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vii Acknowledgments Taking an unreasonably long time to finish a book means that I have an extensive list of people whom I can now thank. The University of Illinois at Chicago is an anomalous place insofar as I am surrounded by colleagues for whom I feel genuine affection. I hear this is a highly unusual state of affairs. I’d like to thank the Institute for the Humanities at UIC for an indispensable one-year fellowship, and its vibrant director, Mary Beth Rose, and the supportive assistant director, Linda Vavra. I was fortunate to have Mark Chiang, Leon Fink, Norma Moruzzi, and Gayatri Reddy as Humanities Institute co-fellows that year. I have received generous and ongoing support administered by the College of LAS at UIC. I presented portions of the book at Cornell University to the Asian American studies department, and Viranjini Munasinghe was an early and much appreciated supporter of my work. Dwight McBride extended a warm and welcoming invitation to share an early chapter with the Chicago Race and Ethnicity study group. I thank African American studies, American studies, and the English department at Northwestern University for various opportunities to present my research, as well as the English department at Loyola University and Asian American studies at the University of Texas, Austin, for their lively engagement. The faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Department of English at UIC have always been incredibly encouraging, and I thank each and every one of them for their collegiality, their scholarship , and for just being people whom I truly enjoy seeing and working with. My department heads have been particularly supportive and carefully read drafts of my manuscript at various crucial points: Beth Richie, Paul Zeleza, Nicholas Brown, Walter Benn Michaels, and Mark Canuel. Colleagues in Asian American studies have been steady supporters in the struggle to build the program while keeping our sanity, and their steady presence have made that work possible and rewarding: Mark Chiang, viii x Acknowledgments Anna Guevarra, Kevin Kumashiro, Gayatri Reddy, Rama Mantena, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Karen Su, and Eric Tang. My writing group consisted of such great people that I looked forward to weekly meetings with unfettered anticipation. Michelle Boyd, with her brilliant and ebullient enthusiasm (tempered by utter impatience for imprecision and nonsense), Cynthia Blair’s soothing and steady encouragement , and Badia Ahad’s clear-eyed relationship to work and pleasure helped make writing possible over the years. Kerry Ann Rockquemore literally shifted my experience of the time/space continuum with her ingenious faculty mentoring/writing program. There are many people whom I always hope to catch at the next conference, dinner, or performance, and their work and our exchanges have helped shape my work for the better: Kulvinder Arora, Bill Ayres, Paul Cullen, Bernadette Dohrn, Ricardo Bracho , Anna Brown, Kim Dillon, David Eng, Rod Ferguson, Keith Harris, Daniel Kim, An Le, James Lee, Nhi Lieu, David Lloyd, Jinah Kim, Curtis Marez, Chandan Reddy, Dylan Rodriguez, Rosaura Sanchez, Shelley Streeby, and Lisa Yoneyama. I am grateful to Houston Baker and his amazing insights when he generously read portions of the manuscript, and to Charlotte Pierce Baker, with whom I shared memorable evenings out during her year at UIC. Elaine Kim has inspired and intervened throughout my adult life, and I am deeply honored by her support and grateful for how she has shaped my intellectual and political commitments. George Lipsitz continues to read my drafts, field my last-minute questions, and offer the benefit of his insights and relentless commitment to good work and social change. Sometimes as I go about my day on campus or when I’m in line at the grocery store, I find myself trying to formulate more adequate ways of thanking Lisa Lowe for her mentorship. I know that sounds odd, but that’s how much her work and support have meant to me. I am quite certain I am not the only one who does this. I have an amazing cohort of friends with whom I share an alarming lack of boundaries and who sustain me in innumerable ways. Randall Williams and Stephen Wu took me on as a regular boarder, giving me a place to work, complain, eat, laugh, and languish. Stephen always cheerfully offered brilliant psychiatric expertise (on request) as well as precious apartment space, while Randy’s heroic efforts to manage my unwieldy drafts carried me through. The political and intellectual commitment of Randy’s worldview and scholarship continually remind me...

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