The views and opinions expressed on this site and blog posts (excluding comments on blog posts left by others) are entirely my own and do not represent those of any employer or organization with whom I am currently or previously have been associated.
Academic Version: Applying my personal experiences and academic research as a professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies to provide a more complete understanding of political, economic, and cultural issues and current events related to American race relations, and Asia/Asian America in particular.
Plain English: Trying to put my Ph.D. to good use.
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.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Asian American Pacific Islander student resource center, the Pan-Asian American Community House (PAACH), is looking for a new Director. PAACH is the hub of AAPI activism and student life at Penn so this position is very important to us.
Duties: The Director provides collaborative leadership and administrative oversight of the Pan Asian American Community House (PAACH). The director leads the provision of co-curricular, cultural and social programs for students and student organizations with an emphasis on Asian Pacific American diasporic programming. The Director assists in programming to support the recruitment and retention of undergraduate, graduate and professional students from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. The Director collaborates with student groups affiliated with the center and other university entities to connect students to all resources relevant to their academic and leadership development and represents the office on University Committees. Position reports to the Associate Vice Provost for Equity and Access.
Qualifications: Master’s required, Ph.D. preferred; minimum of 3-5 years experience in higher education administrations, program development and management, preferably in student affairs; teaching experience desired. Strong knowledge of Asian/Pacific American community required; excellent interpersonal, organizational, technology and communication skills require
The National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program are collaborating on an exhibition that will be the Smithsonian’s first major showcase of contemporary Asian American portraiture. Through the groundbreaking work of seven artists from across the country, Asian American Portraits of Encounter offers provocative artistic responses to the Asian experience in America. The exhibition brings together artists including CYJO, Hye Yeon Nam, Shizu Saldamando, Roger Shimomura, Satomi Shirai, Tam Tran, and Hong Chun Zhang into one exhilarating exhibition. Their portraits of encounter offer representations against and beyond the stereotypes that have long obscured the complexity of being Asian in America.
The exhibit also includes a Portraits After 5: Asian 2 AmericanMingle at the Museum event on Friday, November 4 – 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Immerse yourself in an amazing evening of art, food, and music in the National Portrait Gallery, among works from one of the art world’s most exciting fields. View the exhibition Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter and converse with exhibit curators and Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program staff about these provocative works. Then have your own story told by one of the Corcoran College of Art + Design students on hand to draw your portrait and add it to the works from the collections being projected on the walls of the Kogod Courtyard. Then sample the delicious food and drinks as DJs Yellow Fever transform the courtyard with a soundscape of international beats.
“Faces of China” – Making Connections in the Simplest Way
Miami Photographer Tom Salyer Showcases 6 Years of Work in China
Miami based professional photographer Tom Salyer will showcase an exhibit of his work documenting his annual visits to China. The Opening Reception will be held on Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. and the exhibit will run through January 21, 2012.
The show will also feature an audio accompaniment of natural, field-recorded sound. As well as traditional commercial photography, Salyer specializes in multimedia presentations and ‘talking postcards’ that combine photographs and sound so that audiences gain a fuller, more compelling experience than any one of those elements could achieve by themselves. Images detailing the meditation routine of Tibetan Monks are preserved moments in time when complemented with the sounds of horns, cymbals, chants, conch shells, clanging tea cups, and rice being rhythmically scooped and poured over bowls and rings.
ACND Gallery of Art
Archbishop Curley Notre Dame High School
4949 NE 2nd Avenue
Miami, FL 33137
November 5th – January 21st, 2012
Opening: November 5th 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
The College of Humanities and Social Sciences invites applications for a tenure-track position in International Studies at the rank of Assistant Professor with research focusing on the Middle East. The position will be a joint appointment with a commitment to teaching in the International Studies program and a commitment to teaching Middle East studies courses within a disciplinary department. Tenure when granted will be held in the disciplinary department. Personnel decisions will originate in the disciplinary department with input from the International Studies program.
Applications are welcomed from scholars in the fields of Anthropology, History, Political Science, Religious Studies, Sociology, or related fields. The College seeks scholars whose research covers the geographical area of the Middle East. In addition, the College seeks applications from scholars who are prepared to assume major but not singular responsibility for the core and capstone courses in the International Studies major. Preference for candidates with significant time living or working in the Middle East. For more information about the Middle East Studies Program visit http://ids.chass.ncsu.edu/mestudies/.
Qualifications: Applicants for the position must hold the PhD in an appropriate field and have some teaching experience. ABDs who plan on having their PHD completed by August 15, 2012 will be considered but preference will be given to applicants who will have a completed PHD.
