The following is a list of recent academic journal articles and/or doctoral dissertations from scholars in the social/cognitive sciences and humanities that focus on race/ethnicity and/or immigration, with a particular emphasis on Asian Americans. As you can see, the diversity of research topics is a direct reflection of the dynamic and multidimensional nature of people’s lives, experiences, and issues related to race/ethnicity and immigration. Last but not least, congratulations to my new academic colleagues on being “Ph.inally D.one.”

The academic journal articles are generally available in the libraries of most colleges and universities and/or through online research databases. The dissertations records are compiled by Dissertation Abstracts International and copies can be obtained through your college’s library or by contacting ProQuest at 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346, telephone 800-521-3042, or disspub@umi.com.

The research listed below focus on the social sciences and humanities (other research that will be presented separately focus on the cognitive sciences). As always, works included in this list are for informational purposes only and do not imply an endorsement of their contents.

Tao, Yu. The Earnings of Asian Computer Scientists and Engineers in the United States. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 70, no. 10, pp. 3919, 2010.

• Abstract: While Asians are overrepresented in science and engineering (S&E), they receive limited scholarly attention in sociology of science. To fill the knowledge gap about this understudied group, this study examines the effects of race, nativity, degree origin, gender, field, employment sector, and national origin on the annualized earnings of Asian computer scientists and engineers working in the U.S. To understand the above effects, this study uses descriptive analyses and quantile regressions. Data are derived from the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) conducted by the National Science Foundation. Overall, the findings partly confirm the structural arguments that some groups, notably women, racial/ethnic minorities, and immigrants, are disadvantaged in the U.S. workplace. The degree origin effect in 1993 could be due to the lower quality of degrees obtained from Asian higher education institutions and to the marginalized structural positions of Asian-educated immigrants in the American society. The disappearance of such an effect in 2003 could be due to the interactions between structural forces and human capital. The change of the effect of human capital has to be placed in a context of globalization and the resulting structural changes in various aspects, such as the improvement in higher education in Asia and changes in immigration policies in the U.S.

Hua, Linh Uyen. Reading Love: Race and the Political Economy of Affect. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 70, no. 11, pp. 4211, 2010.

• Abstract: Adjoining a history of love to a history of racial violence, Reading Love begins at the height of the transatlantic slave trade when the nature of intimate exchange becomes irreparably sutured to the economic value of racial blackness. Employing the five senses as the analytic structure of its literary analysis, the dissertation investigates the ramifications of this global restructuring of love as accumulation for post-1914 American social and political culture. Focused on African American and Asian American texts from Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929) to Chang-rae Lee’s Native Speaker (1995), Reading Love reformulates the terms of call-and-response from the perspective of the Unlovable, an ideological and material orientation that disrupts compulsory participation in affective speculation by evidencing an ethics of anti-accumulation. Collectively, the chapters examine narrative and narrative interpretation, individual practice, and disciplinary formulation as crucial sights for reading love. The concerns of Reading Love are current to American Studies, which has seen exponential growth in scholarship on affect and intimacy in the last quarter century owing largely to the emergent institutional authority of queer theory, psychoanalysis, and gender and feminist studies. Reading Love contributes to this academic archive by reading love in twentieth-century texts through the transformative cash nexus of the transatlantic slave trade and liberal philosophy. The analytic framework of political economy — which includes the emergence of modern structures of public and private, liberty and love, and capital investments in citizenship — sustains the critical race and feminist interventions that characterize Reading Love’s agenda. The dissertation forces intra-racial (rather than inter-racial) accountability into the lexicon of American Studies and, in doing so, underscores its claim that critical investigations of assimilation and gentrification conventionally relegated to race and ethnic studies are symptomatic of a history of affective reformulation that is personal, national, global, and historic in its ramifications. The theoretical concerns of Reading Love remain faithful to the question of subjugated identities taken up in feminist scholarship and ethnic studies. The chapters telescope intra-community paralyses of ambivalence, sentimental intention, and assimilative distantiation symptomatic of a cultural logic that treats affect as a tacit form of economic and political speculation. The sum of this dissertation develops initial parameters for a theory of the Unlovable, a theory that emphasizes anti-speculative practice and anti-accumulative investment. It reformulates the call-and-response dynamic by turning responses into first order calls and diverges, in this way, from Gayatri Spivak’s caution against hegemonic appropriation of subaltern voices. Argued throughout Reading Love, an anti-speculative, anti-accumulative posture — a posture of Unlove — is possible and serves well as an element of radical reading and practice.

Park Nelson, Kim Ja. Korean Looks, American Eyes: Korean American Adoptees, Race, Culture and Nation. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 01, pp. 0236, 2010.

• Abstract: This project positions Korean adoptees as transnational citizens at intersections within race relations in the United States, as emblems of international geopolitical relationships between the United States and South Korea, and as empowered actors, organizing to take control of racial and cultural discourses about Korean adoption. I make connections between transnational exchanges, American race relations, and Asian American experiences. I argue that though the contradictory experience of Korean adoptees, at once inside and outside bounded racial and national categories of “Asian,” “White,” “Korean,” and “American,” the limits of these categories may be explored and critiqued. In understanding Korean adoptees as transnational subjects, single-axis racial and national identity are challenged, where individuals have access to membership and/or face exclusion in more than one political or cultural nation. In addition, this work demonstrates the effects of American political and cultural imperialism both abroad and domestically, by elucidating how the acts of empire-building nations are mapped onto individuals though the regulation of immigration and family formation. My methods are interdisciplinary, drawing from traditions that include ethnography, primary historical sources, and literature. My dissertation work uses Korean adoptees’ own life stories that I have collected and recorded in three locations: (1) Minnesota, home to the largest concentration of Korean adoptees in the U.S.; (2) the Pacific Northwest, home to the many of the “first wave” of the oldest living Korean adoptees now in their 40s and 50s; and, (3) Seoul, Korea, home to hundreds of adult Korean adoptees who have traveled back to South Korea to live and work. In addition, I use Korean adoptee published narratives, archive materials documenting the early history of transnational adoption, and secondary sources in sociology, social work, psychology and cultural studies to uncover the many layers of national, racial and cultural belonging and significance for and of Korean adoptees.

Nguyen, Thanh-Nghi Bao. Vietnamese Manicurists: The Making of an Ethnic Niche. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 03, pp. 0992, 2010.

• Abstract: The study provides a sociological analysis of the overrepresentation of Vietnamese immigrants in the manicuring business, and of the mechanisms through which the ethnic nail niche is sustained. The geographical focus is Boston, and elsewhere in New England. It is the most comprehensive study to date of the manicure sector and the role of Vietnamese in it. Vietnamese immigrants are shown to have been in a favored position to work in the niche, at a time when technological changes in the nail industry made manicuring more affordable and allowed for an expansion of service offerings. Vietnamese fitted the racial profile for low-skill manual service work in America, and were seen as deft in performing nail care. Also, they settled mainly in urban areas, where demand for nail services was greatest. Furthermore, they had extensive ethnic resources on which to draw. Through ethnic networks they acquired the necessary skills to perform the work, they secured employment, they pooled capital to go into business for themselves, and they found reliable workers in turn. Meanwhile, as poor immigrants, they were impressed with the earnings they could make as manicurists. The study makes use of historical and statistical sources, participant observation and key informants, and secondary sources. The data show Vietnamese domination of employment and ownership in an expanding manicure industry, and conflict and competition as well as cooperation among Vietnamese employed in the sector. Yet, Vietnamese prove to get disillusioned with work in the sector over the years, as a recession reduces demand for their services, as the growing supply of Vietnamese manicurists drives down earnings that can be made for their services, and as they are increasingly exposed to unhealthy chemicals in the course of their work. The findings have policy implications. With improved understanding of conditions in the sector government agencies can upgrade labor and health conditions in salons.

Almandrez, Mary Grace A. History in the Making: Narratives of Selected Asian Pacific American Women in Leadership. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 08, pp. 2943, 2011.

• Abstract: The commitment of Asian Pacific American (APA) women to communities of color is not unique. However, their passions, experiences, and narratives have not been widely shared and are rarely considered in the study of leadership. Conventional notions of leadership as gendered, racialized, hierarchical, and individual-focused experiences do not necessarily reflect Asian Pacific American women’s leadership. This research inquiry calls for a paradigm shift where leadership is grounded in identity and being. This study employed a participatory inquiry protocol with an orientation in critical hermeneutics (Herda 1999) to account for the sociocultural complexity involved with Asian Pacific American women’s experiences. The data was created in a collaborative partnership between the participants and researcher. Data analysis drew upon the works of Ricoeur (1984, 1992), Kearney (1998, 2002), and Herda (1999) with specific focus on narrative identity, mimesis, and imagination. Through the exchange of stories and ideas, self-reflection, and continuous re-interpretation, both the participants and the researcher reached new understandings. The narratives of select Asian Pacific American women revealed four key findings. First, identity and being cannot be separated from leadership. Research participants revealed that founding events, cultural traditions, and relationships with others influenced the ways they led and served their communities. Second, Asian Pacific American women feel an ethical responsibility to carry on their legacies of leadership. They expressed a sense of responsibility to both honor the past and develop future leaders. Third, images of leadership can and do change over time. As Asian Pacific American women continue to share their stories, they provide educators, scholars, and communities with diverse images of leadership. Fourth, Asian Pacific American women place solicitude at the heart of ethical action. Participants considered recognition, reciprocity, and solicitude in their leadership. The appropriation of identity through the medium of leadership is rarely, if ever, considered by scholars. Understanding how identity informs leadership and leadership influences identity may provide insight on the varied ways that Asian Pacific American women lead and inspire their communities.

Yamauchi, Elyse M. Counterstories: Uncovering History within the Stories of Faculty of Color. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 09, pp. 3169, 2011.

• Abstract: Through counterstorytelling (Solrzano & Yosso, 2002b), the methodological approach that is informed by critical race theory (CRT), an elegant platform and enlightening lens allows for the amplification of the narratives of faculty of color in predominantly White institutions of higher education (PWIs). Eight faculty of color, four women and four men, who identify as Chicano /a, Native American, Asian, and African American, were interviewed. They represented two institutions of higher education in a western state. Five of the counterstorytellers were tenured full professors, and the other three were non-tenured or tenure-track assistant professors. Their counterstories challenge the dominant master narrative that argues that in a post-racial and post-civil rights nation, issues of discrimination, racism, oppression, and White privilege have essentially been neutralized. However, their counterstories revealed painful historical experiences, legal decisions, and laws that have profoundly impacted their lives and scholarly pursuits. Their counterstories spoke to the racism that they have experienced where racism may not have been apparent to their White counterparts. From the powerful counterstories, the faculty of color revealed their perspectives and lived experiences of existing in divergent cultural worlds (Sadao, 2003), the cultures of their ethnic world and of the university. Their counterstories further reveal that faculty of color not only live in the borderlands between cultures, but often they face a separate reality in terms of mentoring, tenure, white privilege, and institutional racism. Finally, master narratives have an extensive and overarching historical and systemic impact upon their experiences at multiple levels.

Domingo, Ligaya Rene. Building a Movement: Filipino American Union and Community Organizing in Seattle in the 1970s. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 09, pp. 3324, 2011.

• Abstract: The Asian American Movement emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, Antiwar Movement, Black Liberation Movement, and struggles for liberation in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. Activists, including college students and community members throughout the United States, used amass linea tactics to raise political awareness, build organizations, address community concerns, and ultimately to serve their communities. While the history of the Asian American Movement has been chronicled, the scholarship has been analytically and theoretically insufficient -and in some cases nonexistent- in terms of local struggles, how the movement unfolded, and the role of Filipino Americans. This dissertation focuses on one, untold story of the Asian American Movement: the role of activists in Seattle, Washington who were concerned with regional injustices affecting Filipino Americans. I argue that this local struggle in the Pacific Northwest not only demonstrates the diversity of action and strategy within the Asian American Movement but also deepens our understanding of the broader movement as both local and transnational a unique in its local strategies yet closely aligned with the goals of the eraas social movements. Based on both historical and qualitative data, this dissertation uses a Gramscian framework to explore the possibilities and limitations of using civil society as instruments for social change. Specifically, I examine the efforts by a group of local activists in the 1970s to seek redress for the exclusion, discrimination and social dislocation experienced by Filipino Americans. I explore two local Asian American Movement case studies in which activists worked within two preexisting organizational formations of civil society, the Alaska Cannery Workeras Union and the Filipino Community of Seattle, to achieve their goals. Ultimately, the findings of this study challenge previous claims that the Asian American Movement was either reformist or radical. In this case study of Filipino American activists in Seattle, the data demonstrates that they were agents for social reform and also revolutionaries, not one or the other. The findings of this study point to the need for more nuanced and complex frameworks for understanding social change processes and organizing strategies.

Chunyu, Miao. A Comparative Study of Chinese and Mexican Immigrants’ Economic Incorporation in the United States. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 10, pp. 3809, 2011.

• Abstract: This dissertation research is a comparative study of the economic incorporation of the unskilled Chinese and Mexican immigrants in the United States. This comparative approach is justified by the fact that these two groups share striking similarities in human capital, social networks, and immigrant flow patterns, whereas they also differ significantly in their migration cost, transnational practice, and reception in the U.S. labor market. This research investigates three specific aspects of their labor market experience: participation in self-employment, job transition, and earnings growth. Essentially I hope to find out whether these immigrants can achieve economic mobility over time and in what forms. To explain the variation in immigrants’ labor market performance, I examine the effects of a series of factors, including assimilation, transnationalism, and other factors pertaining to the contexts of exit and reception. One particular point of inquiry is immigrants’ job placement in nontraditional destination areas and the economic consequences associated with that movement. This is mainly a quantitative study, using data from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) and the China International Migration Project (CIMP). Besides descriptive statistics I employ a series of multivariate methods in my analyses, including logistic regression, discrete-time logit model, event history proportional hazard model, and fixed-effects and random-effects models. In addition, I utilize the qualitative information collected from the in-depth interviews with select Chinese immigrants in New York City in order to corroborate and complement the quantitative results. This study finds many similarities between the two groups’ labor market experience. These include their occupational status, patterns of job transitions within the U.S., and the influence of pre-migration endowment on their entrepreneurial attainment in the host society. Furthermore, both groups show an increasing trend of working in their nontraditional destination areas, very likely due to the reduced job competition and higher wages there. But they differ vastly in their labor market niches, including participation in self-employment and employment by coethnics, which lead to important differences in their economic well-being. In addition, intensive transnational practice and exorbitant migration cost constitute unique forces in affecting the incorporation experiences of Mexican and Chinese immigrants respectively.

Fino, Michelle. Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Exercise Practices of College Students of Color. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 11, pp. 3916, 2011.

• Abstract: Chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer are the leading causes of death in the United States, with people of color experiencing higher rates than the general population. Like most adults, college students typically do not adhere to nutrition and exercise recommendations that are in place to reduce the risks of chronic illnesses and promote good health. With increasing numbers of students of color attending college today, colleges must address their health and wellness needs. The purpose of this dissertation was to study the exercise behaviors and fruit and vegetable intake of college students of color by determining if relationships exist between various characteristics of students of color and their health habits. This study used a subsample of 5,587 African American, Asian American, Latina/o and Native American college students of color from the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment fall 2008 nationwide college health survey. The results of this study indicate African American, Asian American, Latina/o and Native American college students do not meet current exercise or fruit and vegetable intake recommendations, with female students in all groups exercising less than their male counterparts. The results also indicated that distinct factors predicted fruit and vegetable intake and exercise practices for African American, Asian American, Latina/o and Native American college students. This study proposes a research-based Healthy Campus Committee model designed to improve the nutrition practices and increase exercise activity among African American, Asian American, Latina/o and Native American college students.

Kamimura, Mark Allen. Multiracial College Students: Understanding Interpersonal Self-Concept in the First Year. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 11, pp. 3923, 2011.

• Abstract: This purpose of this study was to explore the differences between mixed and single race students in the factors that contribute to an interpersonal self-concept. The data in this study are drawn from a national longitudinal survey, Your First College Year (YFCY), from 2004-2005 and includes mixed race Black and Asian students in comparison to their single race Black and Asian single race peers to explore interpersonal self-concept. The results suggest that mixed and single race Asian and Black students have different pre-college and first year experiences. Only mixed race Black students were found to develop a significantly higher interpersonal self-concept after their first-year than their single race peers. However, most importantly for mixed and single race students are their interactions with diverse peers. For all groups, both negative and positive interactions based on race within the college environment directly impact interpersonal self-concept. First-year college experiences (Positive Ethnic/Racial Relations, Racial Interactions of a Negative Quality, Leadership Orientation, Sense of Belonging, Campus Racial Climate, Self-Assessed Cognitive Development) were the most significant contributors to the development of an interpersonal self-concept in comparison to pre-college experiences. The slight differences between Black and Asian interpersonal self-concept are discussed. The findings in this study expand the literature on multiracial college students and provide empirical evidence to support institutional practices that aim to promote a positive interpersonal self-concept in the first college year.

Samura, Michelle A. Architecture of Diversity: Dilemmas of Race and Space for Asian American Students in Higher Education. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 11, pp. 3927, 2011.

• Abstract: This mixed methods study examines the contradictory experiences of Asian American college students who are simultaneously experiencing the benefits of academic success, including socioeconomic mobility and, to a certain extent, social inclusion, yet are unable to escape racialization. Conceptually, this study both incorporates and challenges recent work on Asian American identity and racial politics. Empirically, this investigation examines the uncertainties and varying experiences of Asian American college students “from below.” That is, rather than assuming that Asian Americans students, and Asian Americans more generally, are already located within the contemporary US racial order, my perspective emphasizes their efforts to position themselves. Asian American college students’ experiences are examined in depth by using a unique combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, spatial theory, and visual sociology. A symbolic interactionist approach is employed to understand how they situate themselves within the rapidly changing dynamics of Asian American racialization today. Qualitative analysis of interviews and quantitative analysis of data from a large scale longitudinal survey of undergraduate students’ experiences, combined with analysis of student-created photographs reveal that many Asian American college students are grappling with a series of dilemmas and tensions. These dilemmas are a result of the conflicting messages they are receiving about the role of higher education in their lives and the fluctuating levels of salience of Asian American racial identity. Furthermore, membership within the pan-ethnic racial category of “Asian American” is not assumed for many of these students. In fact, a number of the participants in this study are unsure about the importance of their Asian American racial identity and frequently contesting, negotiate, and, in some cases, ignore (or at least attempt to ignore) their racial identifications.

