In this stunning video essay, “DIASPORA,” Sanvitti Sahdev, Kelly Park, and Joyce Chen meditate upon the intimate threads that weave the complex webs of their transnational identities. Considering their relationship to diaspora, Asia, America, and “home,” they craft a profoundly nuanced portrait of the complicated ties that can at times bind, while at other times connect. This project was created in Prof. Marte-Wood’s “21st-Century Asian American Literature and Racial Formation” course.
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Sanvitti Sahdev grew up in Delhi, India and currently lives in Houston, Texas. Since graduating from Rice, she has been working as a freelancer in the literary publishing world and trying to make it as a writer.
Joyce Chen graduated in 2020 as a member of McMurtry College. While at Rice, she was a Trustee Distinguished Scholar and Century Scholar and majored in English and Asian Studies.
Kelly Park is a Rice University alumna (class of 2021) and was at Jones college during her time at Rice. During her undergrad years, she studied Computer Science and English. Having grown up in Seoul, Houston, and the Bay Area, Kelly is interested in disasporic experiences, class disparities, and how film serves as a tool for conveying these ideas. She exploded this in her Senior thesis, “From Parasite to Minari: Understanding Class Disparities, Imperialism, and Transnational Identities through the Globalization of Korean and Korean-American Film.” Since graduating from Rice, Kelly has been working as a software engineer in the Bay Area.