To apply please visit http://jobs.ncsu.edu and search for position 00101890. Applicants will be asked to submit a letter of application that speaks to their interdisciplinary and comparative/global interests and their research as it pertains to the Middle East, a copy of their current CV, syllabi, and a representative sample of teaching evaluation. In addition, please arrange for submission of three letters of recommendation to: Dr. Akram Khater, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of History, North Carolina State University, CB 8108, Raleigh NC 27695-8108. Review of applications will begin on November 9, 2011 and continue until the position is filled.
The College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position in the Asian American Studies Department with specialization in Chinese American Studies, to commence Fall 2012 semester (Search #12.11).
Qualifications: PhD or equivalent terminal degree by August 1, 2012. Candidates must demonstrate excellence in curricular development and student advising, ability to teach general and comparative Asian American Studies courses (both undergraduate and graduate levels), and commitment to scholarly/professional activities and community service. Open fields of specialization in the social sciences and humanities. Consideration will be given to candidates with bilingual/bicultural competency and expertise in the areas of Chinese American history, literature, writing/composition, and/or cultural studies.
Rank and Salary: Assistant Professor. Salary commensurate with rank and qualifications. Application Deadline: December 15, 2011. Submit application dossier (cover letter, cv, official transcripts, samples of published or other related professional works) and a minimum of three references to:
Asian American Studies Hiring Committee, Search #12.11
College of Ethnic Studies – EP 103
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94132-4100
* * * * * * * * *
Position Two:
The College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position in the Asian American Studies Department, to commence Fall 2012 semester (Search #13.11).
Description and Qualifications: PhD or equivalent terminal degree by August 1, 2012. Candidates must demonstrate excellence in curricular development and student advising, ability to teach general and comparative Asian American Studies courses (both undergraduate and graduate levels), and commitment to scholarly/professional activities and community service. Preference will be given to candidates with specialization in (1) Asian American family, gender, sexuality, and Queer studies, and/or (2) South Asian American Studies. Consideration will be given to candidates with bilingual/bicultural competency.
Rank and Salary: Assistant Professor. Salary will commensurate with experience and qualifications. Application Deadline: December 15, 2011. Submit application dossier with a cover letter, cv, official transcripts, samples of published or related professional works, and a minimum of three references to:
Asian American Studies Hiring Committee, Search #13.11
Office of the Dean, College of Ethnic Studies, EP 103
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94132-4100
For further information contact aas@sfsu.edu, 415/338-2698
The Africana Studies Program at Texas A & M University invites applications for the position of Director. This is a faculty position with appointment at the Associate or Full Professor level. PhD required. We seek candidates who have a strong record of research, teaching, and administrative experience in Africana, Diaspora, or related Studies. A joint appointment with a department outside Africana Studies is possible. Duties include teaching Africana Studies classes. The position will begin August 1, 2012.
The program in Africana Studies is housed in the College of Liberal Arts. The interdisciplinary program offers an undergraduate minor and a graduate certificate. The Africana Studies faculty and curriculum are distinctively interdisciplinary and transnational. The program is currently composed of eight core faculty members, who hold joint appointments in our departments of Anthropology, Communication, English, Hispanic Studies, Performance Studies, and Psychology. More than twenty other faculty from an array of academic disciplines teach classes and participate in program activities as affiliated faculty members. All are engaged in exciting research that is advancing knowledge in their fields of specialty and raising the program to national prominence.
Texas A & M is a large and expanding research university located in Bryan/College Station, a growing metropolitan community with a clean environment, attractive amenities, a low cost of living, and close proximity to the large metropolitan areas of Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. It holds the unusual distinction of being a land, sea, and space grant university.
Applicants should submit a letter describing their research, teaching, and statement of their vision for advancing Africana Studies at Texas A & M; curriculum vitae, one writing sample (article or book chapter), and names of three references. Address correspondence to: Africana Search Committee, 4456 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4456. Review of applications will begin January 2, 2012 and continue until the position is filled.
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.
(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.
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).
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
The Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) will be holding their annual conference on April 11-14, 2012 in Washington DC. As I’ve written about before, I always enjoy attending the AAAS annual conference and find it to be a very welcoming and inspiring opportunity to connect with other academics and activists who are also interested in Asian American Studies and contributing to the Asian American community. Below is their Call for Submission:
The theme, “Expanding the Political: Power, Poetics, Practices,” refers to the location of the meetings in Washington, DC, the seat of politics and power in the United States. Asian Americans play an increasing role in U.S. and international politics in their roles as voters, politicians, and policy makers. At the same time, we wish to highlight the everyday and informal political practices of Asians in America as they use art, academics, and activism to engage — and change — the world around them.