Lim, Jeehyun. Between foreigners and citizens: Bilinguals in Asian American and Latino literature, 1960–2000. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 11, pp. 4024, 2011.

• Abstract: The immigration reform of 1965 ushered in a tide of multiculturalism in the U.S. The new immigration changed the demographics of the U.S. as Asians and Latinos came to form the two largest groups of immigrants in the post-1965 era. The social debates on bilingualism between 1967, when bilingual education was first debated in Congress, and 1998, when Proposition 227 banned bilingual education from public schools in California, illustrate the negotiations around the incorporation of Asian Americans and Latinos into the national body. While the popular understanding of bilingualism in the 1960s viewed it as a disadvantage — a euphemism for linguistic handicap — the liberal approach to bilingualism tried to turn the liability of bilingualism into an asset. The two faces of bilingualism as liability and asset correspond to the oscillating position of Asian Americans and Latinos as racialized subjects and exemplary multicultural subjects in multiculturalism. In this dissertation, I place a number of well-known Asian American literary texts in dialogue with the debates on bilingualism to examine what the social discourse of bilingualism can offer for understanding of these texts and to see what the literary representations of bilinguals can show about the psychology and affective landscape of bilingualism that often go unnoted in the social discourse of bilingualism. I argue that the representation of bilinguals in Asian American and Latino literature shows the social negotiations around bilingualism that either result in the bilingual’s becoming an exemplary citizen-subject or her perpetual relegation to a realm outside the social norms. The writers I examine, including Maxine Hong Kingston, Helena Maria Viramontes, Richard Rodriguez, Chang-rae Lee, Julia Alvarez, and Ha Jin, show the depth and breadth of a literary imagination that reaches into the heart of the psychological and social experiences of bilinguals. In their writings, the bilingual characters ruminate on the meaning of language and belonging, negotiate their state of racialization in and between two languages, and configure the place of language between identity and commodity. The literary bilingual’s navigation of the various social values accorded bilingualism demonstrates the place of the Asian American and Latino subject within a managerial multiculturalism.

Schiff, Sarah Eden. Word of Myth: Critical Stories in Minority American Literature. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 11, pp. 4026, 2011.

• Abstract: Since the 1960s, African American, Native American, Asian American, and Chicano/a literatures have captivated the national imagination. “Word of Myth” contends that minority authors’ pervasive use of myth has been foundational to this boom in literary production. Because it imposes order on the unknown and makes what is historically specific seem natural and timeless, myth has proven invaluable for minority authors to challenge master narratives while simultaneously reconstructing marginalized ones. Though myth is conventionally understood as a politically conservative narrative form, I argue that it can both conserve and liberate, sanction and qualify. In myth, minority writers found the means to transmit cultural values, intellectual traditions, and silenced histories while retaining an oppositional political stance. To map the ways crosscultural US literatures deploy myth, I draw on a broad spectrum of myth theory, from mid-century structuralists Carl Jung and Mircea Eliade to more recent scholars of religion and philosophy such as Paul Ricoeur and Wendy Doniger. Considering texts by contemporaneous authors across cultural divides, each chapter of my dissertation identifies formal dynamics by which US literatures of race and ethnicity forge symbolic space for alternate mythologies in order to confront the leviathan of American exceptionalism. Because myth appears in all cultures but demands cultural context to be understood, it proves to be an especially useful theoretical lens for comparative American literary studies. By making myth a central critical category, “Word of Myth” identifies literary strategies used in common by authors of disparate racial backgrounds, explains the significance of these connections in the context of national politics, and thereby revises the prevailing narrative of American literary history. Rather than a series of unconnected movements or an assortment of multicultural tokens, post-1960s US minority literature, through its emplotment of alternate origin stories, has fundamentally changed the imagination of Americans — both how we imagine and who we imagine Americans to be.

Li, Shijian. When Does Social Capital Matter for Health? The Moderating Roles of Ethnicity, Income and Gender. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 11, pp. 4181, 2011.

• Abstract: Many empirical studies have suggested that social capital is positively related to health. However, little research has been conducted into how social capital is distributed and whether social capital matters for health uniformly or differentially across socio-economic statuses or racial/ethnic groups in the United States. This research seeks to address the gaps by examining the distribution of social capital across racial/ethnic, income, education and gender groups in the general population as well as among three Asian American subpopulations. It investigates whether social capital is associated with Asian Americans’ health, and, if so, whether such associations are moderated by ethnicity, income or gender. The research draws data from two nationally representative surveys: the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), and the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). Exploratory factor analysis is used to generate social capital indicators from respondents’ social networks and their subjective evaluations of family and neighborhood life. Dependent variables include both physical and mental health outcomes as well as health behavior. Findings reveal that Whites, females and individuals with higher incomes and more education have higher levels of social capital. Logistic regression analysis shows that while social capital, in particular structural social capital, is generally associated with better health outcomes, some dimensions of social capital are associated with an increased risk of smoking. More importantly, the study finds that social capital and health associations are moderated by ethnicity, income and gender, with Vietnamese and low-income individuals receiving higher returns from social capital. Additionally, the negative effect of social capital on smoking is much stronger for women than for men. The findings of this study provide empirical evidence for a new line of reasoning which views the value of social capital for health as contingent on social context. Future research should take social context into account when examining the health effects of social capital. Additionally, social work practitioners should consider tailored interventions for targeted populations in order to maximize the benefits of social capital while minimizing its negative effects. As empirical investigations in this field are relatively new, additional research is needed to advance theory, research and practice.

Lee, Sharon S. (Un)seen and (Un)heard: The Struggle for Asian American “Minority” Recognition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1968-1997. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 12, pp. 4305, 2011.

• Abstract: Are Asian American college students “minorities”? Using a measure of statistical parity of a student body compared to a state’s demographics, Asian Americans have often been excluded from minority student status because they are “overrepresented.” As a result, universities overlook their need for culturally and racially relevant curricula and support services. Unable to argue that they are underrepresented and depicted as the “model minority,” Asian American students have struggled to have their educational needs seen and heard. This dissertation examines the historical development of academic and support services for Asian American students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) from 1968 to 1997. UIUC is home to the largest Asian American Studies program and Asian American cultural center in the Midwest, products of years of activism by Asian American students who challenged university discourses that they were not minorities. By investigating archival and oral evidence, the complex and nuanced experiences of Asian American students are revealed, beyond misperceptions of their seamless integration in predominantly white universities and beyond model minority stereotypes. This study of Asian American students offers a broader concept of “minority status” that is currently limited by a statistical focus and a black/white racial lens.

Fung, Catherine Minyee. Perpetual Refugee: Memory of the Vietnam War in Asian American Literature. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 12, pp. 4392, 2011.

• Abstract: This dissertation investigates the ways in which the refugee provides a counternarrative to models of citizenship that privilege immigration and assimilation. I treat the refugee as a figure that is suspended between citizen and alien, and that is at once constructed by state apparatuses and deployed in order to reify or contest what the nation supposedly stands for. Refugee status is granted with adherence to specific laws and regulations set by the US and the international community. At the same time, the “success” or “failure” of refugees’ resettlement is often used to both rewrite the US’s involvement in past wars and justify its involvement in current ones. For example, the narrative of the “good refugee,” which valorizes capitalism and equates “freedom” with upward mobility, is now often used to fold the Vietnam War into the United States’ list of “good wars.” Rather than view the refugee as a mere byproduct of war, I argue for a method of treating the refugee as a rubric upon which the United States constructs its collective history. Thus Perpetual Refugee offers a critical examination of how the Vietnam War serves as a condition that allows for refugees to be represented, as well as of the terms of citizenship that the war negotiates. Chapter One examines Vietnamese American cultural production, focusing on the ways in which memoirs written by second-generation Vietnamese Americans channel memory of the war, and the loss that it produced, through tropes of wounding, which become the condition that grants visibility for refugees in the United States. Chapter Two expands upon this issue of nationalism and visibility through an examination of a refugee group that is “nation-less” and largely invisible: the Hmong who fought as allies to the U.S. during the “Secret War” in Laos and Cambodia. Chapter Three unpacks the category of the refugee as it is mediated through literary, psychological and legal discourses. Chapter Four challenges the genre of “Vietnam War literature” by reading Monique Truong’s The Book of Salt as a novel that relies on memory of the war in producing its meaning.

Zhou, Chao. Three Essays on the Economics of Racial and Ethnic Differences. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 12, pp. 4497, 2011.

• Abstract: The United States contains an enormous variety of racial and ethnic groups, many of which have faced discrimination, both historically and today. My dissertation studies how minority races and ethnic groups were (and are) treated differently and how these treatments affect economic outcomes from different angles, including income, education, employment and health. Historically, blacks were denied access to many hospitals because of their race. Chapter One uses a historical natural experiment — federally-mandated hospital desegregation — to study the impact of access on racial differences in deaths from motor vehicle accidents. Focusing primarily on Mississippi, I use detailed micro-data from the US Vital Statistics matched with race-specific hospital survey information. Combining this data set with a race-specific distance to the nearest hospital before and after integration, I find that, on average, distance to nearest hospital fell by 50 miles for blacks after integration. I also show that distance and accident mortality were positively correlated: increases in distance to the nearest hospital were associated with higher mortality. Chapter Two focuses on a contemporary issue — Racial and ethnic differences in medical utilization. I focus on the heart failure because it is the leading noncancerous diagnosis for patients in hospice care and the leading cause of hospitalization among Medicare beneficiaries. In a national sample of Medicare beneficiaries with heart failure, I find that blacks and Hispanics used hospice care for heart failure less than whites after adjustment for individual and market factors. Blending both historical and contemporary analysis, Chapter 3 studies a previously unnoticed trend — a secular decline from 1960 to 2000 in the relative likelihood that Asian-Americans worked in the public sector. In 1960 Asian Americans were nearly ten percentage points more likely to work in the public sector than were Whites, but by 2000 the gap had declined to two percentage points. I argue that this relative decline in public employment reflects relative improvement over time in labor market outcomes in the private sector for Asian Americans.

Carlisle, Shauna K. From Healthy to Unhealthy: Disaggregating the Relationship between Race, Nativity, Perceived Discrimination, and Chronic Health. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 12, pp. 4565, 2011.

• Abstract: There is a clear association between race and health outcomes in the United States. Needed is a systematic examination of the relationship between chronic health and race, ethnicity, nativity, and length of residency. Further, the role of perceived discrimination and health decline must be explored beyond broad racial categories with the inclusion of Caribbean ethnic subgroups. Utilizing the linked data from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES), this dissertation addresses the gap in literature by examining differences in reports of chronic cardiovascular, chronic respiratory, and chronic pain conditions across three samples of Asian American (n=1,628), Latino Americans (n=1,940), and Afro-Caribbean American (n=978) respondents. Chapter 2 examines the ethnic subgroup variation in chronic health by comparing self-reports of chronic conditions across diverse subgroups of Asian American (Vietnamese, Filipino, Chinese), Latino American (Cuban, Portuguese, Mexican), and Afro-Caribbean (Haitian, Jamaican, Trinidadian/Tobagonian) respondents. Chi square analysis reveals significant differences by race for chronic cardiovascular [c2 (2, n=4969) 16.77, p< .00001, respiratory [c2 (2, n=4975) 10.23, p<.0001], and pain conditions [c2 (2, n=4973) .22, p>.8]. Logistic regression revealed significant differences in reports of chronic conditions across nine ethnic subgroups Chapter 3 examines the nativity differences in reports of chronic cardiovascular, respiratory, and pain conditions between foreign-born (n=3,579) and native-born (n=1,409) respondents. Results reveal that native-born respondents were significantly more likely to report chronic respiratory [c2(1, n=4958) 30.78, p^,.05] and pain [c2(1, n-4958) 3.77, p^,.05] conditions than were their foreign-born counterparts. Logistic regression models reveal significant associations between chronic conditions, and other demographic factors known to influence immigrant health. Chapter 4 explores the relationship between chronic conditions, nativity, perceived discrimination, and length of residency among the three racial and nine ethnic subgroups. Afro-Caribbean subgroups were more likely to report perceived discrimination than Asian and Latino American subgroups were. However, a significant positive association with perceived discrimination was found only for Latino American respondents (b=.60; P^,01). An interaction term called “exposure” was created to estimate the effects of long-term exposure to perceived discrimination among foreign-born respondents in this study. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine which groups within the model were more likely to report exposure effects.

Jain, Sonali. For Love and Money: Second-Generation Indian American Professionals in the Emerging Indian Economy. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 12, pp. 4579, 2011.

• Abstract: Against a background of shifting global economic dynamics, this dissertation explores questions raised when an emergent migration stream — that of high-skilled, second-generation Indian American professionals — “returns” to India, even as their parents continue to reside in the US. My analysis draws from qualitative interviews with 48 second-generation Indian Americans working in the Indian cities of New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad, and I supplement the interviews with ethnographic data. I find that second-generation Indian Americans “return” to take advantage of economic opportunities in the emerging Indian economy and also to emotionally connect or reconnect to the ancestral homeland. Drawing on sociological frameworks of globalization and transnationalism, I examine the lived experiences of second-generation Indian Americans in three spheres in India: home, work and community. My analysis reveals that in the home sphere, even as respondents realize a deepening of their attachments to India, they struggle with the social and cultural realities of living in a “new” and globalized India. Their experiences are shaped in part by their location in a transnational social field spanning the US and India, which affords them the opportunity to constantly juxtapose and compare their lives in both countries. In the work sphere, I find that they strategically emphasize both Indian and American ethnicities. Ethnicity then becomes a powerful tool that respondents selectively deploy in order to accrue advantages in the workplace. As they adapt to life in India, many connect to the country on a more personal level, as manifested by their engagement in the civic sphere. Animated by a desire to contribute to “India”, respondents get involved in civic life in India in a variety of ways, facilitated in part by their embeddedness in transnational networks spanning the US and India. The findings from this dissertation point to the emergence of an important but under-recognized phenomenon in the transnational migration literature. At least for some second-generation immigrant groups, “return” to the ancestral homeland may be a growing phenomenon, with important implications for questions of transnational mobility, belonging and ethnicity.

Kang, Hyeyoung. Exploring Sense of Indebtedness toward Parents among Korean American Youth. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 71, no. 12, pp. 4582, 2011.

• Abstract: Korean American youth experience immigration-related parent-child challenges including language barriers, generational cultural divides, and parental unavailability. Despite these challenges, studies suggest their lack of negative effects on these youth’s global perception of their parents and an indication of positive relationships in Korean immigrant families. Evidence suggests the important role of Korean American youth’s positive meaning-making in their perceptions of their parents and past family challenges, as well as the salience of their perception of parental sacrifice in the process of positive meaning making. Thus this study proposed Korean American youth’s sense of indebtedness toward parents as an important concept that may be useful to understand the gap between parent-child challenges and their outcome among Korean immigrant families. Using symbolic interactionism theory and grounded theory methods, this exploratory qualitative study examined the role of Korean American youth’s sense of indebtedness toward their parents in understanding the process of positive meaning-making. The findings show that the majority of these youth developed their narrative sense of indebtedness toward parents, in which they incorporated SIP-related perceptions into their own narratives. However, only some youth internalized sense of indebtedness toward parents, making these perceptions integral part of their own beliefs by attributing personal and significant meaning to these perceptions. The findings suggest that Korean American youth’s internalization of sense of indebtedness toward parents may play a role as a protective factor against parent-child challenges by positively affecting the youth in cognitive, affective, and behavioural domain, through which it appeared to help youth overcome parent-child challenges and promote more positive parent-child relationships.

Chatterji, Miabi. The Hierarchies of Help: South Asian Service Workers in New York City. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 72, no. 01, pp. 0248, 2011.

• Abstract: Services are the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. economy and are sold to the working class as a source of sustainable employment that will replace manufacturing jobs. Drawing on ethnographic research with South Asian low-wage immigrant workers in three South Asian American commercial enclaves in New York City as well as their managers and Mexican and Central American coworkers, I challenge this vision of the service sector as a new haven of working-class stability. In-person service jobs are chronically contingent, insecure, and idiosyncratically managed, and contemporary urban services are largely unregulated, with weak enforcement of laws for worker protection. This environment leaves low-wage immigrant employees — the backbone of the industry — open to a wide range of abuses. Through analyzing my participants’ everyday conflicts with one another, their narrations of their dating and love lives, and their fraught interactions with their managers, this study shows how recent immigrants run a gauntlet of racialization, gendering, and the molding of class consciousness. In response, they fashion their own informal rules in order to make sense of their work world and define their positions within it. My analysis of their predicament, while extending the scholarship on urban immigrant communities, has critical implications for the politics of multiracial labor in the modern workplace.

Hall, Matthew S. From a World Away to Living Next Door: The Residential Segregation and Attainment of America’s Newest Immigrants. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 72, no. 01, pp. 0379, 2011.

• Abstract: As the immigrant population in the U.S. swells in size and expands across the geographic landscape, virtually every aspect of contemporary social life is being transformed, influencing natives’ job prospects, the challenges faced by local schools, and America’s ethnic mix and cultural identity. These and other issues are closely related to immigrant settlement patterns across U.S. neighborhoods. Understanding immigrants’ imprint on the residential landscape is thus central to broader debates over how immigration impacts American life and how immigrants fare in their new home. This dissertation seeks to address this important topic by providing a detailed, yet comprehensive account of new immigrants’ residential circumstances. Specifically, I use neighborhood-level data from Census 2000 and household-level data from the American Housing Survey to explore patterns and correlates of residential segregation and attainment for ten new immigrant groups. In sum, I find that the assimilation of new immigrants is clearly underway: Greater socioeconomic resources and acculturation are associated with greater proximity to native-born whites, lower residential isolation, higher-quality housing, and better neighborhoods. On the other hand, my research also points to a rigid racial/ethnic pattern with Asian immigrants being less segregated and occupying superior housing and neighborhood environments than Latin American and Caribbean immigrants. The extraordinarily high levels of segregation for black immigrants are especially disturbing and indicate the continued relevance of the principle of black exceptionalism. I also show that the fairly high levels of immigrant group segregation in established metropolitan areas are being reproduced in new and nongateway metropolitan destinations. Despite some of these troubling patterns, my analysis generally suggests that immigrant segregation does not translate into poor housing and neighborhood outcomes. While I do find that the odds of homeownership are lower for immigrants in segregated contexts, and that segregation is consistently detrimental for Mexican immigrants’ residential attainment, segregation tends to have no effect or exerts positive ones on other measures of housing and neighborhood quality. All in all, this research points not just to the challenges faced by new arrivals in American residential life, but also to the clear signs that new immigrants are participating in the American Dream.

