The project is focused on second generation Cambodian-Americans and Vietnamese-Americans and their process of reconciliation and remembrance of the war and genocide. At this point of the project we need surveys to be filled out by second generation Cambodian-Americans or Vietnamese-Americans who are between the ages of 18-25. All completed surveys can by e-mailed to LTAING@BERKELEY.EDU
Thank you. Your participation is greatly appreciated.
If you have any questions or comments about the project please feel free to contact Leana Taing at LTAING@BERKELEY.EDU
War, History, and Remembrance Project
This is a national research project that is sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley. Currently, we are collecting survey responses to examine family narratives and the transmission of historical and cultural memory in the Southeast Asian American communities. Also, this project looks at the act of remembering in post-war Cambodian and Vietnamese families in the US. In critically examining the relationship between historical trauma, memory, and healing, the study investigates the mediating roles of gender and generation in the process of reconciling with losses and of remembering. It explores the following questions:
1. How are the memories of war and losses preserved, mourned, and transmitted in the Cambodian and Vietnamese families in the US?
2. Are there differences between acts and processes of remembrance in diaspora and in Southeast Asia?
3. What roles, if any, do gender and generation play in these processes?
4. Specifically in the case of the Cambodian genocide, what bearing, if any, do they have on the notions of justice and healing?
Khatharya Um received her Ph. D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and is at present Associate Professor in the Asian American Studies Program at Berkeley. Her dissertation research was on nationalism and communism in Cambodia. She has written and published extensively on the politics and developments in Southeast Asia, particularly Indochina, and has participated in many international conferences on the Pacific Rim. She brings to the field of Asian American Studies an emphasis on the socio-historical and comparative approaches to refugee and migration studies. Her current research interests focus on transnational and on cultural transmission in the context of population dislocation.
In addition to her academic work, Professor Um is also actively involved in community advocacy, principally on issues of social and educational equity for linguistically and culturally diverse students and their families. She is presently the Executive Vice-President of the National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese Americans and a board member of the Cambodian Network Council. She is also an advisory board member of the National Coalition of Advocates of Students.