We invite submissions that address formal politics and informal politics in their multiple dimensions. We welcome presentations that explore traditional conceptions of “politics†and political action on topics such as electoral politics, Asian Americans in the government, activism and social movements, and political interests and issues. Do Asian Americans constitute a political block (or have they ever)? How can we interpret the increasing presence of Asian American Republican politicians? Is “Asian America” a useful political category?
Simultaneously, we hope the conference will expand our conception of the political to other areas including, but not limited to, the politics of: commemoration and memorialization; war and peace; dynamics within/across/outside Asian American communities, communities of color, and multiracial Asians; immigration, refugee status, citizenship, and national belonging; the relationship between Pacific Island Studies and Asian American Studies; Asian settler colonialism; empire and race. What generative political work emerges in the conversation between academics, activists, and artists? How do Asian Americans contend with the politics of the everyday?
We encourage submissions representing all the disciplines covered in Asian American Studies and from individuals engaged in political work, broadly speaking, outside the academy, including politicians, artists and activists. We especially encourage panels incorporating a range of institutional and extra-institutional locations, from students to senior scholars, and from painters to policy makers.
Complete panel submissions (with a minimum of three papers and a maximum of four, with a moderator) that attend to the conference theme and reflect this heterogeneity will be given priority, but we will consider individual submissions as well. In addition to panels, workshops, and roundtables, this year we introduce an inaugural invitation for chaired WORKING PAPER sessions dedicated specifically to this year’s conference theme.
For these sessions, panelists will submit longer papers (15-25 pages) prior to the conference, and sessions will be devoted to intensive commentary and discussion on a set of 2-3 papers with a shared theme. A faculty expert on the theme will chair each session and deliver detailed feedback to each author. This format will foster a deeper scholarly exchange and engagement, and showcase the common intellectual threads that run through our diverse research projects. We encourage scholars from various ranks to submit their papers to the Working Paper sessions.
We accept electronic submissions. Paper and panel applicants must be members of the Association for Asian American Studies and all presenters must register and submit their conference fee to be included in the printed conference program. Please check the “WORKING PAPERS†box if you would like your paper or panel submission to be considered for the Working Papers chaired sessions.
Relevant information, including the membership form and submissions guidelines, is available at the Association for Asian American Studies Web site. We look forward to seeing you at the 2012 Association for Asian American Studies conference in Washington, DC! Submissions due by: October 8, 2011 (extended for original deadline of Oct. 1).
If the online submission system does not work, please submit your proposal via email, with the subject header: AAAS 2012 Conference Proposal and your last, first name to: piaseng@illinois.edu. To submit a proposal via fax please send your proposal to 217-265-6235. For both fax and email submissions, please make sure to fill out the cover page with contact information for all panelists.
For those who are east of the west coast, you may have heard of the East of California section (EoC) of the Association for Asian American Studies, for those academics who — as its name implies — are located east of California. The EoC section has their own Call for Papers below:
Call for Papers: East of California Section-Sponsored Panels for the AAAS Conference Submission Deadline: September 20, 2011
Based on the conference theme, “Expanding the Political: Power, Poetics, Practices,” the East-of-California Section seeks to sponsor the following three panels at the 2012 AAAS Conference in Washington, DC. We invite faculty, graduate students and community members who are involved in Asian American politics and art to submit proposals to one of these panels by emailing a 250-word abstract and a two-page CV to Mark Chiang (mchiang00@gmail.com) and Eric Hung (msumeric@gmail.com) by September 20, 2011.
Panel: Asian Americans and Conservative Politics East of California
Asian American voters have become increasingly “Democratic-leaning†in federal elections over the past two decades. Simultaneously, a number of Asian Americans have become highly visible in conservative politics. Not only have Dinesh D’Souza and Elaine Chao served in the Reagan and second Bush administrations, Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley have become governors of Louisiana and South Carolina. Additionally, Michelle Malkin has become a prominent conservative pundit on Fox News.
This panel seeks papers that address the rise of Asian Americans in conservative politics—the Republican Party, neoliberal and libertarian organizations, the Tea Party—east of California. What led to this rise? What are its implications for Asian American identity and Asian American Studies? What impacts have these figures made on the Conservative movement? What roles has religion played in this trend? Is it an inevitable result of increased assimilation?