Narui, Mitsu. A Foucauldian analysis of Asian/American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Students’ Process of Disclosing their Sexual Orientation and Its Impact on Identity Construction. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 72, no. 02, pp. 0554, 2011.

• Abstract: In recent years, the number of traditional-aged Asian/American gay, lesbian and bisexual (GLB) college students has steadily increased. Despite this trend, this population has largely been neglected within the research literature. As a group, Asian/American GLB students are distinctively positioned within society, facing pressures from the Asian/American, White, heterosexual, and GLB communities. The purpose of this study was to better understand how and why Asian/American GLB students disclosed their sexual orientation to others during college and the impact of that disclosure on their construction of identity. Methodologically, a Fouaculdian analysis (particularly situational analysis) was conducted with the primary data sources being semi-structured interviews; secondary sources included documents (including blogs, Facebook posts, and personal essays), participant observations, and fieldwork. Overall, the goal of this study was to find out how disclosing one’s sexual orientation affected the study’s participants’ experiences in college.

Guerrero, Perla M. Impacting Arkansas: Vietnamese and Cuban Refugees and Latina/o Immigrants, 1975-2005. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 72, no. 02, pp. 0636, 2011.

• Abstract: This research considers the effects of the arrival of refugees from Vietnam and Cuba and Latina/o immigrants (mainly ethnic Mexicans) to the U.S. South. I use newspaper articles and state and federal archives to analyze how refugees and immigrants were racialized in the state. I examine each group’s racialization with attention to the historical moment in which they entered homogenously White, Protestant, and Republican northwest Arkansas and I find that contextual forces such as local history, U.S. foreign policy, national political context, social class status, and dominant racial discourses articulated in ways that drew on long-standing ideologies. The racialization of Vietnamese refugees in 1975 was affected by their placement in Arkansas at the end of the Vietnam War, in a moment when the nation was dealing with having lost an exceptionally contentious episode within the ongoing Cold War. Vietnamese were cautiously welcomed with a rhetoric of American values which opposed communism and had to make good on promises to help the United States’ former allies. Their reception was further shaped by their status as largely professionals, college-educated, and English-proficient, nonetheless, fear of “yellow peril” promulgated. In contrast to the Vietnamese, Cuban refugees arrived in 1980 amidst national and international accusations that Fidel Castro’s government had unleashed criminals, prostitutes, and the mentally ill. Given these circumstances, and that this cohort of Cuban refugees was largely working-class, gay, and of African descent, they were constructed as criminal and deviant and Arkansans and their politicians mobilized to remove them from the state. Latinas/os (immigrants and U.S.-born), particularly ethnic Mexicans, began arriving in the early 1990s during a significant economic regional reorganization which provided many of them with low-wage work. They were all quickly constructed as “illegal aliens,” with their behaviors in public and private spaces severely condemned and policed. The history and relationship between the State of Arkansas and the federal government also shaped the reception of the groups in important ways as local (city and state) versus extra-local (federal agencies) control became central to the debates over the changes occurring in northwest Arkansas. Generally, there were hostile reactions toward Vietnamese, Cubans, and ethnic Mexicans because Arkansans deemed the new groups a threat to their community, their way of life, and their country.

Willms, Nicole A. Japanese-American Basketball: Constructing Gender, Ethnicity, and Community. Dissertation Abstracts International: Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 72, no. 03, pp. 0997, 2011.

• Abstract: This study explores the ways that an ethnic-based sports league organizes and understands itself in the context of larger racial /ethnic and gender hegemonies in sport. Using primarily qualitative data drawn from observations and interviews, augmented by archival and survey research, I analyze the social construction of gender, ethnicity, and community within Japanese-American basketball leagues and tournaments (“J-Leagues”) in the Los Angeles area using a three-level theoretical framework that examines social interactions, structural contexts, and cultural symbols. Japanese-American Basketball is an institution with a unique gender regime that provides a space for and is supported by cultural symbols and social interactions that differ from those typically found in mainstream sports. The core reason for this alternate pattern in gender relations is the importance of community-building for Japanese Americans. Girls and women in the leagues are a necessary component of community-building — their active participation is an important element for maintaining the expansiveness of the leagues. Successful women connected to the J-Leagues also provide symbolic resources for the Japanese-American community that help build ethnic solidarity and that are seen as comparable, if not superior, to those offered by male counterparts. Within this milieu, female athleticism is normalized, encouraged, supported and respected. Outside of the community, however, girls and women often face different reactions. The gender regime in the J-Leagues exists in the context of larger sociohistorical circumstances. Early discriminatory laws and practices punctuated by the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II created the settings, necessity, and desire for a strong ethnic community. These same circumstances also served to erode elements of patriarchy within the Japanese-American family. These structures influenced Japanese Americans to place a high value on institutions that promote community and to be open to active participation by women (particularly when it serves the goals of maintaining community). Furthermore, the enduring racialization of Japanese Americans in the United States as “Asian” involves controlling images that often portray women as small, weak, and feminine while also regarding them as foreign and unassimilable. This study reveals the ways in which engagement with a physical and all-American sport such as basketball contests both types of images. Participation by either sex — and especially successful participation in mainstream environments — feeds this counter-hegemonic project.

The following is a list of recent academic journal articles and doctoral dissertations from scholars in the social sciences and humanities that focus on race/ethnicity and/or immigration, with a particular emphasis on Asian Americans. The academic journal articles are generally available in the libraries of most colleges and universities and/or through online research databases. As always, works included in this list are for informational purposes only and do not imply an endorsement of their contents.

Special Issue: “Generations.” Asian American Literary Review. (Volume 3, Issue 1, Spring 2012).

“Are there any continuities,” wonders scholar Min Hyoung Song, “between the earlier generation of writers which first raised the banner of an Asian American literature and a later generation of writers which inherited it?”

This is the question AALR’s Spring 2012 issue on “Generations” poses to 29 writers, poets, playwrights, spoken word performers, scholars, and publishers of various generations, regions, and ethnic and artistic communities. What emerges is a vital survey of generational continuities and divergences-not to mention some necessary reevaluation of how “generations,” “Asian American,” and “Asian American literature” might be understood. Respondents include Genny Lim, David Mura, Velina Hasu Houston, Giles Li, Gary Pak, Neelanjana Banerjee, Fred Wah, Anna Kazumi Stahl, Sunyoung Lee of Kaya Press, and Allan Kornblum of Coffee House Press, among others.

Other issue features include: Maxine Hong Kingston interviewed by Min Hyoung Song; Miguel Syjuco interviewed by Brian Ascalon Roley; Afaa Michael Weaver interviewed by Gerald Maa; a dialogue on “Asian American form” between Karen Tei Yamashita, Sesshu Foster, R. Zamora Linmark, Ray Hsu, Timothy Yu, Larissa Lai, Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis, and Srikanth Reddy; new poetry by Dilruba Ahmed, Ed Bok Lee, R. Zamora Linmark, Wing Tek Lum, and Afaa Michael Weaver; an email to Monique Truong from The New York Times; new writing by Ed Park; translations of work by Hiromi Itō and Carlos Yushimito del Valle; reviews of Tao Lin’s Shoplifting from American Apparel and Richard Yates, the new edition of Sui Sin Far’s Mrs. Spring Fragrance, Srikanth Reddy’s Voyager, and Monique Truong’s Bitter in the Mouth.

Special Issue: “Asian Americans in Global Cities: Los Angeles – New York Connections and Comparisons.” AAPI Nexus: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders — Policy, Practice and Community. (Volume 10, Number 2, Fall 2012).

This special AAPI Nexus issue examines Asian American experiences in global cities through comparative studies of Los Angeles and New York. The demographic facts are astonishing — more than a quarter of the sixteen million Asian Americans reside in either of the two greater metropolises where they comprise more than a tenth of the total population in each region. Consequently, it is difficult to fully understand and appreciate Asian American experiences without studying these two global cities.

The comparative approach offers great analytical potential because it can generate insights into what phenomena transcend regions and patterns that are produced by factors and forces common to Asian Americans regardless of location and fundamental global-city processes. The comparative approach can also identify phenomena that are unique to each region, such as outcomes of specific local and regional structures and dynamics. . . .

Our hope is that this issue will be a stimulus to further theorizing and empirical analyses of Asian Americans in global cities including those beyond Los Angeles and New York. . . . Scholarly research, however, is not sufficient. Our goal was to compile a set of articles that contributes to engaged practices. . . . We believe that this principle should be integral to future comparative work.

List of articles:

• Shih, Howard and Melany De La Cruz-Viesca. “A Tale of Two Global Cities: The State of Asian Americans in Los Angeles and New York.”

• Nakaoka, Susan. “Cultivating a Cultural Home Space: The Case of Little Tokyo’s Budokan of Los Angeles Project.”

• Sze, Lena. “This is Part of Our History: Preserving Garment Manufacturing and a Sense of Home in Manhattan’s Chinatown.”

• Le, C.N. “New Dimensions of Self-Employment among Asian Americans in Los Angeles and New York.”

• Rotramel, Ariella. “We Make the Spring Rolls, They Make Their Own Rules: Filipina Domestic Workers’ Fight for Labor Rights in New York City and Los Angeles.”

• Chang, Benji and Juhyung Harold Lee. “Community-Based? Asian American Students, Parents, and Teachers in Shifting Chinatowns of New York and Los Angeles.”

Yep, Kathleen S. 2012. “Peddling Sport: Liberal Multiculturalism and the Racial Triangulation of Blackness, Chineseness and Native American-ness in Professional Basketball.” Ethnic and Racial Studies. 35(6):971–987.

• Abstract: Abstract Deploying liberal multiculturalist discourse, the media depicts professional basketball as a post-racial space where all talented players, regardless of their race, can thrive if they work hard. An analysis of the construction of non-white players in the 1930s and in 2010 demonstrates sport as modulated by racially charged discourse. As part of a liberal multiculturalist frame, the coding of basketball players as hero, threat and novelty serve to privilege whiteness and replicate racialized and gendered images that can be traced to the 1930s. In doing so, the article highlights how liberal multiculturalism involves racial triangulation and the simultaneous processes of hyper-racialization and de-racialization.

Kiang, Lisa, Jamie Lee Peterson, and Taylor L Thompson. 2011. “Ethnic Peer Preferences Among Asian American Adolescents in Emerging Immigrant Communities.” Journal of Research on Adolescence. 21(4):754–761.

• Abstract: Growing diversity and evidence that diverse friendships enhance psychosocial success highlight the importance of understanding adolescents’ ethnic peer preferences. Using social identity and social contact frameworks, the ethnic preferences of 169 Asian American adolescents (60% female) were examined in relation to ethnic identity, perceived discrimination, and language proficiency. Adolescents with same- and mixed-ethnic friends reported significantly greater ethnic centrality than those with mostly different-ethnic friends. Adolescents with same-ethnic friends reported significantly higher perceived discrimination and lower English proficiency than those with mixed- and different-ethnic friends. Open-ended responses were linked to quantitative data and provided further insight into specific influences on peer preferences (e.g., shared traditions, homophily). Results speak to the importance of cultural experiences in structuring the friendships and everyday lives of adolescents.

Narui, Mitsu. 2011. “Understanding Asian/American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Experiences from a Poststructural Perspective.” Journal of Homosexuality. 58(9):1211–1234.

• Abstract: This study explores the college experiences of nine Asian/American gay, lesbian, and bisexual students and, specifically, the impact of concealing or revealing their sexual orientation on their emerging sense of self. By utilizing a Foucauldian, poststructural theoretical perspective, the researcher found that the students navigated multiple discourses, and their decisions about revealing their sexual orientation were based on relationships formed within those discourses. These decisions, in turn, helped many of the students grasp their emerging agency within the dominant discourse. To conclude, the researcher discusses the implications of these findings for higher education as a whole.

Diaz, Maria-elena D. 2012. “Asian Embeddedness and Political Participation: Social Integration and Asian-American Voting Behavior in the 2000 Presidential Election.” Sociological Perspectives. 55(1):141–166.

• Abstract: Despite the abundance of electoral research, a recurring finding is that Asian-Americans in multivariate analyses are less likely to vote compared to all other Americans. Yet Asians have high levels of education and income, the strongest predictors of voting behavior. This article goes beyond individual-level characteristics and examines how the ways in which Asian-Americans are connected to communities moderate individual-level characteristics and influence their electoral participation. Using hierarchical generalized linear modeling, variability in Asian-American voting behavior is studied with 2000 Current Population Survey voting data and county data primarily from the 2000 U.S. Census. The main findings are that social integration, either by highly assimilating communities or through ethnic organizing, facilitates political incorporation and electoral participation. Where neither condition exists, Asian-Americans are less likely to vote.

Pih, Kay Kei‐ho, Akihiko Hirose, and KuoRay Mao. 2012. “The Invisible Unattended: Low‐wage Chinese Immigrant Workers, Health Care, and Social Capital in Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley.” Sociological Inquiry. 82(2):236–256.

• Abstract: This study investigates the factors affecting the availability of health insurance, the accessibility of health care, and the dissemination of the relevant information among low-wage Chinese immigrants in Southern California by relying on the concepts of social and cultural capital. Using community-based research and in-depth interviews, our study suggests that a severe shortage in health care coverage among low-wage Chinese immigrants is influenced by the lack of employment with employer-provided health insurance within the Chinese “ethnoburb” community. Although the valuable social capital generated by Chinese immigrant networks seems to be sufficient enough to provide them with certain practical resources, the lack of cultural capital renders the social network rather ineffective in providing critical health care information from mainstream American society.

Zonta, Michela M. 2012. “The Continuing Significance of Ethnic Resources: Korean-Owned Banks in Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 38(3):463–484.

• Abstract: Mirroring the geographic expansion of the Korean population and Korean-owned businesses beyond long-established enclaves, Korean-owned banks can increasingly be found in areas where the presence of mainstream banks is more visible and competition is potentially stronger. Yet, despite competition, Korean banks continue to expand and thrive. By focusing on the recent development of Korean banking in Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC, this article explores the role of ethnic resources in the expansion of Korean banking outside their protected market. Findings suggest that ethnic resources and ties to ethnic enclaves are still important in supporting the ethnic economy in environments characterised by weaker ties and increasing competition by mainstream businesses.

Spencer, James H., Petrice R. Flowers, and Jungmin Seo. 2012. “Post-1980s Multicultural Immigrant Neighbourhoods: Koreatowns, Spatial Identities and Host Regions in the Pacific Rim.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 38(3):437–461.

• Abstract: Recent trends in migration across the Pacific Rim have suggested that neighbourhoods have become important sources of community identity, requiring a re-evaluation of the relationship between urban places and immigrants. Specifically, we argue that the notion of ethnic enclaves may not fit well with some of the newer, post-1980s immigrant populations in Pacific Rim cities. Using data from the cases of Los Angeles, Tokyo and Beijing, we argue that Korean settlement in these cities represents a new kind of immigrant neighbourhood that links Korean migrants with other migrant communities, consumers in the broader region and local government interests to produce places that mitigate increasingly multicultural and multi-ethnic urban hierarchies in their localities. This role has become particularly important regarding real estate and economic development strategies.

Yoon, In-Jin. 2012. “Migration and the Korean Diaspora: A Comparative Description of Five Cases.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 38(3):413–435.

• Abstract: The international migration and settlement of Koreans began in 1860 and there are now about 6.8 million overseas Koreans in 170 countries. Each wave of Korean migration was driven by different historical factors in the homeland and the host countries, and hence the motivations and characteristics of Korean immigrants in each period were different. The diverse conditions in and government policies of the host countries also affected the mode of entry and incorporation of Koreans. A contrast is drawn between the ?old? and the ?new? Korean migrations. The former consists of those who migrated to Russia, China, America and Japan from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century. They were from the lower classes, pushed out by poverty, war and oppression in the homeland. Few returned to the homeland but preserved their collective identities and ethnic cultures in their host societies. The new migrants to America, Europe and Latin America since the 1960s, however, come from middle-class backgrounds, are pulled by better opportunities in the host countries, travel freely between the homeland and host countries, and maintain transnational families and communities. Despite these differences, overseas Koreans share common experiences and patterns of immigration, settlement and adaptation.

Here are some more announcements, links, and job postings about academic-related jobs, fellowships, and other opportunities for those interested in racial/ethnic/diversity issues, with a particular focus on Asian Americans. As always, the announcements and links are provided for informational purposes and do not necessarily imply an endorsement of the organization or college involved.

Call for Papers: North American Chinese Sociologists Conference

Call for Papers
The 2012 North American Chinese Sociologists Association (NACSA) Annual Conference
Denver, Colorado, August 16, 2012

The 2012 NACSA Annual Conference will be held on August 16th in Denver, Colorado, following the great tradition of our association to hold a one-day mini-conference prior to the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association (August 17-21, 2012). The aim of this year’s conference is broadly defined to be two-fold: to promote scholarly research on Chinese society, culture, economy, and immigrant life in the greater Chinese Diaspora, and to continue building bridges and guanxi among scholars of Chinese heritage and non-Chinese ancestry in North America, Asia, and other parts of the world.

Theme(s)
The themes of this year’s conference are open. We call for submissions of regular papers/panels and will let themes emerge from the submissions. We encourage scholars and graduate students from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the greater Chinese Diaspora to submit papers/panels in either English or Chinese.

Sessions
The 2012 mini-conference plans to hold 8 concurrent sessions and a plenary session.

Submission Deadline: Early May, 2012 (email hao@jhu.edu if you need more time). Submit your paper or abstract via email to: Lingxin Hao (hao@jhu.edu).

