How should federal governments attempt to right, or at least remedy, past wrongs? Is it appropriate for victims of group-based harms or their descendants to press current generations to atone for the sins of their predecessors? Grace Kao will engage these questions by drawing upon the emerging human rights standard for reparations, theological resources from her faith tradition (Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.), and four case-studies of acknowledged wrongdoing against AAPI communities: Chinese Exclusion era discrimination, Japanese American forced evacuation and mass incarceration, denial of full veteran benefits to Filipinos who fought under the U.S. flag during WWII, and the Congressional apologies to Native Hawaiians for the illegal overthrow of their monarchy.

Grace Yia-Hei Kao is Professor of Ethics and the inaugural Sano Chair in Pacific and Asian American Theology at Claremont School of Theology. She is the author or co-editor of four books and serves on the board of two scholarly associations for AAPI religions (PANAAWTM and APARRI).

This event is co-sponsored by the departments of Religious Studies and Asian American Studies at UCSB.