Panel: Asian American Political Art
This panel seeks papers that address the relationship between art (broadly defined), politics and Asian America. We are particularly interested in studies of visual art, film, dance, music and literature that engage with the formal political system or the political process. Potential topics include:
Methodological issues raised by political art
Art as a tool of political legitimation or resistance
Propagandistic works about Asian America or Asian immigration
Art’s impact on the terms of debate and political actions
The role of community in the creation and use of political art
Panel: Questions of State
What role does the state play in Asian American politics, culture and community? We seek papers that address any aspect of the state, from historical studies of Asian American actors in the political system or state apparatus (government employees, politicians, lobbyists and others), to theoretical reflections on the contemporary transformations of the state and its impact on ideological struggles over political hegemony, to investigations of the state’s place in the global economy and how that shapes Asian American subjects or communities. What kinds of power still operate through the state and where are Asian Americans located in relation to that power? Is the state still an essential site of political or cultural struggles, or is it becoming increasingly marginal to transnational movements or organizations?
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. The dissertation records are compiled by Dissertation Abstracts International. Copies of the dissertations can be obtained through your college’s library or by addressing your request to ProQuest, 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346. Telephone 800-521-3042, email: disspub@umi.com. As always, works included in this list are for informational purposes only and do not imply an endorsement of their contents.
Yamashiro, Jane H. 2011. “Racialized National Identity Construction in the Ancestral Homeland: Japanese American Migrants in Japan.” Ethnic and Racial Studies. 34:9:1502-1521
Abstract: This article examines Japanese Americans in Japan to illuminate how ‘Japanese American’ – an ethnic minority identity in the US – is reconstructed in Japan as a racialized national identity. Based on fifty interviews with American citizens of Japanese ancestry conducted between 2004 and 2007, I demonstrate how interactions with Japanese in Japan shape Japanese Americans’ racial and national understandings of themselves.
After laying out a theoretical framework for understanding the shifting intersection of race, ethnicity, and nationality, I explore the interactive process of racial categorization and ethnic identity assertion for Japanese American transnationals in Japan. This process leads to what I call racialized national identities – the intersection of racial and national identities in an international context – and suggests that US racial minority identities are constructed not only within the US, but abroad as well.
Smith, Sandra Susan and Jennifer Anne Meri Jones. 2011. “Intraracial Harassment on Campus: Explaining Between- and Within-Group Differences.” Ethnic and Racial Studies. 34:9:1567-1593.
Abstract: Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (NLSF), we examine both between- and within-group differences in the odds of feeling intraracially harassed. Specifically, we investigate the effects of colleges’ and universities’ racial composition as well as the nature of students’ associations with non-group members, including involvement in racially homogeneous campus organizations, ethnoracial diversity of friendship networks, and interracial dating.
Our findings suggest that although college racial composition appears to have little effect on experiencing intraracial harassment, the nature of students’ involvement with other-race students matters a great deal. For all groups, interracial dating increased odds of harassment. Among black and white students, more diverse friendship networks did as well. And among Asian and Latino students, involvement in any racially homogeneous campus organization was associated with increases in reports of intraracial harassment. Thus, we propose a baseline theoretical model of intraracial harassment that highlights the nature of students’ associations with outgroups.
Sakamoto, Arthur, Isao Takei & Hyeyoung Woo. 2011. “Socioeconomic Differentials among Single-Race and Multi-Race Japanese Americans.” Ethnic and Racial Studies. 34:9:445-1465.
Abstract: Using data from the 2000 US Census, this study investigates various groups of single-race and multi-race Japanese Americans in terms of their schooling and wages. The results indicate that all categories of Japanese Americans tend to have higher schooling than whites. Single-race Japanese Americans tend to have higher schooling than multi-race Japanese Americans, and 1.5-generation Japanese Americans tend to have higher schooling than native-born Japanese Americans.
With the exception of foreign-educated, immigrant Japanese Americans, most of the wage differentials are explained by schooling and a few other demographic characteristics. These results are rather inconsistent with traditional assimilation theory which posits rising socioeconomic attainments with increasing acculturation. Instead, the findings suggest a reverse pattern by which the groups that are more closely related to Japan tend to have higher levels of educational attainment which then become translated into higher wages.
Khattab, Nabil, Ron Johnston, Tariq Modood, and Ibrahim Sirkeci. 2011. “Economic Activity in the South-Asian Population in Britain: The Impact of Ethnicity, Religion, and Class.” Ethnic and Racial Studies. 34:9:1466-1481.