Individual papers: Complete papers or paper abstracts will be considered. Paper abstracts may be 1-2 pages but must contain sufficient detail and evidence of timely completion for the program committee in its decision making. Papers to be presented at the ASA are eligible for this submission. List the authors’ and coauthors’ names, organizational affiliations, and email addresses.

Panels: Any NACSA member can organize a panel. Each panel should consist of three presenters and a discussant. The panel organizer must submit a proposal specifying the theme of the panel along with the
summaries/abstracts of the papers selected. List all panelists’ names, organizational affiliations, and email addresses.

Submissions may be in English or in Chinese. The program committee assumes that the language used in individual papers/abstracts or panel proposals would be the same as the language used in presentation at the
annual conference. Papers should be formatted in Word or pdf and sent as an attached file.

Acceptance Announcement: Mid May, 2012
Email announcements to all organizers/discussants/authors about the tentative panels to which their presentations are assigned. A formal acceptance letter will be provided to all the authors for their
travel funding application and/or visa application purposes.

Visit http://www.nacsa.net/ for a tentative annual conference program after June 15 of 2012.

Full Paper Submission Deadline: August 1, 2012
A full paper is to be submitted to the organizer/presider/discussant of the assigned session.

Contact Persons:
Professor Lingxin Hao
President of NACSA
Department of Sociology
Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218, U.S.A.
Tel. 410-516-4022; Email hao@jhu.edu

Registration Fee
The registration fee for each participant is US$15 for regular and associate members, US$10 for students. Fees may be paid in form of a personal check or a bank draft, payable to “NACSA,” via regular mail prior to Augest 1, 2010 or on site in Atlanta. Checks should be sent to the treasurer: Professor Yang Cao, Department of Sociology, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC, 28223, U.S.A.

Travel Funds
All participants will be responsible for their own traveling to and from the conference. NACSA would be happy to assist you in applying for travel funds.

Membership Renewal
Current members should renew their 2011 membership. The membership fee is $15 for regular member, $10 for associate member, $5 for student member, and $300 life-time member. Both current and new members may fill out their membership forms (see attached) and mail them with their membership dues in checks or bank drafts, payable to “NACSA,” to Professor Yang Cao, Department of Sociology, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC, 28223, U.S.A.

Summer Institute: Global Migration and Health

7th Summer Institute on Global Migration and Health
Los Angeles, California, USA
June 25-29, 2012

The 7th Summer Institute on Migration and Global Health is an international event that offers researchers, faculty, graduate students and professionals working with migrant communities around the world, a unique opportunity to learn about different health issues that affect mobile populations. International experts will present on the relationship between migration and global health from public health, public policy, and social science perspectives.

The five-day course includes a combination of lectures, workshops, and field trips, offering an exceptional opportunity to learn and to create professional networks.

Date: June 25-29, 2012
Place: Monday- Wednesday: The California Endowment, Los Angeles Conference Center
Thursday: University of California Los Angeles
Friday: Consulate of Mexico in Los Angeles

Registration Fee: Early Registration (by May 28th): Students $290, Professionals $450
After May 28th: Students $350, Professionals $540
Poster session: Deadline to submit abstracts to Liliana.Osorio@sdcounty.ca.gov: May 14, 2012

The event will be in English. For more information and to register please visit our website.

Call for Submissions: Asian American Studies

Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, a refereed scholarly journal based in Taipei, Taiwan, is planning a special issue on Asian American Studies.

Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies
Vol. 39 No. 2 | September 2013

Special Topic Call for Papers: “Phantom Asian America”
Deadline for Submissions: January 31, 2013

Since its emergence in the late 1960s, Asian American studies has gained ground in the academy, and yet the term “Asian America”itself remains in doubt. Where is Asian America? Who are Asian Americans? What constitutes Asian American experience and who is qualified to speak for and about Asian Americans? Why does “Asian American” remain an appealing identity category despite its inherent vagueness?

The special topic “Phantom Asian America”invites essays that probe into histories, literatures and other modes of cultural expression to reflect on the making and meaning of Asian America. We invoke the image of the “phantom” to highlight not only the instability and permeability of Asian America but also the haunting power and affecting forces of Asian American experiences.

Issues of concern may include: Is Asian America a “phantom” entity? How has the presence of Asian Americans as “spectral” others infiltrated Asia and America and caused changes in social structures and cultural coalitions? Is “Asian American” (as both an identity category and an instituted discipline/discourse) haunted by its own ghostly others? Who are the “phantom figures” occupying the margins of Asian America and what are their stories? With what strategies could we excavate the “phantom histories”-histories repressed and untold-about Asian America?

“Phantom Asian America”also welcomes articles that meditate on the “phantastic” lure of Asian American identity in transnational contexts. How have Asian American cultures been circulated and received around the globe? How could we re-appraise Asian American histories and cultures in a world of shifting borders and
transnational links? What does it mean to teach and undertake Asian American studies outside the United States, especially in Asia? Is “Asian American” a substantive presence in Asia or a phantom of Asia’s desire for globality? This special topic encourages contributors to move beyond a narrowly defined Asian America to explore its “phantomistic” circumferencesand permutations, with attention to the networks of power and affect between, as well as beyond, Asia and America.

Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies is a peer-reviewed journal published two times per year by the Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. Concentric is devoted to offering innovative perspectives on literary and cultural issues and advancing the transcultural exchange of ideas. While committed to bringing Asian-based scholarship to the world academic community, Concentric welcomes original contributions from diverse national and cultural backgrounds.

Each issue of Concentric publishes groups of essays on a special topic as well as papers on more general issues. The focus can be on any historical period and any region. Any critical method may be employed as long as the paper demonstrates a distinctive contribution to scholarship in the field. Please visit our website for more information and submission guidelines.

Campaign for Asian American Studies at Williams College

Dear Supporters,

Please take a few seconds to sign a letter of support to bring attention to faculty, Committee for Educational Policy, and administration the importance of Asian American Studies at Williams College by clicking here and forwarding this to your respective organization.

I am emailing you on behalf of the Campaign for Asian American Studies at Williams. As a member of the AAPI community, I am asking you for your support of our efforts.

We understand the lack of resources available on this campus, but after more than 20 years of fighting to stabilize this intellectual endeavor at Williams only to feel from both administration and faculty that this study is not a priority. We are willing to work with the administration and the CEP to institutionalize AA Studies in the curriculum either by creating a separate program or to combine with an already existing department. We need your support to show the faculty and administration that there is widespread support for AA Studies. If we can prove to them that individuals outside of the Williams community see its significance in the Williams curriculum, they will be more likely to open up to our suggestions as we work together towards our goal.

AA Studies is an ethnic study, not an area studies such as Asian Studies. The understanding of the Asian American experience both in America and across the globe is a legitimate and growing intellectual field since the 60s. We are trying to convince the CEP, administration, and faculty to recognize its significance given our current resource-limited situation. We cannot do this without your and your organization’s help. The Asian American experience includes a broad group of individuals including South Asians, South East Asians, East Asians, and those from the Middle East.

We need your and your organization to help stand with us. It only takes one electronic signature from each person in your organization for us all to make a difference in the Williams curriculum. Please forward this email to your organization at large. If you would like more information about what we are all about, please check out aastudieswilliams.wordpress.com. Also, please urge your members to sign our petition here.

Thank you.
Campaign for Asian American Studies at Williams

Teaching Fellowships in China

OYCF Teaching Fellowships 2012-13

The Overseas Young Chinese Forum (“OYCF”), a non-profit organization based in the United States, is pleased to announce that it is now accepting applications for its Teaching Fellowships, which sponsor short term teaching trips by overseas scholars or professionals (Chinese or non-Chinese) to universities or other comparable advanced educational institutions in China. The subjects of teaching include all fields of humanities and social sciences, such as anthropology, art, communication, economics, education, geography, law, literatures, philosophy, political science, sociology, etc.

OYCF will grant thirteen fellowship awards to support short term teaching trips during the Academic Year of 2012-13, including five OYCF-Ford fellowships in the amount of $2,500 each and nine OYCF-Gregory C. and Paula K. Chow fellowships in the amount of $2,000 each. The application deadline is August 15, 2012. Awards will be announced on September 15, 2012.

If you have a Ph.D., J.D., J.S.D. or a comparable graduate degree from, or is currently an advanced doctoral candidate (having passed the Ph.D. qualification examination and finished at least three years of graduate studies) in a university in North America or other areas outside China, and are interested in teaching a covered subject in a college or graduate school in Mainland China, please find online the Information and Application Procedures for the OYCF Teaching Fellowships at http://www.oycf.org/Teach/application.DOC. Ph.D. students are highly encouraged to apply because an independent teaching experience will add significant weight in the resumes and help build strong connection with China’s academia. We also give preference to advanced Ph.D. student applicants who would combine this teaching opportunity with their dissertational research in China.

As noted therein, preference will be given to teaching proposals that include comparative or interdisciplinary perspectives; are about subjects that China is in relative shortage of teachers; or will be conducted at universities in inland provinces and regions. This year, we dedicate at least 3-4 fellowships as the Central or Western Region Teaching Fellowships to teaching fellows who plan to teach in an inland province or autonomous region. Accordingly, teaching proposals specifically designed for teaching in these regions are especially welcome.

To submit your application, you will need an application form, a brief letter of interest, curriculum vitae or resume, a detailed course syllabus, an invitation letter from your host institution in China. Detailed instruction and application form can be found at the above web link. For more information about OYCF or its teaching program, please visit http://www.oycf.org. For questions concerning OYCF Teaching Fellowships or their application process, please contact Qiang Fu at qf6@soc.duke.edu.

Here are some more announcements, links, and job postings about academic-related jobs, fellowships, and other opportunities for those interested in racial/ethnic/diversity issues, with a particular focus on Asian Americans. As always, the announcements and links are provided for informational purposes and do not necessarily imply an endorsement of the organization or college involved.

Scholarship: Gates Foundation for Low-Income Minority Students

The Gates Millennium Scholars Program (GMS) Announces 2012 Scholarship Program for Low-Income Minority Students

Eligibility: Gates’ non-profit organization is giving away 1,000 scholarships for the 2012 school season. Bill Gates’ Millennium Scholarship Program will select 1,000 talented students next year to receive a good-through-graduation scholarship to use at any college or university of their choice. Scholars will also be provided with personal and professional development through their leadership programs, along with academic support throughout their college career.

The program, funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was established to provide outstanding low income minority students with an opportunity to complete an undergraduate college education in any area of interest. To date, the program has given scholarships to more than 15,000 students. Continuing scholars may request funding for a graduate degree program in one of the following disciplines: education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health or science.

To apply, visit http://www.gmsp.org/. Deadline: The deadline for submitting an application is Wednesday, January 11, 2012. For more information contact Rosalia Fajardo (703-867-6529 or Fajardo@multicultural-families.org).

Postdoc: Asian American Studies, Northwestern

Northwestern University: 2012-13 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Asian American and American Studies

Northwestern University invites applications for a two-year Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Comparative Ethnic Studies jointly sponsored by the Programs in Asian American Studies and American Studies, to begin Fall 2012. We will accept applications from recent Ph.Ds (degree granted during or after 2010); Applicants must complete all Ph.D. requirements before September 1, 2012.

The Mellon postdoctoral fellow is to be in residence during her/his tenure and make a contribution to the intellectual activities of the College and University. While there is no preference in terms of disciplinary field, we are especially looking for scholars whose research and teaching engage comparative ethnic studies in the U.S. and/or the hemisphere of the Americas. The fellow will teach two courses a year which will be cross-listed in Asian American and American Studies as well as deliver one public talk a year based on their research. The fellow would also be invited to interact with other units across the College and University including African American Studies and Latina/o Studies and initiatives like the Colloquium on Ethnicity and Diaspora.

To apply, candidates should submit an application, in both hard copy and an electronic version, that includes a curriculum vita, research statement of the project to be undertaken during the fellowship year, writing sample of approximately 50 pages, and a sample syllabus for one upper-division undergraduate course. Candidates should also ensure that graduate school transcripts as well as three letters of recommendations (including one letter from the dissertation advisor) are forwarded as part of the application. Please address application to Professors Carolyn Chen and Ivy Wilson. Hard copies should be sent to:

Asian American and American Studies Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship
c/o Cheryl Jue, Asian American Studies Program
1880 Campus Drive
Kresge Hall
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL 60208

Electronic versions should follow and be mailed to: asianamerican@northwestern.edu. Applications are due by February 1, 2012, and the recipient will be notified in April 2012. The salary for the fellowship is $46,000 per year with an additional research account of $2000 per year. There are also modest relocation funds available. For further information on the Mellon postdoctoral fellowship, please contact the Asian American Studies Program director at cechen@northwestern.edu or the American Studies Program director at i-wilson@northwestern.edu.

Position: Community Coordinator (MI)

Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote – Michigan
Announcement – Community Coordinator Position

APIAVote-Michigan seeks a community coordinator to lead key aspects of the organization’s strategic plan, primarily through community/voter engagement, leadership development, and fundraising initiatives. The ideal candidate will have a proven ability to successfully execute civic participation projects, be self-motivated, and have a demonstrated commitment to the advancement of the Asian American community.

The community coordinator will start part-time and potentially transition to full-time, dependent on available funding. She or he will report to the APIAVote-Michigan Board of Directors. This position is an opportunity to strengthen the Asian American community’s voice in Michigan through civic participation and social change efforts.

About APIAVote-Michigan: Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote – Michigan is a nonpartisan nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that serves the Asian Pacific Islander American community through civic participation, advocacy, and education.

Job Responsibilities:

• Work with our national organization to coordinate a local Asian American voter engagement training in spring 2012
• Support APIAVote-Michigan’s Youth Leadership Corps and immigration story documentation project
• Coordinate all elements of APIAVote-Michigan’s nonpartisan 2012 voter registration, education and mobilization field plan, including but not limited to: i) recruitment, training, and supervision of volunteers; iii) planning and conducting voter registration drives and Get Out The Vote efforts; ii) planning of candidate forums and other community events; iv) development of multilingual voter guide
• Assist with development/fundraising, events, membership, communications, or other efforts as directed by the Board
• Supervise other staff and interns
• Perform administrative duties, as required

Qualifications:
We seek candidates who excel in community building, are detail-oriented, and have strong management skills.

• Bachelor’s degree or commensurate experience in relevant field required
• 3-5 years of project coordination experience required, preferably in an Asian American community
• Excellent verbal communication, interpersonal, writing, facilitation, and computer skills required
• Ability to multi-task effectively, work in diverse settings, and work independently required
• Some evening/weekend work required and applicant must have own transportation
• Fluency in one or more Asian languages preferred

Compensation: Compensation will be determined based on experience. This is a part-time contract position at a recommended 20 hours per week; the position may transition to full-time at 40 hours per week, depending on funding. Email cover letter, resume, and two references to contact@apiavotemi.org by February 1, 2012.

Call for Submissions: Nineteen Sixty-Nine (Ethnic Studies)

Nineteen sixty nine (NSN) highlights the critical and innovative work being done in Ethnic Studies by undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines, institutional affiliations, and national boundaries. Being an e-journal with the ability to incorporate various forms of knowledge production (images, film, sound, and text), the journal features academic and creative works as well as book reviews.

We feel that Ethnic Studies, at its core, is an interdisciplinary project that critically underlines how race has and continues to shape our society and the world at large. To this end, this journal provides a venue for the continued evolution of the field, offering a space to discuss timely topics in a rigorous and generative way.

Though the journal emphasizes the work being done by students, NSN accepts and encourages submissions from all segments of the activist, creative, and scholarly communities. As such, true to its namesake, this journal is emblematic of how Ethnic Studies critically redefines what it means to study race, and how the field engages with and is enriched by the multiplicity of knowledge-makers that work within it.

Nineteen sixty nine is accepting creative works (images, film, sound, and text), scholarly essays, and book reviews for its first volume. Submissions may address the volume’s main theme or address another topic (see website).

The deadline for submissions is March 23, 2012 at 5:00 PM Pacific Standard Time. See here for our submission guidelines. Contact Jason U. Kim (jasonukim@berkeley.edu) for inquiries.

First off, Happy New year to everyone. Hopefully 2012 will bring you and your loved ones — and humanity in general — a little more peace, prosperity, and harmony. With that theme in mind, the following new books highlight some possible ways that racial/ethnic relations in the U.S. are headed in the new year and the near future. As always, a book’s inclusion is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily mean a full endorsement of its contents.

The End of Anger: A New Generation’s Take on Race and Rage, by Ellis Cose (Ecco Books)

From a venerated and bestselling voice on American life comes a contemporary look at the decline of black rage; the demise of white guilt; and the intergenerational shifts in how blacks and whites view, and interact with, each other.

In the heady aftermath of President Obama’s election, conventional wisdom suggested that the bitter, angry, and destructive elements of discrimination were ebbing at last and America was becoming a postracial nation. But with this dawning age that promised so much came shifting demographics and a newfound seat of rage in the polarizing Tea Party movement, even as black optimism gained ground, giving rise to questions about assumed truths concerning race in America.

Combining the talents earned from a lifetime in journalism with the insights and thoughtfulness of a close observer of the American experience, renowned author Ellis Cose offers a fresh, original appraisal of our nation at this extraordinary time, tracking the diminishment of black anger and investigating the “generational shifting of the American mind.”

Weaving material from myriad interviews as well as two large and ambitious surveys that he conducted—one of black Harvard MBAs and the other of graduates of A Better Chance, a program offering elite educational opportunities to thousands of young people of color since 1963—Cose offers an invaluable portrait of contemporary America that attempts to make sense of what a people do when the dream, for some, is finally within reach as one historical era ends and another begins.

In short, The End of Anger is not just about blacks but about America—its past and its hoped-for future—and may well be the most important book dealing with race to be published in recent decades.

New Destination Dreaming: Immigration, Race, and Legal Status in the Rural American South, by Helen Marrow (Stanford University Press)

New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles have long been shaped by immigration. These gateway cities have traditionally been assumed to be the major flashpoints in American debates over immigration policy—but the reality on the ground is proving different. Since the 1980s, new immigrants have increasingly settled in rural and suburban areas, particularly within the South. Couple this demographic change with an increase in unauthorized immigrants, and the rural South, once perhaps the most culturally and racially “settled” part of the country, now offers a window into the changing dynamics of immigration and, more generally, the changing face of America.

