Usha Iyer: Expanding “Asian American” through the Indo-Caribbean Double Diaspora

Usha Iyer, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, has received a 2026–27 seed grant from the Asian American Research Center at Stanford (AARCS) in support of her research project, Expanding “Asian American” through the Indo-Caribbean Double Diaspora. AARCS is an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to advancing scholarship on Asian American and Asian diaspora experiences through collaborative and community-engaged research initiatives.

The AARCS seed grant will support Dr. Iyer’s research on the Indo-Caribbean double diaspora in North America that constitutes a part of their book project, Jammin’: Black and Brown Media Intimacies between India and the Caribbean. Often referred to as “twice migrants” or members of a “double diaspora” that has experienced successive labor migrations across the 19th and 20th centuries, Indo-Caribbean communities scramble hyphenated identities that map on to “single diasporic” histories (e.g. Indian American, Chinese American etc.). Additionally, when we consider the Americas as a more expansive and connected geography, Asians in the Caribbean become a key and yet largely neglected diaspora for theorizing Asian Americanness. Through ethnographic engagement with creators and consumers of diasporic or post-indenture media, including local radio stations, digital networks, archives, and event management companies that organize concerts, film screenings, and religious and cultural celebrations, this research aims to parse the many iterations of racial and cultural identity that the Indo-Caribbean double diaspora in North America navigates through media.