Abstract: This paper expands the existing literature on ethnicity and economic activity in Britain by studying the impact of religion and class. It argues that while the class location of the different South-Asian groups is important in determining their labour market outcomes, it does not operate independently from ethnicity; rather it is highly influenced by ethnicity in the process of determining the labour market participation of these groups.
We use data obtained from the 2001 UK Census on Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi men and women aged between twenty and twenty nine. Our findings confirm that class structure of the South-Asian groups is highly ethnicized, in that the ethno-religious background and class are interwoven to the extent that the separation between them is not easy, if not impossible.
Massey, Douglas and and Monica Espinoza Higginsa. 2011. “The Effect of Immigration on Religious Belief and Practice: A Theologizing or Alienating Experience?” Social Science Research. 40:5:1371-1389.
Abstract: Using data from the New Immigrant Survey, we examine the religious beliefs and practices of new legal immigrants to the United States. We find that Christian immigrants are more Catholic, more Orthodox, and less Protestant than American Christians, and that those immigrants who are Protestant are more likely to be evangelical. In addition to being more Catholic and more Orthodox than American Christians, the new immigrants are also paradoxically less Christian, with a fifth reporting some other faith.
Detailed analysis of reported church attendance at places of origin and in the United States suggest that immigration is a disruptive event that alienates immigrants from religious practice rather than “theologizing” them. In addition, our models clearly show that people who join congregations in the United States are highly selected and unrepresentative of the broader population of immigrants in any faith. In general, congregational members were more observant both before and after emigration, were more educated, had more cumulative experience in the United States, and were more likely to have children present in the household and be homeowners and therefore yield biased representations of all adherents to any faith. The degree of selectivity and hence bias also varies markedly both by religion and nationality.
Jasso, Guillermina. 2011. “Migration and stratification.” Social Science Research. 40:5:1292-1336.
Abstract: Migration and stratification are increasingly intertwined. One day soon it will be impossible to understand one without the other. Both focus on life chances. Stratification is about differential life chances – who gets what and why – and migration is about improving life chances – getting more of the good things of life.
To examine the interconnections of migration and stratification, we address a mix of old and new questions, carrying out analyses newly enabled by a unique new data set on recent legal immigrants to the United States (the New Immigrant Survey). We look at immigrant processing and lost documents, depression due to the visa process, presentation of self, the race-ethnic composition of an immigrant cohort (made possible by the data for the first time since 1961), black immigration from Africa and the Americas, skin color diversity among couples formed by US citizen sponsors and immigrant spouses, and English fluency among children age 8–12 and their immigrant parents.
We find, inter alia, that children of previously illegal parents are especially more likely to be fluent in English, that native-born US citizen women tend to marry darker, that immigrant applicants who go through the visa process while already in the United States are more likely to have their documents lost and to suffer visa depression, and that immigration, by introducing accomplished black immigrants from Africa (notably via the visa lottery), threatens to overturn racial and skin color associations with skill. Our analyses show the mutual embeddedness of migration and stratification in the unfolding of the immigrants’ and their children’s life chances and the impacts on the stratification structure of the United States.
Hersch, Joni. 2011. “The Persistence of Skin Color Discrimination for Immigrants. Social Science Research. 40:5:1337-1349.
Abstract: Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, discrimination in employment on the basis of color is prohibited, and color is a protected basis independent from race. Using data from the spouses of the main respondents to the New Immigrant Survey 2003, this paper shows that immigrants with the lightest skin color earn on average 16–23% more than comparable immigrants with the darkest skin color.
These estimates control for years of legal permanent residence in the US, education, English language proficiency, occupation in source country, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, race, country of birth, as well as for extensive current labor market characteristics that may be themselves influenced by discrimination. Furthermore, the skin color penalty does not diminish over time. These results are consistent with persistent skin color discrimination affecting legal immigrants to the United States.
Akresh, Ilana Redstone. 2011. “Wealth Accumulation among U.S. Immigrants: A Study of Assimilation and Differentials.” Social Science Research. 40:5:1390-1401.
Abstract: Data from the New Immigrant Survey are used to study wealth differentials among U.S. legal permanent residents. This study is unique in its ability to account for wealth held in the U.S. and that held abroad and yields several key findings. First, relative to immigrants from Western Europe, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand (who have median wealth similar to native born non-Hispanic whites), other immigrant groups have lower levels of total wealth even after accounting for permanent income and life course characteristics.
Second, time in the U.S. is positively associated with the wealth of married immigrants, yet this relationship is not statistically significant for single immigrants. Third, differences in the means of measured characteristics between Western European immigrants and those from most other origin regions account for more than 75 percent of observed wealth disparities. However, for immigrants from Asia and from the Indian subcontinent, much of the wealth differential remains unexplained by these factors.
