotic, Orientalized package by largely educated and worldly immigrants from India. These teachers were themselves responding and adapting to a nativist and racist cl...2024-06-0542 min
APA Religions 101Between Mother India and Jim Crow with Philip DeslippeBrad speaks with journalist and scholar Philip Deslippe about the origins of yoga in the United States as a response to the precarity of South Asian lives in the 20th century America. "A century ago, students of yoga in the United States, like many practitioners today, believed that they were engaging in something pure, ancient, and Indian. In reality, the yoga they were doing was a bricolage of the metaphysical and mundane presented to them in an exotic, Orientalized package by largely educated and worldly immigrants from India. These teachers were themselves responding and adapting to a nativist and ra...2024-06-0438 min
APA Religions 101Beyond Whiteness: Conservatism and Fascism in Asian American Evangelical and Catholic Communities with Drs. Jane Hong and Adrian De LeonBeyond Whiteness: Conservatism and Fascism in Asian American Evangelical and Catholic Communities with Drs. Jane Hong and Adrian De Leon2024-06-0341 min
APA Religions 101Filipino Theology Between Asian America and the United States with Dr. Gabriel CatanusBrad speaks with Dr. Gabriel Catanus, Affiliate Assistant Professor of Theology at Fuller Seminary and Director of the Filipino American Ministry Initiative, about the challenges and joys of doing Filipino American theology and ministry and how they fit - and stand out - from other Asian American theological and ministry paradigms.Beyond his current project with Cascade Books, Dr. Catanus' publications include “Colonial Spirituality: The Pain and Politics of Doing Filipino American Theology,” ChristianityNext 6 (Winter 2022), “Statement on Anti-Asian Racism in the Time of COVID-19″ (coauthored with the Asian American Christian Collaborative, March 31, 2020), and “Is Filipino Ame...2024-06-0332 min
APA Religions 101Fighting Racism with the Wisdom of the Sikh Tradition with Dr. Simran Jeet SinghBrad speaks with Dr. Simran Jeet Singh , Executive Director for the Aspen Institute’s Religion & Society Program and author of The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life.As a boy growing up in South Texas, Simran Jeet Singh and his brothers confronted racism daily: at school, in their neighborhood, playing sports, and later in college and beyond. Despite the prejudice and hate he faced, this self-described “turban-wearing, brown-skinned, beard-loving Sikh” refused to give in to negativity. Instead, Singh delved deep into the Sikh teachings that he grew up wit...2024-06-0329 min
APA Religions 101A Vietnamese American Muslim Theologian at a Catholic Funeral with Dr. Martin NguyenBrad speaks with Dr. Martin Nguyen, who explains how his personal story impacts his understanding race, theology, culture, and heritage.As he explains, "t is difficult for me to imagine doing theology, then, without also considering who I am—my being Vietnamese, Asian, American, once Catholic, and now Muslim. Race and religion are entangled in the narrative of my life. They even shape my childhood memories as a son of Vietnamese Catholic refugees, born and raised in Virginia."Dr. Nguyen is a scholar of Muslim theology and Islamic studies. Hi...2024-06-0329 min
APA Religions 101Before and Beyond Whiteness: Asian American Buddhists - with Dr. Funie Hsu and Chenxing HanBrad speaks with Dr. Funie Hsu and Chenxing Han about race, heritage, and Asian American Buddhisms. They discuss the ways Asian American Buddhists are often misunderstood in the United States due to the incomplete representation of Buddhism in American culture and the contemporary predominance of Whiteness in Buddhist spaces.Dr. Funie Hsu is currently Associate Professor of American Studies at San José State University and was a former University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Davis. Her first book, Instructions for (Erasing) Empire: English, Domestication, and the US Colonization of th...2024-06-0243 min
APA Religions 101IntroductionAn introduction to Asian and Pacific American religions through interviews with experts and practitioners. Host Dr. Bradley Onishi speaks with APA scholars about:Asian American CatholicismAsian American Buddhism before and beyond WhitenessFighting racism with the wisdom of Sikh teachingsDoing Muslim theology as a Vietnamese AmericanAsian American evangelicals in the MAGA AgeThe challenges of creating Filipino religious communitiesRace, Jim Crow, and the origins of modern yogaCaste privilege in the United States and IndiaAsian Americans and Affirmative ActionRacialized CapitalismBeing Jewish, Japanese, queer and clergyLearn more about APARRI. A...2024-06-0103 min