[The] stories told dispel stereotypes and take on the complex challenges of colonialism, militarization, love, resistance, family, migration, and more. They reveal the intersectional and multilayered experiences of Southeast Asian women in the diaspora.
—NBC News
Juxtaposing short stories, poetry, painting, and photographs, Troubling Borders showcases the creative work of women of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, Thai, and Filipino ancestry. This thematically arranged collection interrupts borders of categorization and gender, in what preface author Shirley Geok-Lin Lim describes as a “leap over the barbed fences that have kept these women apart in these, our United States of America.”
The combination of image with texts complementing and conversing with each other provides a textured, layered engagement with the subject matter.
―Art Radar Asia
Inspiring . . . uses a collage of art forms to portray varied, and usually under-represented, female identities . . . [and] shows how marginalized women have become empowered through their fervent and thought-provoking artwork and writings.
—Journal of Postcolonial Writing
About the Editors
Isabelle Thuy Pelaud is professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University. Lan Duong is associate professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Southern California. Mariam B. Lam is associate professor of comparative literature and Southeast Asian studies, and associate vice chancellor and chief diversity officer at the University of California, Riverside. Kathy L. Nguyen is a writer and editor in San Francisco.
