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2025 AAAS Conference Roundtable—The Lapdog Syndrome: Polyethnographies of Asian Women Navigating Power and Identity
April 19 @ 2:45 pm - 4:15 pm
The Lapdog Syndrome: Polyethnographies of Asian Women Navigating Power and Identity
Date & Time: April 19, 2025 | 2:45 – 4:15 p.m ET
Location: Alcott Room, The Westin Boston Seaport District, Boston, MA
Presenter(s):
- Christine Montecillo Leider, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
- Minh Nghia Nguyen, University of Massachusetts, Boston
- Alisha Nguyen, Lesley University
- Diep Nguyen, Center for Applied Linguistics
- Christine Seon Sol Rheem, Michigan State University
- Phitsamay Uy, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
- Shengxiao “Sole” Yu, Social Justice Educator
Description:
The Lapdog Syndrome within professional spaces posits that Asian women serve as capable experts in their respective fields yet are often called upon to do racial interlocution tasks for their white colleagues and/or administrators when conflicts between whites and non-Asian people of color emerge. Thus, Asian women are positioned as seemingly objective and fair arbitrators of racial conflict, a co-construction that makes them ‘raceless.’ Such interlocution work is done in relative invisibility, further reinforcing Asian women’s peripheral and incomplete positioning as legitimate contributors to the more public endeavor of social justice work for racial solidarity.
