Society of Scholars
The Society of Scholars is an intellectual community of humanists of diverse generations, academic ranks, and departmental affiliations who contribute to and learn from one another’s work. Each year, approximately eight faculty and three dissertation research fellowships support members of the Society of Scholars. Scholars in year-long residence at the University of Washington may be invited to participate as well. The group meets biweekly throughout the year to discuss their research in progress.
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2024 - 2025 Society of Scholars
2023 - 2024 Society of Scholars Fellow
Douglas S. Ishii (he/him/his)
Something Real: Asian American Arts Criticism and the Racialization of Sophistication
Something Real: Asian American Arts Criticism and the Racialization of Sophistication takes stock of Asian American arts criticism – the networks of creators, actors, organizations, and writings that amplify social justice campaigns through discussions of art – to elaborate on the legacies of the Asian American Movement of 1968 to 1977. The project also traces a liberal racism since the Civil Rights Movement that reinforces whiteness as the “appropriate” way of performing class. Examining how artists, activists, and critics have evoked traits associated with cultural sophistication, Something Real tracks the racialization of sophistication, or how sophistication has acted as a technology of racial differentiation.