Kien Nghi Ha (Ed.)

Anti-Asian Racism in Transatlantic Perspectives

History, Theory, Cultural Representations and Social Movements

transcript Verlag, 31 August 2026, ca. 400 pages

ISBN: 978-3-8376-7442-2

Distributed in North America by Columbia University Press

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sinophobia and anti-Asian hate made media headlines. The contributors to this volume discuss how anti-Asian projections and colonial-racist narratives have shaped modernity and Western immigrant nations, employing a transatlantic perspective in addressing different core dimensions of pervasive anti-Asian racism. Featuring an interdisciplinary approach, this volume brings together historians, social scientists, cultural anthropologists, media scholars, educational researchers, and community-based activists. Together they offer a diverse array of insights, ranging from historical contexts and theoretical frameworks to contemporary case studies.

In September 2025, this anthology was selected by an international jury for the prestigious Knowledge Unlatched Select 2026 funding program: „KU Select 2026 Books is our flagship, multi-publisher, multi-disciplinary collection, featuring 200 frontlist titles in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). Curated in collaboration with KU’s global Librarian Committee, the collection reflects some of the most pressing issues shaping our world today. Organized around a thematic approach, KU Select 2026 comprises eight sub-collections of 25 titles each, addressing urgent societal, environmental, and political issues.“ Along with other important new book publications from leading international academic publishers, our volume on anti-Asian racism was selected for the collection "Inequalities in Social Contexts."

This volume is based on the conference of the same name, organized in 2023 by Kien Nghi Ha and You Jae Lee at the Center for Korean Studies at the University of Tübingen with the support of the Platform Global Encounters as part of the Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments of Baden-Württemberg and the Academy of Korean Studies. At this international conference, renowned foreign guest scholars such as Lok Siu (University of California, Berkeley), Qinna Shen (Bryn Mawr College), and Rotem Kowner (University of Haifa) participated in discussions alongside Tübingen scholars such as Tanja Thomas (Media Studies), Bani Gill (Sociology), Yewon Lee (Korean Studies), and Bernd-Stefan Grewe (History).

For more see also the article “Book on anti-Asian racism funded through international open access program. Award for Tübingen cultural scholar Kien Nghi Ha” (attempto online, 21.10.2025).