ASIAN AMERICAN FOOD MATTERS
On March 13, 2013, four speakers were invited to speak at a symposium entitled Asian American Food Matters: Culture, Politics, Community: Dawn Mabalon, Associate Professor of history at San Francisco State University and author of Little Manila is in the Heart: The Making of the Filipina/o American Community in Stockton, California (forthcoming), spoke on Filipino/a American food before World War II; David Mas Masumoto, a third generation farmer and award-winning author of seven books, spoke on the shared culture of food and farming. Tanachai Mark Padoongpatt, recent PhD from USC’s American Studies and Ethnicity program, spoke on Asian American foodways in post-industrial America; and Thy Tran, food writer and founder of Asian Culinary Forum, gave a talk entitled “Eating Our Words: Nostalgia and Narrative Across the Table.”