Asians Are at the Writing Center from Praxis: A Writing Center Journal Vol. 19 no. 1

What happens when an Asian body enters the PWI writing center? What forces are at work when an Asian woman enters the white-woman–dominated space of a writing center? Continuing the call to refuse colorblind approaches to writing center consultancy and administration, I push for a recognition of how racial power operates on and through the bodies of Asians and Asian Americans at writing centers in the U.S. nation-state. Attending to the presence and embodied histories of Asians and Asian Americans at the writing center can show how our centers reinforce U.S. imperialism alongside white supremacy, which thrive in our policies, supervisory and consulting practices, and, most subtly, in the ephemeral nature of our interactions, movements, gestures, and other non-verbals with one another. I take my cue from Women of Color feminisms and theorize in the flesh (Moraga and Anzaldúa), hoping to activate spaces and practices of liberation. This self-reflexive piece offers an analytical lens that enables us to reflect on the persistence of the “model-minority racial project” (Fujiwara and Roshanravan) and, correspondingly, the epistemic erasure of Asians and Asian Americans at the U.S. writing center.