ABSTRACT
In this chapter I share linguistic twists surrounding the terms desi, pardesi, and videshi, to contemplate my identity as an Asian American art educator. This is to examine how cultural identifying terms such as these connote belonging and foreignness, and affect personal and professional perceptions – both of self and of others around us. This is, therefore, a narrative of national, racial, and linguistic markers in the development of nationalized professional identity. Investigating the presentation of South Asia within the Asian identity in the United States through my experience, I explore the powerful potential of intersectional solidarity within art education work. I use Derrida’s concept of Hospitality to sift through the presentation of “strangeness” in familiar discourses. Kachru’s descriptions of World Englishes provide a primary critical lens in considering the role of language in colonizing and decolonizing ourselves, as these affect our professional positionalities. Challenging the boundary lines of racial micro-climes, I introspect on my Asian/South-Asian identity to consider how the concept of decolonization may be understood in art education research and teaching and applied as an act of citizenship.
