A discussion with Rob Buscher, Jamal J. Elias & Makoto Hirano
From 19th century xenophobic immigration policies to contemporary disease scapegoating during the COVID-19 pandemic, this conversation will explore the long history of anti-Asian racism and anti-Muslim bigotry through the medium of American popular culture. This panel of media, academic, and cultural production expert will reach across decades of news media, entertainment media, and more, to locate a timeline of cultural bigotry that unfolds parallel to that of state-sanctioned anti-Asian and anti-Muslim racism and discrimination in the US. This event is held in tandem with the virtual re-opening of American Peril: Imagining the Foreign Threat, on view on our website throughout Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Rob Buscher is is a film and media specialist, educator, arts administrator, and published author who has worked in non-profit arts organizations for over a decade. As a person of biracial Japanese American heritage who is deeply involved in his community, Rob also has an expertise in cultural sensitivity training, community organizing, and advocacy issues related to the Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.
Robʼs expertise is Japanese and AAPI Diasporic Cinema although he has worked as a professional film programmer, critic, and lecturer across a variety of fields. Some of his career highlights include growing Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival into an internationally recognized leader in the film festival circuit, developing the Japanese Cinema and Asian American Studies curriculum at Arcadia University, and co-founding Zipangu Fest - the United Kingdomʼs first Japanese Film Festival. Rob currently lectures at University of Pennsylvania, and is a contributing writer at Pacific Citizen and Gidra Magazine.
Jamal J. Elias is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of the Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Penn, where he teaches about Islamic history, religion, culture, literature and art, with a focus on Western and South Asia.
Makoto Hirano is a Philadelphia-based dance, theatre, and performance-poetry artist. His award-winning ensemble and solo performance works have been presented nationally in numerous venues and festivals across the nation. As a collaborating performer, Hirano has originated over 20 roles, with highlights that include projects with Bill Irwin, Pig Iron Theatre Company, and Thaddeus Phillips/Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental. Hirano is a co-founder of both Team Sunshine Performance Corporation and art-duo Gatto+Hirano. A former U.S. Marine, Hirano studied dance at Columbia College Chicago and earned his BFA in dance at Temple University