This micro-seminar presents a brief overview of Trans-Pacific Studies through which we explore diverse intersections between Asia and Latin America from historical, literary and cultural perspectives. We will discuss the ways in which Asian immigrants have contributed to the making of contemporary Latin America. A particular attention will be paid to the historical presence of the Chinese in Mexico and Cuba, as well as that of the Japanese in Peru and Argentina. Topics for discussion may include, Global South, modernity, diaspora, immigrant identity, historical memory, (trans)nationalism, (post)colonialism, and race and ethnicity.
Taught in English.
Offered as part of SPAN 980, but open to all regardless of enrollment in the course. Open to all interested students, faculty, and members of the Yale community
The microseminar will consist of two three-hour sessions, the first on Wednesday, November 9 and the second on Thursday, November 10 from 4:00-7:00 PM in HQ 359. Register here.
View the course syllabus here. For permission to access the readings, which can be downloaded from the “Files” page of the SPAN 980 Canvas page; students and attendees should email anibal.gonzalez@yale.edu to be added to the course page.
More About Koichi Hagimoto
Wellesley College, Associate Professor of Spanish
My first book, Between Empires: Martí, Rizal and the Intercolonial Alliance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), compares the anti-imperial literature and history of Cuba and the Philippines in the late nineteenth century. This study focuses on the writings of José Martí and José Rizal, the most prominent nationalist authors of the two contexts. Through literary and historical analyses, I argue that Martí and Rizal construct the conceptual framework for what I call an “intercolonial alliance” against both Spain and the United States at the turn of the century.
My forthcoming second book, Samurai in the Land of the Gaucho: Transpacific Modernity and Nikkei Literature in Argentina (Vanderbilt UP, 2023), explores how diverse literary and cultural approaches to Japan have both defined and defied the concept of modernity in Argentina. I argue that historical imaginings of Japan contributed to the Argentine vision of what I call “transpacific modernity” in the early twentieth century. On the other hand, I study how a new generation of Nikkei or Japanese-Argentine authors is rewriting the conventional narrative of Japan in the twenty-first century based on their own immigrant experiences.
In general, my research interests are centered on transpacific studies, through which I explore diverse aspects of the unexplored relationship between Asia and Latin America. I have edited a volume, Trans-Pacific Encounters: Asia and the Hispanic World (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016), which includes essays examining the multidimensional nature of the historical and cultural intersection between some Asian countries and the Hispanic world. I have also co-edited a special number for Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana (2018), as well as a volume Geografías caleidoscópicas: América Latina y sus imaginarios intercontinentales (Iberoamerica/Vervuert, 2022). My articles have appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals, such as Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, Revista Asia/América Latina, Chasqui, Transmodernity, Hispania, and Latin American Literary Review, among others. I am currently working on an anthology of Nikkei writers in Latin America.
For me, research is inseparable from teaching. I take enormous pleasure in teaching all courses related to Spanish language as well as Latin American literature and culture. At Wellesley, I teach Elementary and Intermediate Spanish, Introduction to Hispanic Studies, Introduction to Latin American Studies (in English), Hispanic Caribbean Literature and Culture, Making of Modern Latin American Culture, Nineteenth-Century Latin America, and upper-level seminars on Cuba and on Asia in Latin America. I have also directed the Wintersession program in Cuba. I was awarded the Ana and Samuel Pinanski Teaching Prize in 2012 and the Apgar Award for Teaching Excellence in 2019. In 2021, I was featured in the “Member Spotlight” page of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.