Since its “discovery,” America has been imagined as a heavenly destination, identified with the New Jerusalem of the Bible as a paradise and refuge. This apocalyptic metaphor has also helped create exclusionary and violent policies against unwanted people groups. This talk by Professor Yii-Jan Lin, Assistant Professor of New Testament at the Yale Divinity School, will focus on US policies and attitudes toward Chinese immigration and the influence of apocalyptic metaphors and conceptualizations of America.
Professor Lin specializes in textual criticism, the Revelation of John, critical race theory, gender and sexuality, and immigration. Her book, The Erotic Life of Manuscripts, examines how metaphors of race, family, evolution, and genetic inheritance have shaped the goals and assumptions of New Testament textual criticism from the eighteenth century to the present.
Her current book project, Immigration and Apocalypse: The Revelation of John in the History of American Immigration, focuses on apocalypticism and the use of Revelation in the political discourse surrounding American immigration – both in utopian visions of America and dystopian fear of “outsiders.”
Contact: Yale Center Beijing, http://centerbeijing.yale.edu/, yalecenterbeijing@yale.edu