dear elia: Letters from the Asian American Abyss

by Mimi Khúc

Overview

In dear elia Mimi Khúc revolutionizes how we understand mental health. Khúc traces the contemporary Asian American mental health crisis from the university into the maw of the COVID-19 pandemic, reenvisioning mental health through a pedagogy of unwellness—the recognition that we are all differentially unwell. In an intimate series of letters, she bears witness to Asian American unwellness up close and invites readers to recognize in it the shapes and sources of their own unwellness. Khúc draws linkages between student experience, the Asian immigrant family, the adjunctification of the university, and teaching methods pre- and post-COVID-19 to illuminate hidden roots of our collective unwellness: shared investments in compulsory wellness and meritocracy. She reveals the university as a central node and engine of unwellness and argues that we can no longer do Asian American studies without Asian American mental health—and vice versa. Interspersed throughout the book are reflective activities, including original tarot cards, that enact the very pedagogy Khúc advances, offering readers alternative ways of being that divest from structures of unwellness and open new possibilities for collective care.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478027799
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	12/11/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Mimi Khúc is a writer, scholar, and teacher of things unwell. She is the creator of Open in Emergency and the Asian American Tarot.

Table of Contents

dear elia  1
1. a pedagogy of unwellness  3
interlude 1. the corner  25
2. touring the abyss  28
interlude 2. the suicide tarot  60
3. how to save your asian american life in an hour  63
interlude 3. the professor is _______  89
4. the professor is ill  91
interlude 4. surveying access  146
5. teaching in pandemic times  149
cura personalis  221
Acknowledgments  229
Notes  235
Bibliography  249
Index  257

Editorial Reviews

"To my 21-year-old self in spring 1999: I wish you could read dear elia. Then you would know that you are not alone. That your unwellness is not your fault. That you are allowed to feel ungrateful and angry at the forces that contribute to your unwellness. That the abyss engulfing you is shared by others who are also Asian Americanly wounded and suffering. Thankfully, a quarter of a century into the future, you will read dear elia. You will feel waves of visceral empathy for your younger self. You will weep, and the weeping will be cathartic. Unapologetically emotional, exuberantly unorthodox, fiercely compassionate, dear elia: Letters from the Asian American Abyss will save your life."—Seo-Young Chu, Los Angeles Review of Books

“Showing that we are all differentially unwell and that our social contexts and identities impact our unwellness in different ways and at different times, Mimi Khúc argues that we need to embrace and accept unwellness in order to reorient ourselves toward a system of care. Refreshing, necessary, and challenging in the best ways, this incredible book will change and save lives.”—Sami Schalk, author of, Black Disability Politics

“This phenomenal book puts front and center the generally overlooked importance of Asian American positionality in educational institutions and mental health. It is not, however, just for Asian Americans or those already concerned with mental health; it is for anyone engaged in the university. A project of enormous generosity that shares hard-won lessons, dear elia is greatly needed, and never more than right now. I have never read anything like this unprecedented book.”—Mel Y. Chen, author of, Intoxicated: Race, Disability, and Chemical Intimacy across Empire

With dear elia, Mimi Khúc throws out the playbook for scholarly books published by university presses, and I am here for it. Her outstanding exploration of mental health, with particular attention paid to Asian American peoples, is focused not on wellness as we know it but on the game-changing notion that we are all 'differently unwell.'"  —Karla J. Strand, Ms. Magazine

"Though it is focused on Asian American studies, this book is an indispensable read for anyone entering academia, for those already entrenched in it, and for all needing a reminder of the precarity and unwellness facing students and academics alike."—Lena Chen, Amerasia Journal

"What Khúc illuminates about higher education now is, in some ways, deceptively simple: from the cordoning off of 'wellness' as the sole purview—or perhaps more accurately, mandate—of campus counseling centers to the normalization of contingent faculty as a perpetual laboring underclass, the university is a place that kills."—Amy R. Wong, Parapraxis

"Khúc provides readers with different opportunities for overcoming unwellness to achieving collective care that can be life changing and save lives as Khúc’s students have attested. Highly recommended. All readers."—Choice

From the Publisher

"Khúc provides readers with different opportunities for overcoming unwellness to achieving collective care that can be life changing and save lives as Khúc’s students have attested. Highly recommended. All readers."

Choice

"To my 21-year-old self in spring 1999: I wish you could read dear elia. Then you would know that you are not alone. That your unwellness is not your fault. That you are allowed to feel ungrateful and angry at the forces that contribute to your unwellness. That the abyss engulfing you is shared by others who are also Asian Americanly wounded and suffering. Thankfully, a quarter of a century into the future, you will read dear elia. You will feel waves of visceral empathy for your younger self. You will weep, and the weeping will be cathartic. Unapologetically emotional, exuberantly unorthodox, fiercely compassionate, dear elia: Letters from the Asian American Abyss will save your life."

Los Angeles Review of Books - Seo-Young Chu

"Though it is focused on Asian American studies, this book is an indispensable read for anyone entering academia, for those already entrenched in it, and for all needing a reminder of the precarity and unwellness facing students and academics alike."

Amerasia Journal - Lena Chen

Showing that we are all differentially unwell and that our social contexts and identities impact our unwellness in different ways and at different times, Mimi Khúc argues that we need to embrace and accept unwellness in order to reorient ourselves toward a system of care. Refreshing, necessary, and challenging in the best ways, this incredible book will change and save lives.

Black Disability Politics - Sami Schalk

"What Khúc illuminates about higher education now is, in some ways, deceptively simple: from the cordoning off of 'wellness' as the sole purview—or perhaps more accurately, mandate—of campus counseling centers to the normalization of contingent faculty as a perpetual laboring underclass, the university is a place that kills."

Parapraxis - Amy R. Wong

This phenomenal book puts front and center the generally overlooked importance of Asian American positionality in educational institutions and mental health. It is not, however, just for Asian Americans or those already concerned with mental health; it is for anyone engaged in the university. A project of enormous generosity that shares hard-won lessons, dear elia is greatly needed, and never more than right now. I have never read anything like this unprecedented book.

Intoxicated: Race, Disability, and Chemical Intimacy across Empire - Mel Y. Chen

With dear elia, Mimi Khúc throws out the playbook for scholarly books published by university presses, and I am here for it. Her outstanding exploration of mental health, with particular attention paid to Asian American peoples, is focused not on wellness as we know it but on the game-changing notion that we are all 'differently unwell.'"  

Ms. Magazine - Karla J. Strand