New Destination Dreaming explores how the rural context impacts the immigrant experience, how rapid Hispanic immigration influences southern race relations, and how institutions like schools and law enforcement agencies deal with unauthorized residents. Though the South is assumed to be an economically depressed region, low-wage food processing jobs are offering Hispanic newcomers the opportunity to carve out a living and join the rural working class, though this is not without its problems. Inattention from politicians to this growing population and rising black-brown tensions are both factors in contemporary rural southern life.

Ultimately, Marrow presents a cautiously optimistic view of Hispanic newcomers’ opportunities for upward mobility in the rural South, while underscoring the threat of anti-immigrant sentiment and restrictive policymaking that has gripped the region in recent years. Lack of citizenship and legal status still threatens many Hispanic newcomers’ opportunities. This book uncovers what more we can do to ensure that America’s newest residents become productive and integrated members of rural southern society rather than a newly excluded underclass.

Rallying for Immigrant Rights: The Fight for Inclusion in 21st Century America, edited by Kim Voss and Irene Bloemraad (University of California Press)

From Alaska to Florida, millions of immigrants and their supporters took to the streets across the United States to rally for immigrant rights in the spring of 2006. The scope and size of their protests, rallies, and boycotts made these the most significant events of political activism in the United States since the 1960s. This accessibly written volume offers the first comprehensive analysis of this historic moment.

Perfect for students and general readers, its essays, written by a multidisciplinary group of scholars and grassroots organizers, trace the evolution and legacy of the 2006 protest movement in engaging, theoretically informed discussions. The contributors cover topics including unions, churches, the media, immigrant organizations, and immigrant politics. Today, one in eight U.S. residents was born outside the country, but for many, lack of citizenship makes political voice through the ballot box impossible. This book helps us better understand how immigrants are making their voices heard in other ways.

Rethinking the Asian American Movement, by Daryl Joji Maeda (Routledge)

Although it is one of the least-known social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the Asian American movement drew upon some of the most powerful currents of the era, and had a wide-ranging impact on the political landscape of Asian America, and more generally, the United States. Using the racial discourse of the black power and other movements, as well as antiwar activist and the global decolonization movements, the Asian American movement succeeded in creating a multi-ethnic alliance of Asians in the United States and gave them a voice in their own destinies.

Rethinking the Asian American Movement provides a short, accessible overview of this important social and political movement, highlighting key events and key figures, the movement’s strengths and weaknesses, how it intersected with other social and political movements of the time, and its lasting effect on the country. It is perfect for anyone wanting to obtain an introduction to the Asian American movement of the twentieth century.

Asian American Political Participation: Emerging Constituents and Their Political Identities, edited by Janelle Wong, S. Karthick Ramakrishnan, Taeku Lee, and Jane Junn (Russell Sage Foundation)

Asian Americans are the most heavily immigrant population and their numbers are steadily rising from less than a million in 1960 to more than 15 million today. They are also a remarkably diverse population representing a vast array of ethnic groups, religions, and languages and they enjoy higher levels of education and income than any other U.S. racial group. Historically, socioeconomic status has been a reliable predictor of political behavior.

So why has this fast-growing American population, which is doing so well economically, been so overlooked the U.S. political system? Asian American Political Participation is the most comprehensive study to date of Asian American political behavior, including such key measures as voting, political donations, community organizing, and political protests. The book examines why some groups participate while others do not, why certain civic activities are deemed preferable to others, and why Asian socioeconomic advantage has so far not led to increased political clout.

Asian American Political Participation is based on data from the authors groundbreaking 2008 National Asian American Survey of more than 5,000 Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, and Japanese Americans. The book shows that the motivations for and impediments to political participation are as diverse as the Asian American population. For example, native-born Asians have higher rates of political participation than their immigrant counterparts, particularly recent adult arrivals who were socialized outside of the United States. Protest activity is the exception, which tends to be higher among immigrants who maintain connections abroad and who engaged in such activity in their country of origin.

Surprisingly, factors such as living in a new immigrant destination or in a city with an Asian American elected official do not seem to motivate political behavior neither does ethnic group solidarity. Instead, hate crimes and racial victimization are the factors that most motivate Asian Americans to participate politically. Involvement in non-political activities such as civic and religious groups also bolsters political participation. Even among Asian groups, socioeconomic advantage does not necessarily translate into high levels of political participation. Chinese Americans, for example, have significantly higher levels of educational attainment than Japanese Americans, but Japanese Americans are far more likely to vote and make political contributions. And Vietnamese Americans, with the lowest levels of education and income, vote and engage in protest politics more than any other group.

Lawmakers tend to favor the interests of groups who actively engage the political system, and groups who do not participate at high levels are likely to suffer political consequences in the future. Asian American Political Participation demonstrates that understanding Asian political behavior today can have significant repercussions for Asian American political influence tomorrow.

Creating a New Racial Order: How Immigration, Multiracialism, Genomics, and the Young Can Remake Race in America, by Jennifer L. Hochschild, Vesla M. Weaver, and Traci R. Burch (Princeton University Press)

The American racial order–the beliefs, institutions, and practices that organize relationships among the nation’s races and ethnicities–is undergoing its greatest transformation since the 1960s. Creating a New Racial Order takes a groundbreaking look at the reasons behind this dramatic change, and considers how different groups of Americans are being affected. Through revealing narrative and striking research, the authors show that the personal and political choices of Americans will be critical to how, and how much, racial hierarchy is redefined in decades to come.

The authors outline the components that make up a racial order and examine the specific mechanisms influencing group dynamics in the United States: immigration, multiracialism, genomic science, and generational change. Cumulatively, these mechanisms increase heterogeneity within each racial or ethnic group, and decrease the distance separating groups from each other. The authors show that individuals are moving across group boundaries, that genomic science is challenging the whole concept of race, and that economic variation within groups is increasing.

Above all, young adults understand and practice race differently from their elders: their formative memories are 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and Obama’s election–not civil rights marches, riots, or the early stages of immigration. Blockages could stymie or distort these changes, however, so the authors point to essential policy and political choices.

Portraying a vision, not of a postracial America, but of a different racial America, Creating a New Racial Order examines how the structures of race and ethnicity are altering a nation.

Here are some more announcements, links, and job postings about academic-related jobs, fellowships, and other opportunities for those interested in racial/ethnic/diversity issues, with a particular focus on Asian Americans. As always, the announcements and links are provided for informational purposes and do not necessarily imply an endorsement of the organization or college involved.

Call for Papers: Migration, Ethnicity, and Urban Inequality in Europe, UCLA

Migration, Ethnicity, and Urban Inequality in Europe
Graduate Student Conference
UCLA
March 2-3, 2012

Organized by:
UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies
UCLA Program on International Migration
Department of Sociology
Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences

Over the past several decades, Europe and North America have been at once confronted and transformed by the advent of large-scale international migration. While the migrants may sometimes have been wanted, they have rarely been welcomed, with frontiers made ever tighter, a change to which migrants have responded by finding new ways of crossing borders. While issues of border management, smuggling, and trafficking have become increasingly important, control policies have had limited effect, with the result that both irregular migrants and efforts to police them are pervasive.

In addition, the countries of immigration find problems taking new form, as the migrants’ children have come of age, often understanding themselves as members of the societies in which they have grown up, and yet finding themselves not fully accepted. The challenge of incorporation has been heightened by a complex set of factors. First, immigrant-origin populations have responded to their situation in a variety of ways, whether through protest, the development of new ethnic and religious identities, or more conventional forms of political mobilization and engagement.

Second, exclusion has taken new form, driven by growing levels of inequality, changes in the fabric of urban areas, and the expansion of non-standard or precarious employment. Simultaneously, migration is feeding back to sending countries, whether through migrants’ remittances, investments, or political engagements, activities which complicate incorporation trajectories in the destination countries.

These are the topics to be discussed at a graduate student conference, to be held at UCLA on March 2-3, 2012. Part of an effort to both build an interdisciplinary network of young researchers and to begin a trans-Atlantic conversation, the conference is organized by the UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies and the interdisciplinary Program on International Migration, in cooperation with the the Department of Sociology at Sciences Po and the Berlin Graduate School of Social Science.

Up to 10 partially-funded invitations will be made to North American (US and Canadian based) graduate researchers to present a paper and participate in a two day conference with faculty and graduate students from UCLA, Sciences Po, and the Berlin Graduate School of Social Science. Commentary, advice, and discussion will be offered to help authors develop their papers for journal publication. The bulk of the conference time will take place in workshop sessions, each of which will feature three presentations by graduate students and a comment by a faculty member. All papers will be available beforehand on a password protected webpage.

Researchers working on European aspects of migration, ethnicity, and urban inequality are invited. We welcome papers from a broad variety
of disciplines, including anthropology, economics, geography, law, political science, sociology, urban studies, women’s studies, addressing any one of the topics below:

• Incorporation of the first, second, and later immigrant generations
• New forms of urban, ethnic protest and mobilization
• Immigrant and ethnic politics
• Spatial inequalities and their impacts
• Ethnic/racial discrimination: impacts, mechanisms, responses
• Ethnic identity and movements
• Anti-immigrant politics and mobilization
• Policies and implementation of policing, security, control and border management issues
• International legal and human rights issues in the management of new migration in Europe
• Ethnographies of mobility, trafficking, labor migration and refugee movements into Europe from Eurasia, the Balkans, the Middle East or Africa
• Cross-border connections: remittances, investment, politics, development
• Ethnic and racial inequality: education, labor market and housing
• Ethnic and racial categorization

The conference will take place at UCLA. Invited participants will be offered 3 nights accommodation in Westwood in a shared room, together
with a fixed rate contribution to their travel costs according to distance (max $500 each). Sending institutions will be invited to contribute partially to funding their students.

Interested participants should submit an application, including a 750 word abstract (max), a one-page short c.v., and an airfare estimate, to be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from a faculty advisor. Applications must be submitted by no later than January 1, 2012. Applications will be taken electronically at the following site: http://apply.international.ucla.edu/?cees. Invitations will be sent by January 15. Completed papers must be delivered by February 10.

Internship: JACL Congressional Internship

John Moy & Southwest Airlines Congressional Internship

The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) is now accepting applications for the John Moy & Southwest Airlines Congressional Internship program. During the program’s inaugural cycle in Summer 2011, interns were placed in the offices of Representatives Xavier Becerra (CA-31) and Mike Honda (CA-15). JACL is proud to continue providing experience-based training for emerging young leaders through this program.

Duties and responsibilities will be outlined by the congressional member’s office in which the intern is placed. Placement offices have yet to be determined. Congressional interns will have a unique opportunity to experience the policymaking process and gain exposure to Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) issues.

This internship program is made possible by a generous donation from John Moy, longtime supporter and member of JACL, and roundtrip tickets provided by JACL’s official airline, Southwest Airlines.

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis for two eight-week, paid internships beginning in Winter 2012. Preference will be given to rising undergraduate juniors and seniors and recent graduates. If you have any questions, please contact (202) 223-1240 or policy@jacl.org.

Internship: International Leadership Foundation

The International Leadership Foundation promotes the civic awareness, public service and economic effectiveness of the Asian Pacific American community and develops young leaders in the United States and other Pacific Rim countries in the fields of public service, entrepreneurship and the international arena through a network of business and community leaders. ILF has provided scholarships, educational seminars and leadership training for over 1,000 select college students from across the country and placed them in structured internships in government agencies for the past 10 years.

Our partner federal agencies are focusing on “STEM” (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathmatics — to include finance and accounting) for their summer interns. Students studying in these fields are especially encouraged to apply. ILF welcomes applications from all students seeking federal government experience.

ILF is accepting applications for the 2012 Civic Fellowship program. The eight week internship program will begin June 11, 2012. ILF has provided scholarships, educational seminars and leadership training for over 500 Asian American college students from across the country and placed them in structured internships in government agencies and the private sector.

For the thirteenth year, the International Leadership Foundation (ILF) will award over 30 fellowships to Asian Pacific American college students who exhibit the qualities for and potential as future business, community, or professional leaders. The ILF Civic Fellows will spend eight weeks in the summer interning for a federal government agency in Washington, DC and gaining firsthand knowledge of the workings of the American government. Any Asian Pacific American undergraduate student with at least a 3.0 GPA is eligible to apply. Applicants must be United States citizens. Interested students can visit ILF’s website to apply and obtain more information.

Deadline: February 1, 2012.

Internship: APA Institute for Congressional Studies

The Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) is currently accepting applicants for its 2012 Summer Internship Program in Washington, DC.

The APAICS Summer Internship Program provides select undergraduate students the opportunity to experience American politics and public policy. During the eight-week program, APAICS Summer Interns are placed in the U.S. Congress, federal agencies, or partner Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) non-profit organizations. APAICS Interns have the opportunity to engage in leadership and relationship-building events to foster a strong interest in public service.

To apply for the 2012 APAICS Summer Internship Program, please fill out the 2012 APAICS Internship Program Application here: http://bit.ly/APAICSSummerInternshipApplication2012. For additional information, please contact our Program Director, Laila Mohib at Internship@apaics.org or 202-296-9200.

Internship: Queer APA Alliance

National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA)
Queer Asian Internships
Winter/ Spring 2012

The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) is a federation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) organizations. We seek to build the organizational capacity of local LGBT AAPI groups, develop leadership, promote visibility, educate our community, enhance grassroots organizing, expand collaborations, and challenge homophobia and racism.

NQAPIA is seeking talented young people for internships in the following:

• National Conference Planning
  Interns will assist in administration, programming, communications, and outreach for a national, pan-ethnic, multi-gender conference for LGBT AAPIs and their networks. The conference will be held in the Washington, DC area July 2012.
• National Advocacy for LGBT AAPIs
  Interns will attend high level national policy meetings, congressional briefings, and other events to raise the concerns of LGBTs in mainstream civil rights issues, and of AAPIs in LGBT rights issues. Interns will assist in coordinating a national conference of grassroots LGBT AAPI activists from across the nation to educate the community on policy matters.
• LGBT Immigrants’ Rights and Immigration Reform
  The intern will work directly with queer Asian immigrants and media professionals to develop testimonials and personal narratives that can be posted on websites, printed for publication, and developed for audio and video distribution. The goal is to bring the real lives of queer Asian immigrants to the fore and to inspire others to come out and take action. The intern will also assist in coordinating community press conferences and other community meetings.
• Federation of AAPI LGBT Organizations
  NQAPIA serves as a national convenor for LGBT AAPI communities and organizations. Interns will support national efforts to reach out to LGBT AAPI organizations and initiatives to coordinate activity to build capacity and to amplify their voice.
• Capacity Building Resources, Workshops, and Trainings
  Interns will also have an opportunity to participate in developing an organizational tool kit with best practices and model documents; special trainings/workshops; being a voice for LGBT AAPI on current issues, and explore ways to promote LGBT AAPI engagement.

Description of Internships
The intern will learn strategies in using public policy, grassroots organizing, and the media to advance social justice. Interns are supervised by NQAPIA professional staff. Interns work primarily on research and writing, policy advocacy, community outreach and organizing.

These internships are not paid positions, but academic credit can be arranged. During the winter and spring, interns work anywhere between 15-40 hours per week. Internships are usually about ten weeks.

To Apply:
Any bilingual ability should be stated in the resume. Bilingual ability is helpful but not required. Applications should also state the number of hours the intern is able to work per week. Send a resume and cover letter to:

NQAPIA Intern Search
1322 18th Street, NW Washington, DC
Email: nqapia@gmail.com
Electronic submissions strongly preferred. Please write: “Intern Applicant” in the Subject.

For more information, contact Ben de Guzman at ben_deguzman@nqapia.org or 202-422-4909.

Undergraduate Research Forum, Asian American Studies, UPenn

Faces of Asian America: The First Undergraduate Research Forum on Asian American Studies
Deadline: March 17, 2012
Where: University of Pennsylvania

Please submit your original work to the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania for their Faces of Asian America: The First Undergraduate Research Forum on Asian American Studies on March 17, 2012. The Research Forum explores the issues surrounding the Asian American experience with the goal of promoting a more profound understanding of Asian America. Faces of Asian America welcomes research from all disciplines including but not limited to History, Literature, Sociology, and Cinema.

All students are invited to enter their work such as papers from current or past academic courses or independent study. All submitted research will be reviewed by a panel, and twelve outstanding papers will be selected to participate at the Forum. One exceptional work will be selected for an award of $300.

Dr. Elaine Kim will be their Keynote Speaker for the event. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP here. If you are also interested in submitting your work, please send it to upennasam@gmail.com. For questions or concerns, please email Susan Hirai at hirai@sas.upenn.edu.

Position: Director, Asian/Asian American Studies, Syracuse

Syracuse University seeks nominations and applications for the position of Director, Asian/Asian- American Studies, an interdisciplinary program housed in The College of Arts and Sciences. The successful candidate will be a senior tenured professor who demonstrates a strong commitment to teaching, advising students, and conducting a serious research agenda in an area of Asian-American Studies that is consistent with the University’s vision of “Scholarship in Action.” The specific research area and discipline of the Director is open.

The charge for the Director is to lead this quickly growing interdisciplinary program in Asian/Asian- American Studies, which recently established a minor in the curriculum of The College of Arts and Sciences but is available for every undergraduate major at Syracuse University. There are currently over 30 courses offered on campus and abroad that contribute to this minor. More courses are expected, and the potential to offer a major in Asian/Asian-American Studies within a few years is extremely strong. The Director will provide local and national leadership in the field of Asian/Asian-American studies; identify areas of future growth; coordinate the curriculum offered by faculty members in this area; and work to enhance the profile of the program.

A spirit of creativity, ingenuity, collaboration, and an entrepreneurial approach to leadership are essential qualities for the Director. S/he must be a strong leader and a believer in collaborative decision-making and open communication. The Director will teach undergraduate courses in the Program, coordinate courses that contribute to the Program, work to develop the Program, and advise students who are interested in this area of study.

For full consideration candidates should complete an online Dean/ Senior Executive/Faculty application at www.sujobopps.com for job # 028604 and attach curriculum vitae with a list of 3 references, statement of teaching philosophy, cover letter describing your history in Asian/Asian American Studies. The Search Committee will begin reviewing applications on February 10, 2012 and continue until the position is filled. Inquiries regarding the position may be directed to the search committee chair, Gina Lee- Glauser, Vice President for Research (315-443-2492; leeglaug@syr.edu).

