Overview

In dear elia, Mimi Khuc revolutionizes how we understand mental health. Khuc 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. Khuc 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 Khuc advances, offering readers alternative ways of being that divest from structures of unwellness and open new possibilities for collective care.

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9781478020936

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Reviews

“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, no 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 *

“Showing that we are all differently 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 *

"“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 * ""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 differently 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, no 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 *

Author Information

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

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