Lin, Ken-Hou. 2011. “Do Less-Skilled Immigrants Work More? Examining the Work Time of Mexican Immigrant Men in the United States.” Social Science Research. 40:5:1402-1418.
Abstract: Using data from the US Current Population Surveys 2006–2008, I examine the weekly work hours of Mexican immigrants. Mexican immigrant workers on average work 2–4 h less than non-Hispanic whites per week, which contradicts the popular portrait of long immigrant work hours. Four mechanisms to explain this gap are proposed and examined.
Results show that the work time disparity between non-Hispanic white and Mexican immigrant workers is explained by differences in human capital, ethnic concentration in the labor market, and selection process into employment. English proficiency has limited effect on work time after location in labor market is specified, while the effect of citizenship status remains robust.
Here are some more announcements, links, and job postings about academic-related jobs, fellowships, and other related 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.
In World War II, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was composed entirely of Japanese Americans, most of whom were initially imprisoned by the U.S. government after the Pearl Harbor attacks. Despite this racist and xenophobic treatment, these brave Americans volunteered to fight for their country and eventually became the most highly-decorated fighting unit of their size during WWIII.
Burt Takeuchi has devoted most of his life to honoring the bravery and sacrifices of the 442nd and has created “Valor With Honor,” an independent documentary film based on over 35 interviews of Japanese American veterans who served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team during WW2. The 85 minute feature film describes the harrowing stories of 442nd’s battles in Italy, the Lost Battalion Rescue in France, the assault up Mount Folgorito, and witness to the holocaust at Dachau, Germany at the close of WW2. The film concludes with the vets bittersweet return home to America. The entire film is woven through stories told by the veterans themselves.
Valor with Honor will be shown August 13th and 14th, 2011 at the New Viz Theater in San Francisco’s Japantown (2-4pm). A 30-minute Q&A will follow the screening. DVDs will be sold after the show 25$ per copy. Free autographs. The Nihonmachi Street Fair is also that weekend, so you can enjoy the festival and attend one of screenings. Tickets for the August 13th and 14th (2-4pm) SF Japantown screenings at the New Viz can be purchased online.
Aloha,
Burt Takeuchi
Torasan Films
www.valorwithhonor.com
I wanted to give you advance notice of an international event to inspire and empower Asian women around the globe. The Lotus Blossoming Telesummit would be of interest to your readers visiting the Women & Gender Issues section of your website. This free online event represents the new wave of female empowerment in the Asian community. It begins on August 8, 2011 (6pm PST) and runs for three weeks.
Asia Rising–And She Wears a Skirt
While the spotlight shines on Tiger Mom, an unreported uprising of Asian women is quietly taking place around the globe. There’s a new girl in town and she’s not the demure geisha or cantankerous dragon lady of past. She is the modern empowered Asian woman. While she comes from all walks of life, what she has in common with her yellow sisters is that she embraces her identity–both the good and the bad–and makes choices on her own terms regardless of cultural expectations.
Beginning August 8th, the world will hear her roar. This auspicious day marks the beginning of the first ever Lotus Blossoming Telesummit, a free online event featuring an international line-up of speakers who are on a mission to inspire and empower women around the world.
Each night of the event features a different amazing Asian woman sharing how she reached beyond what she was taught and became who she was destined to be. The Lotus Blossoming Telesummit is free to attend. People can listen in to the event broadcasts by phone or online.
Speakers and topics include:
LA-based solo performer, Kristina Wong, gives a behind-the-curtain peek on what it’s like to live a creative life and eschew a traditional career
Speaker and trainer, Murshidah Said, teaches the importance of self-love and self-respect for women
Award-winning blogger, Stacie Tamaki, shares how she embraces what makes her different to make a difference in the world
Holistic energetic healer, Kim Le, conducts an online healing mediation to cultivate inner and world peace
Relationship expert, Annie Lin, gives the scoop on how to find one’s soulmate by embracing one’s imperfections
Love advocator, Dr. Rose G.S., gives a Malaysian perspective on the Law of Attraction for Asian and Muslim communities–and beyond
Spiritual teacher, Marja West, activates the Divine Feminine Wisdom in listeners–both men and women
Generation Y tech evangelist, Sacha Chua, demystifies how to use social networking as a tool for self-discovery
Soul coach and fourth generation Chinese Canadian, Marielle Smith, kick-starts the creative rebel inside everyone
Ellen Shing, founder of specialty lingerie store, Lula Lu, speaks of finding the perfect fit in both a career and bra size
Holly Tse, creator and host of the Lotus Blossoming Telesummit, lets listeners in on how to use effortless action to make their dreams a reality
The Lotus Blossoming Telesummit runs for three weeks beginning Monday, August 8, 2011, 6pm PST. The event is free and open to everyone. To get the full event details, register at www.lotusblossoming.com.
