Session: Asian American/Canadian Feminisms: Centering Transformative Praxis (Society for Social Work and Research 30th Annual Conference Anniversary)

This symposium explores the critical intersections of Asian American feminisms and social work, offering a transformative lens for theory, practice, and pedagogy. Grounded in intersectionality, decoloniality, and community-based knowledge, Asian American feminist frameworks challenge dominant narratives that often marginalize or erase the lived experiences of Asian American communities within social work discourse. Despite shared commitments to advance social justice and support the wellbeing of disenfranchised communities, social work as a field has yet to meaningfully 'take up' Asian American feminisms in its scholarship and practice. Our symposium seeks to meaningfully bridge this gap by highlighting social work scholarship that engages Asian American feminist theory, epistemology, methods, and praxis toward the building of more just worlds.

This symposium brings together five studies which disrupt monolithic representations and essentialist views, and instead highlight the nuanced ways that Asian American and Canadian people (especially women, queer people, and/or gender expansive people) confront and address systems of power at the intersections of race, gender, im/migration, class, sexuality, nation, ability, religion, and more. Studies in this symposium offer conceptual, methodological, and practice innovations for social work with Asian American communities. Presenter 1 uses storytelling methods to put forth a uniquely Asian American feminist epistemology for social work scholarship, while Presenter 2 engages in a duoethnographic dialogue to articulate a framework for Queer South Asian Social Work Praxis. Other presenters use intersectional Asian American feminist frameworks to analyze experiences marginalization and resistance: Presenter 3 examines how a community organization in Canada facilitates resistance amongst Asian female migrant sex workers facing intersectional and epistemic oppression, and Presenter 4 explores the nuanced everyday experiences of mixed Asian-white women, addressing how they navigate authenticity, belonging, and resistance in racialized and gendered contexts. Finally, Presenter 5 utilizes decolonizing autoethnographic approaches to examine Filipina Canadian feminist praxis in settlement / social service provision with Filipino newcomers to Canada. All of the authors place emphasis on the importance of culturally responsive praxis: embracing the notion that 'how we do the work is the work' while attending to both the diversity and shared struggles within Asian American/Canadian communities.

This symposium invites researchers, practitioners, educators, and students to critically reflect on the limitations of traditional social work models and to consider how critical Asian American feminist and queer theories can expand our collective commitments to social justice and transformation. Importantly, these studies have important implications for social work policy, practice, and teaching, in that they encourage us to critically consider the epistemological, methodological, and political underpinnings of social work research with Asian American/Canadian communities. Participants will leave with theoretical insights and concrete tools to integrate Asian American feminist perspectives into their praxis, ultimately strengthening advocacy and care with and for Asian communities.