Aoki Center Lecture on Yemeni Americans

This week, the Aoki Center Seminar Series hosted Professor Sunaini Maira to present her paper on “Yemeni American Corner Stores in Oakland: Between a Pandemic and a War.” We had a great group of students in attendance. Aoki Center Director Professor Raquel Aldana introduced Professor Maira.  

Professor Maira discussed her ethnographic study of Yemeni Americans and the impacts on them of war, counterterrorism policies, the Muslim ban, and related policies. Yemen is a poor nation that has been the site of war, economic crisis, and turmoil.  

Professor Maira’s research considers a group often not thought of as among this nation’s vulnerable peoples.