About Holly Tse:
Holly Tse is the embodiment of the new empowered Asian woman. She left a conventional career in the Internet industry to pursue her passions, which included being a dating coach, reflexologist, Certified Massage Practitioner, cook show host and pitchwoman, published writer and author, cat toy expert, environmental blogger, and full-time mom. She also rode a bicycle across Canada without knowing how to ride a bike. She is an Empress of Effortless Action and teaches people how to make their passions a reality.
I am a doctoral student at Azusa Pacific University in Southern California and am looking for help recruiting biracial individuals for my dissertation research. Specifically, I am looking for individuals who meet the following criteria:
Biracial of non-European heritage (e.g. biracial Black and Hispanic, biracial Asian and Native American, etc.)
Between the ages of 18-33
Born in the United States
Speak English fluently
Have grown up in a home with both parents
I’ll be conducting in-person or phone interviews lasting 1 – 1.5 hours and participants will receive a small token of appreciation. If you know anyone who might meet the criteria, I would appreciate it if you could pass on my email to them or send me their contact information.
Maryland Vietnamese Mutual Association (MVMA) seeks a member of AmeriCorps for the New Americans Citizenship Project of Maryland. Applications are due August 15th by 5pm!
MVMA is currently offering an AmeriCorps State position through the New Americans Citizenship Project of Maryland (NACPM). The program, which will be starting its third year this September, focuses on providing Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) the necessary services to move forward through the citizenship/naturalization process. As an AmeriCorps member with MVMA your responsibilities will include (but not limited to):
Direct Services:
Coordinate workshops and intake clinics focused on naturalization, financial literacy and economic development, and access to public benefits
Assist LPRs in filling out the citizenship application
Teach and/or coordinate English and citizenship preparation courses
Work one on one with clients for tutoring purposes, when necessary
Client referrals to other agencies or individuals
Information Gathering/Education and Outreach:
Strengthen and develop organizational partnerships with existing community and faith-based organizations that serve immigrant communities in Maryland
Conduct needs assessments, community education within immigrant community
Inform LPRs about the naturalization process and benefits of citizenship
Write press releases for MVMA website and radio announcements
Assist with the publicity of the organization and services through community events and outreach
Community involvement/Volunteer Management:
Organize legal panels
Assist in the planning and hosting of MVMA events
Develop volunteer opportunities, as well as train and coordinate volunteers
Candidates would be required to meet the following qualifications:
Ability to perform all of the duties outlined above
U.S. Citizen or U.S. Legal Permanent Resident (recent naturalized citizens encourage to apply)
At least 17 years old
A high school diploma or GED or agree to obtain one during the service year
Excellent English writing and language skills (bilingual in Vietnamese preferred, but not required)
Ability to work independently and as part of a team
Highly organized and efficient, able to manage multiple ongoing projects, “can-do†attitude, flexibility, teamwork, attention to detail; high degree of initiative
Must be able to commit to 1700 hours of service between September 12th, 2011 and August 2012 (about 40 hours/week)
Excellent administrative, customer service and program management skills
Strong interest in working with adults from various cultural, educational, and ethnic backgrounds
Evening and weekend hours required
Access to personal transportation preferred
Benefits: Living stipend of $12,100, paid out bi-monthly for the duration of service term; health care coverage, childcare assistance, student loan forbearance, a $5,550 education award upon successful completion of program, and professional development training. Applications will be accepted from now through August 15th. The selected candidate will start September 12th.
To Apply:
Complete an application (attached or available at mdvietmutual.org)
Make sure to include Personal Statement and two references
Attach cover letter and resume
Email to info@mdvietmutual.org with “AMERICORPS APPLICATION” in the subject line
Incomplete applications will not be considered for review. Questions?
Contact: Diane Vu, Executive Director
301.588.6862 or info@mdvietmutual.org
Call for Contributions: Asian American Literature and the Legacy of Maxine Hong Kingston
The Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center (APALRC) is a 501(c) (3) community-based legal organization that works with low income and limited-English proficient Asian immigrant communities across the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The APALRC provides free legal assistance to low-income Asian immigrants who have limited English proficiency in a linguistically accessible and culturally appropriate manner. It operates a multi-lingual legal intake helpline, a legal interpreter project, and provides legal assistance in immigration, domestic violence and family law, tenants’ rights, and other areas. The APALRC works to improve Asian Americans’ access to the legal system and to address the systemic inequities faced by Asian Americans and immigrants in our region.