AALDEF Lunar New Year Gala

Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
4710, Year of the Dragon

Lunar New Year Gala
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers, NYC

2012 Justice in Action Award Recipients
Parkin Lee, The Rockefeller Group
Jean Koh Peters, Yale Law School
Fareed Zakaria, CNN and Time

Emcees: Juju Chang & Sree Sreenivasan

6:00 PM Reception & Silent Auction
7:00 PM Dinner

RSVP by February 1, 2012
For more information or to purchase tickets,
email events@aaldef.org or call 212.966.5932.

Below is an announcement about a research project and online survey in need of Asian American respondents. As always, this announcement is provided for informational purposes only and does not necessarily imply an endorsement of the research project.

Hello,

My name is Danielle Godon, and I am pursuing my M.A. in psychology at Mount Holyoke College. I would like to invite Korean adoptees to participate in a study that focuses on sense of belonging to one’s birth and adoptive groups.

Being a Korean adoptee myself, I know what it is like to look one way, but sometimes feel another way. For my thesis, I am exploring how we navigate between feelings of similarity and difference. Since past studies have indicated some Korean adoptees feel like outsiders amongst both White people and Korean people, I hope to discover factors that facilitate positive interpretations of difference.

I am looking for people who were adopted from Korea, by a White parent or parents, to participate in an online survey that takes about 30 minutes to complete. To compensate you for your time, at the end of the survey, you will have the option to be entered into three raffles for $50 each. Here is the link if you are interested: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QC2KXZ2.

Thank you very much for considering my request. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to email me (godon22d@mtholyoke.edu). If you have children, friends, family, etc. who might be willing to complete this survey, please send them the link!

Thank you,
Danielle Godon
godon22d@mtholyoke.edu

Here are some more announcements, links, and job postings about academic-related jobs, fellowships, and other opportunities for those interested in racial/ethnic/diversity issues. As always, the announcements and links are provided for informational purposes and do not necessarily imply an endorsement of the organization or college involved.

Position: Ethnic Studies, Chinese Diaspora, Univ. of Hawai’i Manoa

University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Department of Ethnic Studies, Chinese Diaspora Specialist, Assistant Professor (Pos. #084819).

Duties: Teach courses and conduct research on Chinese immigrant communities in Hawai’i and the United States, and/or other parts of the world. Teach introductory course in ethnic studies and upper division courses in Asian American studies. Advise and
supervise undergraduate students; seek extramural funding; participate actively in local communities. The successful applicant should maintain an active program of research and scholarly publication that integrates innovative theoretical analyses with empirical work, and furthers the University’s excellence in Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific studies.

Minimum Qualifications: PhD in Ethnic Studies, related interdisciplinary studies, social sciences field, or history from an accredited college at the time of the appointment, August 1, 2012 (ABD will be considered). ABD candidates must submit a letter from their committee chairs attesting that dissertation and all degree requirements will be completed by the date of hire. Demonstrated ability to teach and conduct research on Chinese diasporic communities, which incorporates theories of race, ethnicity, gender, and class; and strong record of research, teaching, and community service.

Desirable Qualifications: Evidence of research and university-level teaching about Asian American or Pacific Islander Studies; ability to teach courses on immigration, and/or ethnic/race relations; ability to contribute to the College of Social Sciences Public Policy Center; a record of peer-reviewed publications; commitment to innovative educational strategies, and to working with students with diverse backgrounds and experiences.

To Apply: Please visit this website:
http://surveys.socialsciences.hawaii.edu/ework/. Include cover letter, curriculum vitae, and writing sample (not to exceed
9000 words). Send three letters of recommendation to: Ibrahim G. Aoudé, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of Hawai”i at Mānoa, George Hall 301, 2560 Campus Road, Honolulu, HI 96822.

Inquiries: Ibrahim G. Aoudé (808) 956-8086, E: aoude@hawaii.edu. Closing Date: Review of applications will begin November 18, 2011 and will continue until position is filled. Applications received by that date will be given priority.

Call for Papers: The American University Meets the Pacific Century

Workshop: The American University Meets the Pacific Century (AUPC)
Date: March 9-10, 2012
Location: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

Deadline: December 1, 2011
Notification: December 15, 2011

Award: Limited funds to support room and board at Workshop and partial travel vouchers will be available.

What to submit: A 1-2 page abstract of a circa 20-25 page paper that you will prepare for discussion at the Workshop.

How to submit: Please submit your materials electronically to Kelley Frazier, kdfrazie@illinois.edu.

Inquiries: Inquiries about the conference should be directed to: Nancy Abelmann, nabelman@illinois.edu; Soo Ah Kwon, sakwon@illinois.edu; Tim Liao, tfliao@illinois.edu; Adrienne Lo, adr@illinois.edu.

Workshop Information
This Workshop will be hosted in association with the American University Meets the Pacific Century Project (AUPC, 2010-), an interdisciplinary team of social scientists who are currently researching the internationalization of the undergraduate student body at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The project is principally interested in the American university as a contact zone in which record levels of international undergraduates, largely from Asia, meet American students whose futures are increasingly impacted by global transformations, the economic and scientific rise of Asia among them.

Participants will present papers (circa 20-25 pages) broadly related to the study abroad of degree-seeking undergraduate students from China and South Korea, relevant developments in those countries, and all aspects of the U.S. as a contact zone.

Below please find a brief synopsis of our own research project; we are,however, open to proposals of all variety.

The American University Meets the Pacific Century Project

Broadly, the AUPC project is examining how the escalating numbers of international undergraduates are transforming the American university. Many American universities, like top-tier universities throughout the world, are increasingly becoming global institutions, no longer held exclusively to national interests.

This larger context occasions several broad research questions. First, a number of scholars, anthropologist Aihwa Ong and geographer Katharyne Mitchell foremost among them, have alerted us to a veritable cultural warfare as Asian elites find their way to North American schooling. They ask whether the liberal democratic ideals of the American university, including multiculturalism’s commitment to an integrated national community, are foundationally shaken by international students who pass through the American university to accrue the technical skills for flexible citizenship elsewhere. We are thus interested in what American students assume about these new international students and their place in American higher education.

Second, we ask how this trend is shaping American undergraduates’ vision of their futures as global citizens in the broader context of the global economy, and in what some have called “the Pacific Century.” With the widely decried slippage in the U.S. global hegemony in scientific and technological fields and the particular attention to the “Rise of China,” these questions are particularly pressing. Also of note is that while U.S. international student numbers are up, we are in fact enjoying less of the pie of total global student mobility (slipping from 2001 to 2008 from 25% to 21%; while China grew from under 2% to 6%).

Third, we examine the impact of this internationalization on the racial realities of the American university. As globalization accelerates the mobility of people, ideas, and media, one perhaps unexpected consequence has been the rise of what sociologist Karen Pyke calls “intraethnic othering” or the heightened salience of divisions within what might be considered one
ethnic/racial group. Preliminary work by the AUPC project has already documented the tense relations between those Asian Americans who find that they are becoming the minority of Asians on their campus, and those international undergraduates, who sometimes see themselves as wealthy, cosmopolitan elites with little in common with local Asian Americans.

Finally, we are interested in what has motivated international students to come to the United States and the reality of their study abroad experience. We consider these students’ future goals, ones that of course are impacted upon by the study abroad experience itself. With these contexts and processes in mind, we focus on the following research questions:

• What are the motivations and expectations of these Chinese and South Korean international undergraduate students? Are they interested in the liberal and multicultural commitments of the American university? How do their goals change over time as they experience the realities of the American university?
• How do American students understand and respond to this new student body? Do they think of these international students as in any way detrimental to American multiculturalism and liberalism?
• Do Asian American students experience these demographic changes in particular ways? Are they inclined to distance themselves from these newly-arrived Asian students?
• What is the nature and extent of the interactions between domestic students and these international students?
• Do domestic students who aspire to become engineers and business professionals feel threatened by the significant number of students from precisely those countries that represent the greatest scientific and economic challenge to the United States? Are they worried about their professional futures?
• How are university professionals, including faculty, responding to and managing this new student body?

Position: Asian American Studies, UCLA

The UCLA Asian American Studies Center invites applications for a tenured full-time faculty position (Tracking Number 2060-1112-01) beginning July 1, 2012. The selected candidate is expected to be
appointed to the UCLA Alumni and Friends of Japanese American Ancestry Endowed Chair. The rank is to be at the Associate or Full Professor level, with the primary appointment and teaching responsibilities in the Department of Asian American Studies.

Distinguished scholars of Japanese American studies are encouraged to apply, and this position provides an opportunity to strengthen Center and Department commitments to areas such as preservation/archives, community-based documentation in the visual arts, transnational studies, and community-oriented research, education, and activism.

The generosity of alumni and friends led to the establishment of this endowed chair in Japanese American Studies to further the research prominence of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, which was founded in 1969. Currently, the Center’s faculty number over fifty members representing nearly every division and school at UCLA, including the Department of Asian American Studies in the College of Letters and Science. The Department of Asian American Studies, established in 2004, oversees dynamic undergraduate and graduate programs.

Applications and nominations should be submitted electronically with1) a letter of application, 2) current curriculum vitae/resumé 3) one representative journal article or book chapter, and 4) names and contact information for three academic referees. Please send all materials to: IACSearch2@conet.ucla.edu

Although applications will be accepted until the position is filled, all materials should be submitted by December 9, 2011 to be guaranteed full consideration. UCLA offers an attractive salary and benefits package, including a housing assistance program for new faculty members. Salary is commensurate with education and experience.

Position: Sociology & Puerto Rican/Latino Studies, Univ. of Connecticut

The Sociology Department at the University of Connecticut invites applications for a tenure track position to begin August 23, 2012. The successful candidate will be jointly appointed with the Latino/a Studies program. The successful candidate will pursue rigorous research programs, contribute to graduate and undergraduate teaching, provide service to the university and the profession, and seek external funds to support their scholarly activities. The typical course load is two courses per semester. We prefer candidates for the assistant professor rank, but appointments at the associate professor rank for exceptionally well qualified candidates who can advance the diversity of our teaching and research
mission may be considered.

Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications: Doctorate in sociology; research that focuses on Latino populations in the United States; ability to teach qualitative research methods; and substantive research interests in at least one of the following areas of specialization: health and health care organization; gender and sexuality, labor, family. Equivalent foreign degrees are acceptable.

Preferred Qualifications: The ability to contribute to research, teaching and/or public engagement to the diversity and excellence of the learning experience.

To Apply: Applicants please upload their curriculum vitae, a statement describing their research plan and teaching interests,
selected scholarly publications, and three letters of reference via Husky hire www.jobs.uconn.edu. Search 2012289. Applications submitted by January 6, 2012 will be given fullest consideration.

Position: Development Coordinator, Asian American Justice Center

Organization Description
Founded in 1991, the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC) works to advance the human and civil rights of Asian Americans, and build and promote a fair and equitable society for all. AAJC is nationally recognized as a leading expert on issues of particular importance to the Asian American community including affirmative action, anti-Asian violence prevention, broadband and telecommunications policy, census, immigration and immigrant rights, media diversity and voting rights.

In 2010, AAJC deepened its alliance with the Asian Law Caucus (ALC), the Asian American Institute (AAI) and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) by coming together as the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice (Advancing Justice). Under the common name, we hope to build a more powerful and unified voice for Asian Americans who are deeply committed to the cause of civil and human rights. Based in Washington, DC, AAJC has a budget of approximately $5 million and a staff of 18.

Position Description
Title: Development Associate
Location: Washington, DC
Compensation: Competitive salary, depending on level of skills and experience. Full health benefits, flexible spending plan and generous vacation and sick leave.

Summary: The role of the Development Associate is to assist the Director of Development in undertaking a proactive campaign to secure funds to carry out the organization’s mission and vision and to implement its strategic and tactical plans. Requirements include: good management, planning and coordinating skills; excellent attention to detail and follow-through; experience in using and maintaining a database.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as lead coordinator to ensure the success of the organization’s primary special event fundraiser, the annual American Courage Awards reception.
• Provide support (planning, correspondence, etc.) required to implement all fundraising events and meetings.
• Create, manage and maintain corporate and law firm partnerships to enhance fundraising and in-kind donations.
• Conduct prospect research on potential funding sources including corporations and law firms.
• Coordinate sponsorship agreements with partner organizations.
• Assist in maintaining the integrity of the department’s Raiser’s Edge fundraising database through conducting data entry and reporting.
• Produce quality written documents as it relates to primary functional areas, such as: solicitations for the American Courage Awards and acknowledgements.
• Schedule and prepare background materials for meetings for Director of Development and Executive Director with current corporate donors and prospects.
• Contribute to the department’s marketing functions by serving as a liaison for annual report production, Web updates and other collateral, as needed.
• Assist the Director of Development in setting organizational income goals. Assist with the preparation of periodic income reports and projections as needed.
• Perform other development tasks and duties as assigned by the Director of Development.
• Supervisory responsibilities: Assist in supervising development intern.

Qualifications:
Knowledge, skills and abilities: Must be detail-oriented and extremely organized. Must have excellent interpersonal and writing skills that indicate an ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of audiences. Must be able to coordinate multiple tasks concurrently while being thorough and comprehensive. Must have initiative and the ability to exercise good judgment. Flexible, independent team player.

Experience:
Bachelor’s degree and at least one year of development experience. Proficiency in Raiser’s Edge strongly preferred. Event planning and experience in the nonprofit sector a plus.

Application deadline: December 2, 2011

Send resume with references, writing sample and a cover letter to:
Hannah Stone, Director of Development, at hstone@advancingequality.org or AAJC; 1140 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 1200; Washington, DC 20036.

Internship: Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. Through advocacy and outreach to targeted constituencies, The Leadership Conference works toward the goal of a more open and just society – an America as good as its ideals. The Leadership Conference Education Fund builds public will for federal policies that promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. The Education Fund’s campaigns empower and mobilize advocates around the country to push for progressive change in the United States.

The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund offer a substantive, fast-paced internship program designed to give undergraduate students interested in civil and human rights, public service, advocacy, journalism and online communications, real-world work experience in the policy arena. The program provides interns the chance to increase their knowledge and awareness of civil and human rights issues, enhance their understanding of coalition politics, and observe the legislative process of our federal government. Interns are fully integrated into staff activities and involved in field operations, development work, web content, and communications work.

Leadership Conference/Education Fund interns work out of our office in downtown Washington, D.C., easily accessible by metro or several bus lines. Internships are for a length of one school semester. Start and end dates are flexible to accommodate your school’s schedule, and we require a 24 hour minimum weekly commitment.

• Summer interns: Internship May 30 to Sept. 1; Application Deadline April 15, 2012
• Fall interns: Internship Sept. 1 to Dec. 15; Application Deadline August 5, 2012
• Spring interns: Internship Jan. 15 to May 15; Application Deadline December 4, 2011

Core Intern Responsibilities

• Writing articles for the website
• Tracking legislation and litigation related to key issues
• Monitoring media coverage of policy issues
• Attending steering committee and task force meetings as assigned
• Helping to coordinate grassroots and media events
• Attending congressional hearings and briefings
• Conducting on- and off-line research to support Leadership Conference/Education Fund staff
• Occasional administrative work

Applicants should have strong writing skills, a desire and ability to work with diverse groups of people, ability to work collaboratively, the ability to multitask, and a strong commitment to social justice issues.

The internship is unpaid. Need-based scholarships are available during the summer – applicants interested in financial aid should submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form and a letter detailing their financial need with their application. Sensitive information such as Social Security Numbers can be withheld by the applicant.

How to Apply

Interested individuals should email a cover letter detailing their interest in The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, resume, and short writing sample (no longer than three pages) to:

Avril Lighty
Intern Coordinator
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights/The Leadership Conference Education Fund
lighty@civilrights.org

Or send by mail to:

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights/The Leadership Conference Education Fund
Attn: Avril Lighty
1629 K Street, NW, 10th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20006

Please note: we are unable to handle phone inquiries.

Call for Papers: Asian American Expressive Culture

Changing Boundaries and Reshaping Itineraries:
An International Conference on Asian American Expressive Culture

Co-sponsored by Chinese American Literature Research Center, and Information Center for Worldwide Asia Research, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China & Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Program, University of California at Berkeley, USA.

The extensive geopolitical realignments and movements of peoples and capital that continue to mark our present moment have significantly reshaped our understanding of the functions and effects of national boundaries, and have turned concepts such as “transnationalism” and “globalization” into staples of academic discussion. In this moment of unsettling boundaries, how then are we to understand or locate Asian American literature (or, more broadly, Asian American Studies), which at least nominally continues to reside under the sign of the U.S. nation-state? How has this unsettling of boundaries contributed, for example, to rethinking the relation between Asian America and Asia?

Have these changed conditions introduced a set of new concerns, themes, or formal strategies for Asian American writers? How does the experience of reading Asian American literature in the U.S. differ from that of reading the literature in Beijing or Manila, Seoul or Singapore? How have scholars and critics of Asian American literature (and other forms of expressive culture) grappled with the theoretical and/or methodological challenges of engaging with these reconfigured national and transnational frameworks?

With this range of pressing questions forming a critical backdrop, the Chinese American Literature Research Center and the Information Center for Worldwide Asia Research at Beijing Foreign Studies University are joining with the Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Program at the University of California at Berkeley to invite submissions of original papers on the theme of “changing boundaries” and “unsettling itineraries” to be presented at an international conference on Asian American literature to be held in Beijing from May 25-28, 2012.

Topics for the conference will include but are not limited to the following areas: New directions in Asian American Studies and Asian American criticism Asian American literature or film in a transnational frame Memories without borders in Asian American literature Re-aligning Asian American Studies and Asian Studies Sino-US relations and Chinese American literature Resituating Asian America in relation to East Asia, South Asia, or Southeast Asia

To submit a proposal from China’s mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, please send your proposals (300-400 words) and brief biographies (c. 200 words) to Dr. Liu Kuilan at liukuilankate@yahoo.com.cn; and from North America, Europe, and other countries, please send your proposals to Prof. Elaine Kim at ehkim@berkeley.edu by December 15, 2011.

