Indian American Motel Owners & the American Dream
On Monday, April 21 at 4:00pm in the HBL Class of 1947, the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute has rescheduled Pawan Dhingra's talk – retitled “Hire a White Woman: Race and Gender Calculations for Business Owners”. His award winning book, LIFE BEHIND THE LOBBY: Indian American Motel Owners and the American Dream (Stanford University Press in 2012) will be available at the talk, courtesy of the UConn Co-Op Bookstore. This event is co-sponsored by Department of Sociology and the India Studies Program at UConn. Professor Dhingra's talk also qualifies as an Honors Event.
SYNOPSIS
Asian Indian Americans have come to own about half of the nation’s motels - this is probably the largest ethnic enterprise in U.S. history. Their success is a testament to their ability to get along well with customers rather than be engaged in perpetual conflict. Yet, conflictual relations are always possible, according to owners. Indian Americans’ prolific representation in these businesses does not mean a lack of inter-group tensions but instead signals their ability to get around tensions through a careful deployment of labor and cultural symbols.
SPEAKER BIO
Pawan Dhingra is Professor and Chair of Sociology and American Studies at Tufts University. He is the author of two award-winning books -- Life Behind the Lobby: Indian American Motel Owners and the American Dream (Stanford Univ. Press, 2012) which has been profiled in National Public Radio, The Wall Street Journal, Colorlines Magazine, and elsewhere; and Managing Multicultural Lives: Asian American Professionals and the Challenge of Multiple Identities (Stanford University Press, 2007). From 2011-12 he was Museum Curator at the Smithsonian Institution for the Indian American Heritage Project. His co-curated exhibition, Beyond Bollywood, is opening in 2014. His co-authored book, Asian America: Sociological and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, is forthcoming also in 2014.
CONTACT: Ms. Fe Delos-Santos / Asian and Asian American Studies Institute
Email fe.delos-santos@uconn.edu or 860. 486. 5083
For more information, contact: Ms. Fe Delos Santos at fe.delos-santos@uconn.edu