dear elia

Using a perspective of "unwellness," this week’s review makes a case for including mental health in Asian American studies and examines several factors that impact Asian Americans' wellbeing.

Posted on May 19, 2025 in Reviews of the Month

dear elia: Letters from the Asian American Abyss

Khúc, Mimi. Duke, 2024
272p bibl index, 9781478020936 $104.95, 9781478025672 $27.95, 9781478027799

Khúc (Asian American studies and disability studies, Georgetown Univ.) examines mental health from an Asian American perspective. She analyzes the intersection of Asian American mental health, the COVID-19 pandemic, the academic system of tenure and adjuncts, and the Asian American immigrant family from a health perspective that Khúc describes as unwellness. Khúc defines unwellness as everyone is differently unwell. Through personal letters, she shares with readers the intimate stories of unwellness that helps readers reflect on their own unwellness through activities. The book also includes images of tarot cards that Khúc created and her class assignments that students have told her in class evaluations that saved their lives. Khúc argues that the field of Asian American studies must include Asian American mental health as an essential topic to teach, learn, and disseminate. Khúc provides readers with different opportunities for overcoming unwellness to achieving collective care that can be life changing and save lives as Khúc’s students have attested.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.
Reviewer: T. Chan, MIT Libraries
Interdisciplinary Subject: Asian and Asian American Studies
Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences – Psychology
Choice Issue: Jun 2025

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• We’re Not Ok: Black Faculty Experiences and Higher Education Strategies
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