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This theme explores discourse on “Labour” during COVID: as we have witnessed, when the pandemic hit, certain forms of labour that were previously deemed “unskilled” became “essential” overnight (grocery store workers, couriers, for example). Many of these were and - despite being labelled during the pandemic as “essential” - continue to be low waged, precarious, and highly exploited labour. We also witnessed the impact of the pandemic on the arts and culture community, with the “arts” being considered “non-essential” during COVID, despite everyone being glued to a screen or television during COVID lockdowns. What labour is seen and unseen? How has COVID shifted our perspectives on the value of labour? What are some strategies to protect people and labour deemed expendable during the pandemic?
Panel 2: "Undoing Capitalist logics of “essential” during the pandemic"
Panellists: Nicky Minus, VALU CO-OP (Shira Anisman), Chinatown Cares (Celyne Asnani and Minnie from Yarrow Intergenerational Society for Justice, and Rosa Chan)
Moderator: Areerat (Aree) Worawongwasu is a community organizer, cultural worker, and educator. Her work in grounded in the grassroots, using research to serve movement work, and leveraging resources of the academia to redistribute to local working-class communities of color. Aree organizes with Decolonize This Place, stewarding youth organizing. She is the President Emeritus and co-founder of the NYU Asian American Political Activism Coalition (APAC), which is an organization that politically educates and mobilizes an Asian American student movement. Aree recently graduated with a BA from New York University in May 2019, with an academic concentration in decolonization with a minor in Asian / Pacific / American Studies. Her the self-designed course of study combined history, ethnic studies, critical race theory, gender studies, and community-engaged research. Aree’s ancestors are Mon refugees and Teochew indentured laborers to Thailand, and this heritage has shaped her passion for solidarity between Indigenous and displaced peoples beyond borders. She bridges my research and activism into public education. She interned in the Exhibits and Curation department of the Museum of Chinese in America, where she did research for the “FOLD: Golden Venture Paper Sculptures” exhibit which presents the story of the 1993 Golden Venture refugees who were detained at York County Prison. She also wrote the Museum’s core exhibition text on the model minority myth, the murder of Vincent Chin, and the emergence of pan-ethnic Asian American activism. Aree is passionate about movement-led media and previously served as a producer and co-host of Asia Pacific Forum, an independent radio show covering underreported stories of Asian America. Aree has presented about her organizing work and research at the Association for Asian American Studies Conference Conference, Netroots Nation Conference, the Point Source Youth National Conference, NYU Asian / Pacific / American Institute, NYU Indigenous Studies Colloquium, the Connecticut Undergraduate Ethnic Studies Symposium.