RUCAA Virtual Lecture Series, Lecture 1 – Prof Sidney Lu on “Model Minority: Myth of Culture, Myth of Success”
Join us virtually for the inaugural lecture in RUCAA’s Virtual Lecture Series on Feb 10, 2026 at 7pm CT. Prof Sidney Lu will discourse on the subject of the “Model Minority: Myth of Culture, Myth of Success”.
Asian Americans have been described as the model minority by other groups in the U.S. This talk discusses how the context of the Cold War was crucial for the formation and popularization of this discourse. The talk also discusses how the myth of culture and the myth of success, the two pillars of the model minority discourse, have negatively affected the parent-children relationship amongst Asian Americans themselves. The discussion will be followed by a break-out session.
As Rice alumni we love learning, and hope that you find this subject matter useful, introspective and and enlightening. If you have any Rice professors who have inspired you, please don’t hesitate to share that with us in our messages as we look to expand this series.
You will receive a zoom link upon registration.
Registration is here.
–Professor Sidney X. Lu, Ph.D. is the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Transnational Asian Studies at Rice University. He is a social and cultural historian of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Japan and East Asia, with research interests in the areas of migration, settler colonialism, gender, race, and trans-Pacific connections. He earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Pennsylvania in 2013. At Rice, he teaches widely on the topics of Asian American History, modern Japan, modern East Asia, as well as Minorities and Subcultures in Asian Societies. He is the author of:
Collaborative Settler Colonialism: Japanese Migration to Brazil in the Age of Empires (University of California Press, 2025)
The Making of Japanese Settler Colonialism: Malthusianism and Trans-Pacific Migration (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
Co-editor of the Book Series: Between Asias and Americas