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Asian Greek Sisterhoods: Archives, Affects, and Belongings in Asian American Sororities
abstract
The dissertation, Asian Greek Sisterhoods: Archives, Affects, and Belongings in Asian American Sororities, 1929-2015, examines the kinds of archives produced by Asian American women in single-gender social organizations or Asian Greek-letter sororities, reconceiving them as transformative acts of affects: embodied memory-keeping practices that transmit knowledge, traditions, cultural practices, and social customs as collective identities and communal histories across time and space, among different, diverse groups of ethnic-Asian women from one generation to the next. Archives reconceived as the transformative acts of affects and participatory memory-keeping practices in Asian American women sorority groups demonstrate collective and individual identities in complex, crafted social communities.
The affective archives of the Asian American sisterhoods of Chi Alpha Delta and Theta Kappa Phi complicate the conventional understanding of the archives and memory-keeping projects in minority, marginalized, and disenfranchised communities of color in the United States. Their archives of affects and affection revise remembering as not only the recuperative practices motivated by the anxieties of personal and collective, community forgetting and loss, but their archives of sisterhood are also the embodied performances of collective memories that celebrate identities, social culture, and shared histories and experiences.
The dissertation is an ethnography study that included thirty-three in-depth, semi-structured oral history interviews conducted in 2013 of the active members and alumnae of Chi Alpha Delta and Theta Kappa Phi, the two historically Asian American sorority established at the University of California, Los Angeles. Chi Alpha Delta was founded in 1929, and Theta Kappa Phi in 1959.
The affective archives of the Asian American sisterhoods of Chi Alpha Delta and Theta Kappa Phi complicate the conventional understanding of the archives and memory-keeping projects in minority, marginalized, and disenfranchised communities of color in the United States. Their archives of affects and affection revise remembering as not only the recuperative practices motivated by the anxieties of personal and collective, community forgetting and loss, but their archives of sisterhood are also the embodied performances of collective memories that celebrate identities, social culture, and shared histories and experiences.
The dissertation is an ethnography study that included thirty-three in-depth, semi-structured oral history interviews conducted in 2013 of the active members and alumnae of Chi Alpha Delta and Theta Kappa Phi, the two historically Asian American sorority established at the University of California, Los Angeles. Chi Alpha Delta was founded in 1929, and Theta Kappa Phi in 1959.
table of contentsList of Figures………………………………………..................……………………………....viii
List of Tables………………………………...................................………………………………x Glossary of Terms……………………………..............…………………………………...……xi Acknowledgements……………………....................................................………...…....xiii Biographical Sketch…………………………….................…………………………………...xv Chapter 1 Asian American Greek Sisterhoods: An Introduction…........…...1 Chapter 2 The Makings of Sisterhood: Chis and Thetas…………….…….......41 Chapter 3 Crafting Sisterhood…………………..........................…………………….....84 Chapter 4 Serving Up Sisterhood: Contemporary Chi Cooking ……....….123 Chapter 5 Succeeding Archives, Exceeding Belongings: A Conclusion...156 Bibliography……………………………………………………….........................................…192 |
The dissertation, Asian Greek Sisterhoods: Archives, Affects, and Belongings in Asian American Sororities, is available online at e-scholarship.org.
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