Internships: Center for American Progress

The Center for American Progress is dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through progressive ideas and action. Building on the achievements of progressive pioneers such as Teddy Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, our work addresses 21st-century challenges such as energy, national security, economic growth and opportunity, immigration, education, and health care. We develop new policy ideas, critique the policy that stems from conservative values, challenge the media to cover the issues that truly matter, and shape the national debate.

One very important goal of American Progress is to inspire and educate the next generation of progressive Americans. American Progress offers full and part-time internships each summer and academic semester. All undergraduate and masters-level students and J.D. and Ph.D. candidates are eligible to apply. Successful applicants will be bright, highly motivated scholars with strong academic records and an interest and aptitude for public policy and/or political communication. Interns will be directly engaged with the Center’s policy experts and participate in a variety of activities including research, writing, and web-based projects. They will also assist staff with administrative tasks and help organize the Center’s many conferences and events.

American Progress offers a monetary stipend as well as a transportation subsidy for interns. Intern applicants can apply for placement in the following department:

Race Policy / Progress 2050

American Progress is seeking an intern to work with Progress 2050, an American Progress project that develops new ideas for an increasingly diverse America. Its work uses current and future U.S. demographic trends as a foundation for progressive policies that advance racial equity.

The Progress 2050 intern’s primary responsibilities will include researching the relationship between race and public policy, census data evaluation, and media tracking. The intern’s additional duties include assisting in public and private events, independent research/writing, and day-to-day tasks as assigned.

Candidates must possess excellent oral and written communications skills. He or she must be open to a broad array of assignments and have strong oral and written communications skills. Some qualitative research experience preferred. No specific academic background is required, but the ideal intern ought to have a general understanding of racial and ethnic communities, U.S. history, and key domestic affairs.

Eligibility: All undergraduate and masters-level students and J.D. and Ph.D. candidates as well as recent graduates are eligible to apply. International students must have INS authorization to work in the United States.

Application Process: In order to apply for a Center for American Progress Internship, please submit the following:

1. Internship Application
2. Cover Letter and Resume
3. Writing Sample of approximately 3 pages (your own words, unedited)
4. College or University Transcript (unofficial is acceptable)
5. 2-3 References (please provide both the phone and email contact information, and include a professor or other individual familiar with your work)

Please note that only those individuals whose qualifications match the current needs of the organization will be considered applicants and receive responses from American Progress.

Suggested Deadlines:
Winter/Spring: November 15
Summer: February 1

Duration
Summer: June – August
Fall: September – December
Winter: January – March
Spring: January – May

*starting dates are flexible

Please send completed application materials via email only to:skerby@americanprogress.org. Before emailing your materials please put your name and the term for which you are applying in the subject line. Ex.: John Doe-Summer 2010. No phone calls, please.

The following is a list of recent academic journal articles and doctoral dissertations from scholars in the social sciences and humanities that focus on race/ethnicity and/or immigration, with a particular emphasis on Asian Americans. As you can see, the diversity of research topics is a direct reflection of the dynamic and multidimensional nature of people’s lives, experiences, and issues related to race/ethnicity and immigration.

The academic journal articles are generally available in the libraries of most colleges and universities and/or through online research databases. As always, works included in this list are for informational purposes only and do not imply an endorsement of their contents.

Schlund-Vials, Cathy J. 2011. “Re-Seeing Race in a Post-Obama age: Asian American Studies, Comparative Ethnic Studies, and Intersectional Pedagogies.” New Directions for Teaching & Learning 125:101-109.

• Abstract: Focused on comparative ethnic studies and intersectionality, the author commences with a discussion about Barack Obama’s historic inauguration and the Asian American literature classroom. Such historical and educational frames foreground a deeper discussion about the possibilities and challenges associated with cross-cultural, cross-racial pedagogies within Asian American studies and ethnic studies.

DuongTran, Paul. 2011. “Coping Resources among Southeast Asian-American Adolescents.” Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment 21(2):196-208.

• Abstract: This study examines the relationships of gender and ethnic differences in the experiences of stressful life events, coping-specific responses, and self-reported depression. Seventy high-school aged respondents, 40 boys and 30 girls, responded to a self-reported questionnaire that asked questions on the perceived distress of related life events (i.e., person, family, peer, acculturation events), coping-specific responses, and depression. The findings provide important data on gender and ethnic variations in the ways Southeast Asian-American adolescents deal with life stress and depression. These findings have important implications for social work practice and future research on the psychosocial adjustment with both immigrant and ethnic children and adolescents.

Borrero, Noah E. and Christine J. Yeh. 2011. “The Multidimensionality of Ethnic Identity Among Urban High School Youth.” Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research 11(2):114-135.

• Abstract: This study was designed to explore the associations of ethnic identity dimensions with collective self-esteem membership, school interest, student interest in learning, and community engagement among 406 ethnically diverse (Asian American, Black, Latino, Pacific Islander, and multiracial) high school students. Using the Ethnic Identity Scale, this article presents the relationships between school and community variables with students’ perceptions of ethnic identity exploration, resolution, and affirmation.

  Correlational analyses and post hoc t tests using Steiger’s modified z statistic show strong positive correlations between most school and community variables and students’ ethnic identity exploration and resolution. They also reveal a strong negative correlation between students’ school interest and ethnic identity affirmation. Results are discussed in terms of the emergent distinctions between student interest in learning and school interest as they relate to ethnic identity dimensions and collective self-esteem membership.

Okamura, Jonathan Y. 2011. “Barack Obama as the Post-Racial Candidate for a Post-Racial America: Perspectives from Asian America and Hawai’i.” Patterns of Prejudice 45(1 & 2):133-153.

• Abstract: Okamura reviews the 2008 US presidential campaign and the election of Barack Obama as a ‘post-racial candidate’ in terms of two different meanings of ‘post-racialism’, namely, colour blindness and multiculturalism. He also discusses his campaign and election from the perspective of Asian America and Hawai’i given that Obama has been claimed as ‘the first Asian American president’ and as a ‘local’ person from Hawai’i where he was born and spent most of his youth.

  In both cases, Obama has been accorded these racialized identities primarily because of particular cultural values he espouses and cultural practices he engages in that facilitate his seeming transcendence of racial boundaries and categories generally demarcated by phenotype and ancestry. Okamura contends that proclaiming Obama as an honorary Asian American and as a local from Hawai’i inadvertently lends support to the post-racial America thesis and its false assertion of the declining significance of race: first, by reinforcing the ‘model minority’ stereotype of Asian Americans and, second, by affirming the widespread view of Hawai’i as a model of multiculturalism.

Shin, Hyoung-jin. 2011. “Intermarriage Patterns among the Children of Hispanic Immigrants.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 37(9):1385-1402.

• Abstract: Utilizing data from the 2005–07 American Community Survey Public Use Micro Sample (ACS-PUMS), this study investigates the intermarriage patterns of Mexican, Cuban and Dominican Americans who were born in the United States or came to the country as immigrant children. Using intermarriage patterns as an indicator of social relations, I examine how cultural and structural assimilation factors affect the marital assimilation process among the children of Hispanic immigrants.

  One of the major contributions of this study is the examination of diversity within the US census categorization of ‘Hispanic’. Results from multinomial logistic regression analyses suggest that the marital assimilation process of Mexicans, Cubans and Dominicans varies across and within the groups according to their different individual characteristics and metropolitan context. My study is novel because it recognizes that broad-sweep analyses of intermarriage patterns are overly simplistic renderings of racial/ethnic assimilation because they fail to reveal distinctive and noteworthy within-group diversity.

Jain, Sonali. 2011. “The Rights of ‘Return’: Ethnic Identities in the Workplace among Second-Generation Indian-American Professionals in the Parental Homeland.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 37(9):1313-1330.

• Abstract: This article explores the salience of ethnicity for second-generation Indian-American professionals who ‘return’ from the US to their parental homeland, India. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 48 second-generation Indian-Americans in India, it examines when and how they adopt ethnic identities in the workplace. My findings suggest that, bolstered by their transnational experiences and backgrounds, returnees construct ethnic identities and utilize ethnic options that reflect the cultural and economic environments of their adopted homeland.

  At the same time, and often contemporaneously, work relationships, experiences and personal interactions with those they encounter in the parental homeland factor into their transnational identity constructions. Also proposed is a preliminary framework within which to explore the conditions that facilitate the construction and assertion of returnees’ ethnic identities in the workplace in India.

The following new books highlight the different dimensions of globalized and transnational connections between Asia and Asian American as reflected in empirical, cultural, and literature studies of diasporas, communities, and ethnic enclaves within the U.S. and their relationship back to Asia and the rest of the world. As always, a book’s inclusion is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily mean a full endorsement of its contents.

Writing the Ghetto: Class, Authorship, and the Asian American Ethnic Enclave, by Yoonmee Chang (Rutgers University Press)

In the United States, perhaps no minority group is considered as “model” or successful as the Asian American community. Rather than living in ominous “ghettoes,” Asian Americans are described as residing in positive-sounding “ethnic enclaves.” Writing the Ghetto helps clarify the hidden or unspoken class inequalities faced by Asian Americans, while insightfully analyzing the effect such notions have had on their literary voices.

Yoonmee Chang examines the class structure of Chinatowns, Koreatowns, Little Tokyos, and Little Indias, arguing that ghettoization in these spaces is disguised. She maintains that Asian American literature both contributes to and challenges this masking through its marginalization by what she calls the “ethnographic imperative.” Chang discusses texts from the late nineteenth century to the present, including those of Sui Sin Far, Winnifred Eaton, Monica Sone, Fae Myenne Ng, Chang-rae Lee, S. Mitra Kalita, and Nam Le. These texts are situated in the contexts of the Chinese Exclusion Era, Japanese American internment during World War II, the globalization of Chinatown in the late twentieth century, the Vietnam War, the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and the contemporary emergence of the “ethnoburb.”

Sweating Saris: Indian Dance as Transnational Labor, by Priya Srinivasan (Temple University Press)

Combining critical dance history and ethnography to look at issues of immigration, citizenship, and ethnic identity, Priya Srinivasan’s groundbreaking book Sweating Saris considers Indian dance in the diaspora as a form of embodied, gendered labour. Chronicling the social, cultural, and political relevance of the dancers’ experiences, she raises questions of class, cultural nationalism, and Orientalism. Srinivasan presents stories of female (and male) Indian dancers who were brought to the United States between the 1880s and early 1900s to perform.

She argues that mastery of traditional Indian dance is intended to socialize young women into their role as proper Indian American women in the twenty-first century. The saris and bells that are intrinsic to the shaping of female Indian American gender identity also are produced by labouring bodies, which sweat from the physical labour of the dance and thus signifies both the material realities of the dancing body and the abstract aesthetic labour.

Srinivasan merges ethnography, history, critical race theory, performance and post-colonial studies among other disciplines to investigate the embodied experience of Indian dance. The dancers’ sweat stained and soaked saris, the aching limbs are emblematic of global circulations of labor, bodies, capital, and industrial goods. Thus the sweating sari of the dancer stands in for her unrecognized labor.

Srinivasan shifts away from the usual emphasis on Indian women dancers as culture bearers of the Indian nation. She asks us to reframe the movements of late nineteenth century transnational Nautch Indian dancers to the foremother of modern dance Ruth St. Denis in the early twentieth century to contemporary teenage dancers in Southern California, proposing a transformative theory of dance, gendered-labor, and citizenship that is far-reaching.

Melancholy Order: Asian Migration and the Globalization of Borders, by Adam M. McKeown (Columbia University Press)

As Adam M. McKeown demonstrates, the push for increased border control and identity documentation is the continuation of more than 150 years of globalization. Not only are modern passports and national borders inseparable from the rise of global mobility, but they are also tied to the emergence of individuals and nations as the primary sites of global power and identity.

McKeown’s detailed history traces how, rather than being a legacy of “traditional” forms of sovereignty, practices of border control historically rose from attempts to control Asian migration around the Pacific in the 1880s. New policies to control mobility had to be justified in the context of contemporary liberal ideas of freedom and mobility, generating principles that are taken for granted today, such as the belief that migration control is a sovereign right of receiving nations and that it should occur at a country’s borders.

McKeown shows how the enforcement of these border controls required migrants to be extracted from social networks of identity and reconstructed as isolated individuals within centralized filing systems. Methods for excluding Asians from full participation in the “family of civilized nations” are now the norm between all nations. These practices also helped institutionalize global cultural and economic divisions, such as East/West and First and Third World designations, which continue to shape our understanding.

The Chinese/Vietnamese Diaspora: Revisiting the Boat People, edited by Yuk Wah Chan (Routledge)

Over three decades have passed since the first wave of Indochinese refugees left their homelands. These refugees, mainly the Vietnamese, fled from war and strife in search of a better life elsewhere. By investigating the Vietnamese diaspora in Asia, this book sheds new light on the Asian refugee era (1975-1991), refugee settlement and different patterns of host-guest interactions that will have implications for refugee studies elsewhere. The book provides:

• A clearer historical understanding of the group dynamics among refugees – the ethnic Chinese ‘Vietnamese refugees’ from both the North and South as well as the northern ‘Vietnamese refugees’
• An examination of different aspects of migration including: planning for migration, choices of migration route, and reasons for migration
• An analysis of the ethnic and refugee politics during the refugee era, the settlement and subsequent resettlement

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of globalization, migration, ethnicities, refugee histories and politics.

Transnational Asian Identities in Pan-Pacific Cinemas: The Reel Asian Exchange, edited by Philippa Gates and Lisa Funnell (Routledge)

This collection examines the exchange of Asian identities taking place at the levels of both film production and film reception amongst pan-Pacific cinemas. The authors consider, on the one hand, texts that exhibit what Mette Hjort refers to as, “marked transnationality,” and on the other, the polysemic nature of transnational film texts by examining the release and reception of these films.

The topics explored in this collection include the innovation of Hollywood generic formulas into 1950’s and 1960’s Hong Kong and Japanese films; the examination of Thai and Japanese raced and gendered identity in Asian and American films; the reception of Hollywood films in pre-1949 China and millennial Japan; the production and performance of Asian adoptee identity and subjectivity; the political implications and interpretations of migrating Chinese female stars; and the production and reception of pan-Pacific co-productions.

Chinatowns, by Gregor Benton (Routledge)

Exploring how each Chinatown is different; Benton explains how a unique culture developed and outlines their basic cultural, social, and political features. He highlights the unique features of the different Chinatowns surveyed. For instance, in Paris, there is a Chinatown populated primarily by Chinese who are the descendants of Chinese migrants to Southeast Asia (a former French colony).

In the United States, the cloistered nature of Chinatowns stemmed from institutionalized racism. And in Australia, weaker taboos against interracial sex led to more open enclaves. Everywhere, though, Chinatowns have been stereotyped as places of exoticism and corruption, and to this day are frequently viewed through an Orientalist gaze. In this truly unique book, Gregor Benton applies his vast knowledge to cover all of these features.

Here are some more announcements, links, and job postings about academic-related jobs, fellowships, and other opportunities for those interested in racial/ethnic/diversity issues. As always, the announcements and links are provided for informational purposes and do not necessarily imply an endorsement of the organization or college involved.

Graduate Student Conference on Immigration, CUNY

(New) Debates on Belonging:
A Graduate Student Conference on Contemporary Issues in Immigration

Keynote Speaker:
Dr. Richard Alba, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center

Friday, October 14, 2011
8:00am-6:00pm
Graduate Center – City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), New York, NY

Hosted by the CUNY Graduate Center’s Immigration Working Group (IWG). Registration is FREE. Please register for the conference. All information, including agenda, panels, and abstracts, is available at http://www.gc-immigration.org/gcimmigrationconference. Lunch will be served.

Conference Overview:
With increasing frequency, questions of belonging have dominated the news and public debates on immigration: from the recent introduction of anti-immigrant legislation in many states to the spirited organizing around the DREAM Act and the controversy sparked by Park51’s proposal for a Muslim community center near Ground Zero. The prominence of such issues highlights both the fiercely contested nature of belonging in the United States, as well as how diverse groups – whether veteran or newly arrived, documented or undocumented, majority or minority, religious or secular – mobilize and advocate for their claims. While Congress debates and defers decisions on immigration reform on the national level, the question of belonging has distinctly regional and local manifestations. Immigrants and their children are claiming their place in American society, in its schools, workplaces and neighborhoods.

This interdisciplinary conference will bring together graduate students whose own research bear on these issues. (New) Debates on Belonging explores the many facets of immigrant belonging, incorporation and boundary drawing. Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Place/region (communities, new destinations, urban areas)
• Policy/activism/public health
• Cross-national and historical comparisons
• Culture and the arts
• Citizenship
• Dimensions of difference: gender, race, sexuality, religion, the body
• Social institutions: labor and the economy, education, family, the media
• Transnationalism
• The second generation

Cosponsors:
CUNY Immigration Studies Initiative; CUNY Middle Eastern and Middle Eastern American Center; CUNY Sociology Dept.; CUNY Sociological Students’ Association; CUNY Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies.

Position: Sociology & African Am Studies, Univ. of Virginia

The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies and the Department of Sociology at the University of Virginia seek to fill a joint position in race and ethnicity. The position, open to applicants at the Assistant Professor (tenure-track) rank, is to begin August 25, 2012. Candidates with comparative, historical, or global approaches are particularly encouraged to apply.

Fields of specialization include but are not restricted to the following: race and the sociology of knowledge; race, immigration and labor; socioeconomic and racial/ethnic differences in health and mortality; urban ethnography, and urban inequality and poverty. The candidate’s tenure home will be the Department of Sociology, but teaching will be evenly split between the two units. Qualified applicants must hold a Ph.D. by the time of appointment.

To apply candidates must submit a Candidate Profile through Jobs@UVa (https://jobs.virginia.edu), search on posting number 0608419, and electronically attach the following: CV, cover letter, contact information for three references, statement of teaching philosophy and statement of research interest. Review of applications will begin by October 14, 2011, and applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

Inquiries should be addressed to the Chair of the Search Committee: Milton Vickerman (mv8d@virginia.edu). Questions regarding the application process in Jobs@UVa should be directed to: Brenda Tekin (bt8x@virginia.edu).

Call for Papers: Midwest Sociological Society, Immigrants in the U.S.

Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting
Mar 29 – April 1, 2012
Minneapolis, MN

Negotiations in Resettlement: The Immigrant in the U.S.

This panel invites 250-word abstracts of papers that explore the myriad of ways that immigrants negotiate the social, cultural, economic and political realities and often difficulties inherent in the resettlement process. What moral and material resources do immigrant individuals, families and/or groups strategically employ as mechanisms to assist them in navigating some of the obstacles present in the process of incorporation into American society? We are interested in all facets of the immigrant experience, including, but not limited to the impact of race, ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality on the choices immigrants make in terms of where they choose to resettle and how they shape what the resettlement process looks like.

Please submit your abstract by October 24, 2011 on the Midwestern Sociological Society’s website. If you have questions, contact either Tiffany Davis tdavis46@csu.edu or Erika Busse buss0101@umn.edu.

Position: U.S. History in the World, Oregon

The Department of History at Oregon State University invites applications for a tenure-track position in the history of the United States in the World, to begin Fall 2012. Assistant Professor preferred; Associate Professor possible. The successful candidate will have the Ph.D. in History and specialize in the United States in a global context, American international relations, and/or transnational history. Candidates should demonstrate a serious commitment to both scholarship and teaching. Teaching responsibilities include the U.S. history survey and upper-division and other appropriate courses in one or more areas of specialization.

To apply, submit letter of application and current C.V. via our application website at https://jobs.oregonstate.edu, and three letters of reference to:
Professor Marisa Chappell, Chair, US in the World Search Committee,
History Department, Oregon State University
306 Milam Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331

Full consideration will be given to candidates whose applications are complete by November 1, 2011.

Position: Director of Asian American Studies, Univ. of MD

The University of Maryland at College Park invites inquiries, nominations, and applications for the position of Director of the Asian American Studies Program (AAST). The ideal candidate should possess a strong record of scholarly research and publication; experience developing interdisciplinary curriculum and instructional programs in Asian-American Studies; the ability to manage budgetary and personnel matters; and skills for obtaining and managing extramural funding and development. Most importantly, we seek a dynamic individual who possesses an intellectual and programmatic vision as well as the interpersonal and consensus-building skills necessary for its realization.

The Director will administer and teach in the Asian American Studies program, an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor program that focuses on the histories, communities, and cultures of Asian Americans. Applicants should possess the ability to work with scholars and students in diverse areas in order to build intercampus collaboration, set a campus-wide agenda for innovative Asian American Studies education and research, and manage the financial and operational aspects of the program. Developing strong ties between the University of Maryland and the surrounding community will also be important.

Candidates must have an earned doctorate or other terminal degree, a substantial record of innovative scholarship, excellent teaching, and demonstrated qualities of academic leadership, with academic credentials commensurate with the appointment to the rank of associate or full professor. We are open to candidates from the humanities, history, and the social sciences. The position of Director is a full-time appointment in AAST; the Director will hold tenure in an appropriate department within the university. The Director reports to the Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean for Undergraduate Studies. Salary is negotiable, commensurate with qualifications and experience.

For best consideration, applications should be submitted by Nov. 30, 2011, but the position will remain open until filled. Contact Julie Greene, Professor of History and Chair of the Search Committee, at jmg@umd.edu, with any questions about this search or to nominate individuals for the position. Apply online at jobs.umd.edu (position number 111974). Please include a cover letter, cv, and list of three references with contact information. Ask references to submit letters independently to jobs.umd.edu.

>Preview Performance: “Chinglish” by David Henry Hwang

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) would like to invite you to a special benefit preview on Tuesday, Oct. 25, at 8pm, of David Henry Hwang’s new play on Broadway, Chinglish. David will join us for a Q&A after the performance, so you won’t want to miss this wonderful AALDEF event!

Chinglish is a romantic comedy about an American businessman who arrives in a bustling Chinese province looking to score a lucrative contact for his family’s sign-making firm. He soon finds that the complexities of such a venture far outstrip the expected differences in language, customs and manners–and calls into question even the most basic assumptions of human conduct.

David Henry Hwang, a Tony Award-winning playwright (M. Butterfly) and AALDEF’s 1989 Justice in Action award recipient, said, “Chinglish was born from the many visits I’ve made to China over the past five or six years to witness the exciting changes there. During one visit, I toured a new arts center where everything was first-rate–except for the ridiculously translated English signs. It was at that moment that I thought of writing this play.”

Chinglish, which had its world premiere at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre this past summer, got rave reviews. The Chicago Tribune called it a “shrewd, timely and razor-sharp comedy,” that is “surely Hwang’s best work since “M. Butterfly.”

Join us to catch a sneak peek of this new Broadway show before it opens on Oct. 27. We have a limited number of orchestra seats at a specially discounted price of $90 per ticket. Reserve your Chinglish tickets now by calling 212.966.5932 x212 or emailing events@aaldef.org. (Reservations are final only after payment has been received.)

Thanks so much for your continued support of AALDEF, and I look forward to seeing you at our Chinglish theater event on Oct. 25!

Position: President/CEO, Japanese American Museum

Located in the Little Tokyo business district within downtown Los Angeles, the Japanese American National Museum seeks to promote understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. It is the largest museum in the United States dedicated to sharing that unique experience as an integral part of U.S. history and to preserving the rich heritage and cultural identity of Japanese Americans. In December 2010, the Museum was awarded the National Medal from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries across the country.

Responsibilities:
Reporting to the Museum’s Board of Trustees, the President & CEO will bring critical leadership to the Museum with responsibility for the overall performance of the institution. The successful candidate will be a visionary and inspirational leader, with responsibility for enhancing both the external face of the institution and the internal operations that will allow the Museum to meet its educational and programmatic objectives in an increasingly challenging economic environment and to continue to grow and fulfill its mission.

The President & CEO participates as an ex-officio member of a national board, working with the Board in charting the course of the Museum’s response to changing audiences, donors, members, and other stakeholders throughout the United States (including Hawaii) and Japan. The Candidate will also interface with the Museum’s Board of Governors, chaired by Secretary Norman Y. Mineta (a current trustee) and formerly chaired by Senator Daniel K. Inouye; Governors serve as regional ambassadors for the Museum.

The President & CEO will supervise a staff of approximately 40 full-time equivalent employees. He/She is responsible for an approximately $7 million annual budget. A significant portion of the President & CEO’s responsibility will be leading and working closely with the Museum’s staff to maintain current and prospective relationships with donors, volunteers and stakeholders and establish new relationships with those constituencies.

Leadership, Management and Oversight

• Lead the organization, setting the voice and tone from the top and providing vision for future growth and success
• Serve as the key liaison between the Board of Trustees and the Museum’s staff and work with the chairs of the Board and its various committees in developing meeting agendas and materials
• Manage and oversee all program planning, organizing, operating and staffing activities
• Manage overall financial oversight and monitoring, including budget discipline
• Foster and monitor the quality of the Museum’s activities to assure excellence as defined by the Board
• Form strategic alliances and partnerships, when appropriate to achieve the Museum’s goals
• Manage the development and review of appropriate metrics to measure the performance, impact and results of programs
• Recommend long-range plans that support the Museum’s philosophy and strategic objectives

Financial Management, Fundraising and Community Affairs

• Represent the Board and the Museum to the community
• Oversee marketing and public relations programs
• Assure the sound fiscal operation of the Museum, including timely, accurate and comprehensive preparation of an annual budget and its implementation
• Develop and oversee a robust fundraising and development department (including joint development efforts with the Museum’s boards), and actively participate in those efforts
• Work closely with the development team in sustaining and establishing relationships with foundations, government agencies, and private donors

Human Resources

• Establish objectives through the selection, supervision, professional development, motivation and evaluation of personnel
• Review personnel positions and organizational structure to ensure the efficient, timely and effective work of the organization with personnel appropriate for the position
• Specify staff roles and responsibilities, evaluate performance regularly and hold staff accountable for results
• Implement and maintain appropriate salary structures

Traits and Characteristics
The ideal candidate will be a charismatic, inspirational and energetic leader who takes initiative and has the ability to articulate the mission of the Museum to its various constituencies. The successful candidate will have a passion for the cultural and historical foundations of the Museum, specifically in helping communicate the lessons learned from the World War II incarceration of persons of Japanese descent. He/She will be an excellent communicator with strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills. The successful candidate will have the ability to develop and implement policies, procedures, and systems necessary to elevate the Museum’s programming, including the Museum’s National Center for the Preservation of Democracy and the Museum’s educational outreach initiatives in targeted regions, while overseeing the big picture and overall impact of the Museum on the community.

Although the successful candidate will most likely have solid leadership experience in the field of Museum management, it is also possible that the individual might come from another career background in the nonprofit, public or for-profit sectors. He/She will have a minimum of seven to ten years of management experience that demonstrates the ability to conceptualize, plan, implement, administer, evaluate, communicate, and develop resources with a strong emphasis on past results. Knowledge of the history of Japanese Americans would be helpful.

Education
An undergraduate degree is required; an advanced degree is preferred.

Compensation
Salary and benefits commensurate with qualifications and experience will be provided. Relocation assistance is negotiable.

To Apply
Please direct inquires, nominations, and applications, including resume and a compelling letter of interest in confidence to:

Karin Stellar
Morris & Berger
500 North Brand Boulevard, Suite 2150
Glendale, CA 91203
Telephone 818-507-1234 – Fax 818-507-4770
kstellar@morrisberger.com

Electronic submission is encouraged

The Museum is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Personnel are chosen on the basis of ability without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, marital status or sexual orientation, in accordance with federal and state law.

Vietnamese Translators Needed

My name is Aellon Krider and I am a Linguistic Recruiter with TransPerfect Translations. I am currently recruiting English into native Vietnamese translators located in the U.S. interested in long term freelance collaboration. We are looking for candidates experienced in health care or life sciences to join our network of certified linguists.

Applicants must:

• Be a native speaker Vietnamese
• Have a college degree and 5 years translation experience OR advanced degree and 3 years translation experience
• Be able to produce documented proof of educational background
• Be located in the U.S.

We are always looking to expand our qualified linguist resources, and would be interested in collaborating. If you are able to put me in contact with any other translators as well, I would greatly appreciate the referrals.

Thank you very much,
Aellon Krider
Linguistic Resources Coordinator
TransPerfect
t +1 212.689.5555 x1222 | skype: tpt_akride

Post-Doc: Race/Ethnicity, Duke

The Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Social Sciences (REGSS), an affiliate of the Social Science Research Institute at Duke University, is pleased to announce the establishment of the Samuel DuBois Cook Postdoctoral Fellowship. Cook, a political scientist, was the first black tenured professor at Duke University and served as a member of the Duke University Board of Trustees from 1981-1993 and is now a Trustee Emeritus.

REGSS seeks to provide a context where scholars interested in examining the constructs of race, ethnicity, and gender from an interdisciplinary perspective can engage each other in dialogue and collaboration. Our questions and our methodologies draw on disciplinary backgrounds that include economics, history, political science, psychology, public policy, and sociology. Scholars interested in the study of race, ethnicity, and the intersection of gender with race and ethnicity, are invited to apply for this one-year fellowship. Individuals working in the field of comparative race are also encouraged to apply. Postdoctoral fellows teach one course during the year, present their research at one of the center’s monthly research colloquia, and devote the rest of their time to research and writing.

Fields: Applications for study in any social science discipline are welcome. Please specify your home discipline and/or the discipline in which you received your Ph.D.

Stipend: $40,000 per fellowship period. Health benefits are available. Some funds are available for research expenses, including conference travel.
Fellowship Period: August 1, 2012 – May 15, 2013.

Eligibility: The primary criterion for selection is evidence of scholarship or scholarly interest in the study of race, ethnicity, or the intersection of gender with race and ethnicity. Applicants must complete all requirements for the doctoral degree by August 2012. Preference will be given to individuals who are within five years of their degree, but more senior applicants will be considered.

Application materials: Applicants must submit an application letter (including email address) in which the applicant clearly identifies the area or discipline of proposed research, curriculum vitae, sample publications and/or dissertation chapters, three letters of recommendation, a statement of research plans and a description of the course you prefer to teach. The research statement should be a separate document and not included in a cover letter. If recommendation letters accompany application materials they should be in a sealed envelope. Please indicate in application letter if you are legally authorized to work in the United States. Also, indicate whether you now, or in the future require sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., Green Card, H-1B, TN, J-1.)

All materials should be sent to the address below and must be postmarked by January 16, 2012. Submitted material will not be returned to the applicant. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

REGSS Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
Duke University
Social Science Research Institute
Box 90420 / Erwin Mill
Durham, NC 27705
Telephone (919) 681-2702
http://regss.ssri.duke.edu

Question should be directed to:
Professor Paula D. McClain (pmcclain@duke.edu) or Professor Kerry L. Haynie (klhaynie@duke.edu)

The following is a list of recent academic journal articles and doctoral dissertations from scholars in the social sciences and humanities that focus on race/ethnicity and/or immigration, with a particular emphasis on Asian Americans. As you can see, the diversity of research topics is a direct reflection of the dynamic and multidimensional nature of people’s lives, experiences, and issues related to race/ethnicity and immigration.

The academic journal articles are generally available in the libraries of most colleges and universities and/or through online research databases. As always, works included in this list are for informational purposes only and do not imply an endorsement of their contents.

Eckstein, Susan, and Thanh-Nghi Nguyen. 2011. “The Making and Transnationalization of an Ethnic Niche: Vietnamese Manicurists.” International Migration Review 45(3):639-674.

• Abstract: The article addresses how Vietnamese immigrant women developed an urban employment niche in the beauty industry, in manicuring. They are shown to have done so by creating a market for professional nail care, through the transformation of nailwork into what might be called McNails, entailing inexpensive, walk-in, impersonal service, in stand-alone salons, nationwide, and by making manicures and pedicures de riguer across class and racial strata.

  Vietnamese are shown to have simultaneously gained access to institutional means to surmount professional manicure credentializing barriers, and to have developed formal and informal ethnic networks that fueled their growing monopolization of jobs in the sector, to the exclusion of non-Vietnamese. The article also elucidates conditions contributing to the Vietnamese build-up and transformation of the niche, to the nation-wide formation of the niche and, most recently, to the transnationalization of the niche. It also extrapolates from the Vietnamese manicure experience propositions concerning the development, expansion, maintenance, and transnationalization of immigrant-formed labor market niches.

Cort, David. 2011. “Reexamining the Ethnic Hierarchy of Locational Attainment: Evidence from Los Angeles.” Social Science Research 40(6):1521-1533.

• Abstract: Because of a lack of data, the locational attainment literature has not incorporated documentation status into models examining group differences in neighborhood quality. I fill this void by using the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey, which permits the identification of undocumented respondents, allowing a reexamination of the ethnic structure of locational attainment in this important immigrant-receiving city.

  Results first suggest that while undocumented Latinos live in the poorest quality communities, blacks live in neighborhoods that are similar to native-born Latinos and better than foreign-born Asians and Latinos. Second, the effects of education are strongest for blacks, allowing the highly educated an opportunity to reside in communities that are of better quality than educated Latinos and Asians.

  Thus, undocumented Latinos replace blacks at the bottom of the locational attainment hierarchy, allowing educated blacks in Los Angeles to reside in better neighborhoods than blacks in the nation at large.

Emeka, Amon. 2011. “Non-Hispanics with Latin American Ancestry: Assimilation, Race, and Identity among Latin American Descendants in the U.S.” Social Science Research 40(6):1547-1563.

• Abstract: In the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS), 6% of respondents with Latin American ancestry answered ‘no’ when asked whether they were Hispanic themselves. Conventional definitions of the Hispanic population exclude such respondents as ‘not Spanish/Hispanic/Latino’ even though they are self-identified Latin American descendants. Since their exclusion may bias our assessments of Hispanic social mobility, it is important to know more about them.

  Non-Hispanic identification is most common among Latin American descendants who (1) list both Latin American and non-Latin American ancestries, (2) speak only English, and (3) identify as White, Black, or Asian when asked about their ‘race.’ Ancestry and racial identity are considerably more influential than respondents’ education, income, place of birth, or place of residence. These findings support both traditional straight-line assimilation and a more recent “racialized assimilation” theory in explaining discrepant responses to the ethnicity and ancestry questions among Latin American descendants.

Conger, Dylan, Amy E. Schwar, and Leanna Stiefel. 2011. “The Effect of Immigrant Communities on Foreign-Born Student Achievement.” International Migration Review 45(3):675-701.

• Abstract: This paper explores the effect of the human capital characteristics of co-ethnic immigrant communities on foreign-born students’ math achievement. We use data on New York City public school foreign-born students from 39 countries merged with census data on the characteristics of the immigrant household heads in the city from each nation of origin and estimate regressions of student achievement on co-ethnic immigrant community characteristics, controlling for student and school attributes.

  We find that the income and size of the co-ethnic immigrant community has no effect on immigrant student achievement, while the percent of college graduates may have a small positive effect. In addition, children in highly English proficient immigrant communities test slightly lower than children from less proficient communities. The results suggest that there may be some protective factors associated with immigrant community members’ education levels and use of native languages.

Lee, Sharon M., and Barry Edmonston. 2011. “Age-at-Arrival’s Effects on Asian Immigrants’ Socioeconomic Outcomes in Canada and the U.S.” International Migration Review 45(3):527–561.

• Abstract: Age-at-arrival is a key predictor of many immigrant outcomes, but discussion continues over how to best measure and study its effects. This research replicates and extends a pioneering study by Myers, Gao, and Emeka [International Migration Review (2009) 43:205–229] on age-at-arrival effects among Mexican immigrants in the U.S. to see if similar results hold for other immigrant groups and in other countries. We examine data from the 2000 U.S. census and 2006 American Community Survey, and 1991, 2001, and 2006 Canadian censuses to assess several measures of age-at-arrival effects on Asian immigrants’ socioeconomic outcomes.

  We confirm several of Myers et al.’s key findings, including the absence of clear breakpoints in age-at-arrival effects for all outcomes and the superiority of continuous measures of age-at-arrival. Additional analysis reveals different age-at-arrival effects by gender and Asian ethnicity. We suggest guidelines, supplementing those offered by Myers et al., for measuring and studying age-at-arrival’s effects on immigrant outcomes.