Hira Makes a Sound: Nepali Diasporic Worldviewing through Asian American Studies Praxis during the COVID-19 Anti-Asian Hate Pandemics

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I've placed several comments within the PDF, mostly to do with clarifying (extending, rewording) points made.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Thank you for the opportunity to make minor revisions based on review comments below. Briefly, our responses are as follows.  We:

• provided minor fixes/updates: template-based style formatting; reference numbering with additional sources (on Gurung worldview, literature on anti-Asian violence, etc); clarification of quotes in conclusion through italics emphasis; clearer placement of images as figures; italicized book title throughout; clarified U.S.-based geographical focus when necessary; etc
• unblinded author identities in text and references. Based on unblinded author identities, we added a new paragraph (as requested) to address subject positionality of co-authors, particularly in relation to methodological aspects of the research and creative co-production process.
• added a substantial subsection on Gurung worldview as part of the relevant literature section near the beginning as requested.
• briefly clarified as requested: children’s healthy development, including their capacities to survive, thrive, and reach high potential not only physically, cognitively, and emotionally, but also socially, culturally, and spiritually within their daily lived environments.
• added a subsection on dissemination (use of the storybook beta-version) under Results with some discussion of windows/mirrors and genuine responses of fifth grade children in a classroom setting, as requested.

We hope these changes are responsive to the requests and the revised manuscript can move toward final publication.  Many thanks again for the opportunity and thoughtful engagement with our work.  Please lte us know if additional changes are needed and/or how we can assist with next steps in the process.   

Reviewer 2 Report

This article presents a timely and relevant project consisting in a storybook centred around the experiences of a Gurung community in times of the COVID pandemic and ensuing racism. The story uses approaches to spirituality, coping strategies, collective healing and resistance from a non-Western perspective. These can be crucial to redress the marginalization and victimization that immigrant communities (especially vulnerable groups such as children and elderly people) are subject to in white-dominated societies. As such, the article demonstrates the importance of storytelling that falls outside Eurocentric worldviews and attests to the impact that a project such as this may have on diaspora studies, simultaneously emphasizing the central role of religion and spirituality.

The state-of-the-art and methodology are mostly clearly presented, using very up-to-date background literature. The analysis of the most relevant points of the storybook are also coherent and perfectly illustrate the aims of the project.

I would recommend the article be published after some minor alterations:

1. As I’m not familiar with the particular experiences of the Gurung community, I’d appreciate a brief contextualization of this ethnic group earlier in the article, perhaps in the introduction.

2. I believe the title of the storybook should go in italics throughout the text.

3. In the methodology section (lines 196-198) you mention that “In compiling publicly available stories about anti-Asian racism and violence, we found that most portrayed elders as frail, one-dimensional victims”. I’d appreciate if you could give more information about these sources: were these online sources? Newspaper articles? I find this very interesting, especially in contrast with the community’s lived experiences, so a little bit further information would be welcome.

4. The conclusion includes telling insights from the authors’ personal points of view. These are sometimes quoted (lines 389-393) but not always. I wonder whether they should always go between quotation marks or indented if they are longer.

Author Response

Thank you for the opportunity to make minor revisions based on review comments below. Briefly, our responses are as follows.  We:

• provided minor fixes/updates: template-based style formatting; reference numbering with additional sources (on Gurung worldview, literature on anti-Asian violence, etc); clarification of quotes in conclusion through italics emphasis; clearer placement of images as figures; italicized book title throughout; clarified U.S.-based geographical focus when necessary; etc
• unblinded author identities in text and references. Based on unblinded author identities, we added a new paragraph (as requested) to address subject positionality of co-authors, particularly in relation to methodological aspects of the research and creative co-production process.
• added a substantial subsection on Gurung worldview as part of the relevant literature section near the beginning as requested.
• briefly clarified as requested: children’s healthy development, including their capacities to survive, thrive, and reach high potential not only physically, cognitively, and emotionally, but also socially, culturally, and spiritually within their daily lived environments.
• added a subsection on dissemination (use of the storybook beta-version) under Results with some discussion of windows/mirrors and genuine responses of fifth grade children in a classroom setting, as requested.

We hope these changes are responsive to the requests and the revised manuscript can move toward final publication.  Many thanks again for the opportunity and thoughtful engagement with our work.  Please let us know if additional changes are needed and/or how we can assist with next steps in the process.