The APALRC seeks legal interns/externs for Fall 2011, as well as undergraduate or graduate students and recent graduates interested in working in local communities. Interns will have various responsibilities that include work on one or more of the following projects:
Asian American Multilingual Legal Helpline: (Legal)
The helpline is the first point of contact for potential clients of APALRC. It has separate lines for Mandarin/Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Hindi/Urdu/Gujarati speakers. Helpline interns will take incoming calls, conduct initial intakes, work with the legal team to identify and outline next steps, conduct legal research, and work on cases under the supervision of a staff attorney.
Crime Victims’ Assistance Project: (Legal/Non-Legal)
This project provides information and assistance to Asian victims of aggravated crimes to ensure that they can access law enforcement services and information about the D.C. Crime Assistance Fund. In addition, this project also works with immigrant victims of crime who may be eligible for T and U Visas. An intern in this project will assist with intake calls, filing applications with eligible community members, and work on the range of issues that a victim of crime may confront.
Domestic Violence Legal Assistance Project: (Legal)
This project provides legal assistance to victims of domestic violence in the areas of abuse prevention, family law and immigration law. Interns will work with staff attorneys and partnering social service organizations in conducting community outreach and education, legal research and case preparation to provide comprehensive legal assistance to assist victims of domestic violence to rebuild their lives.
Housing and Community Justice Project: (Legal/Non-Legal)
This project focuses on unlawful evictions, substandard housing conditions issues, admission to subsidized housing, tenant organizations, and other local advocacy efforts. The ideal candidate(s) has interest and/or experience in housing, poverty law, and work with local immigrant communities. Undergraduate and graduate students in urban planning and Asian American Studies also encouraged to apply.
Fundraising Internship: (Non-Legal)
The APALRC seeks an undergraduate or recent graduate intern with an interest in developing fundraising skills in a nonprofit organization committed to advancing social justice. Under the supervision and guidance of the Executive Director and development staff, the development intern will assist with fundraising tasks involving grant research, grant writing, marketing donor relations, and special event planning.
Communications Internship: (Non-Legal)
The APALRC seeks an undergraduate or recent graduate with an interest or degree in journalism, public relations or marketing to apply for an internship to assist with various communications tasks including drafting media advisories and press releases, monitoring media coverage and maintaining media files, updating and maintaining media lists, and preparing marketing materials.
Ideal Candidates will have (for appropriate positions):
Written and oral communication skills
Initiative, ability to multitask and meet deadlines
Experience working with Asian or other immigrant communities
Interest and experience in nonprofit and/or community-based work
Fundraising or nonprofit communications experience
Experience working with interpreters
Oral and written proficiency in Bangla, Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin, Nepali, Urdu, and/or Vietnamese
To apply:
Please send a single email with the following attachments in PDF format by September 9, 2011:
Cover Letter (1 page): listing the specific project(s) in which you are interested and explaining your interest in working in a nonprofit organization that serves the local Asian immigrant community
Resume (1 page max): include relevant course/clinical work, experience, all language skills
Writing Sample (up to 5 pages): that shows legal writing skills and/or ability to convey legal issues in plain English (for non-legal positions, please send a writing sample that demonstrates strong writing and critical analysis skills)
For general inquiries and internship application, please send an email to:Admin@apalrc.org. Internship application should mark in the subject line “Internship Application for Fall 2011.” No Phone Calls, please. We will contact all applicants via email regarding their application status. Candidates will be interviewed and offered positions on a rolling basis, so early applications are encouraged. Not all applicants will be contacted for interviews, and incomplete applications will not be considered. The APALRC is an equal opportunity employer.
Are you interested in advocating on behalf of survivors of domestic violence? DVRP is currently recruiting bilingual and volunteer advocates! Bilingual advocates work with limited English proficient survivors, providing peer support, court accompaniment, interpretation/translation assistance and referral to social and legal services. Bilingual advocates must be fluent in at least one other language and are also required to be available on an on-call basis during regular business hours. Volunteer advocates also provide similar services but work mainly with English-speaking survivors and are not required to provide services during regular business hours.
All advocates must attend a 55 hour training prior to starting and be able to make a commitment of 1 year to the program. Advocates who speak at least one of the following languages are highly preferred: Urdu, Hindi, Nepali, Mandarin, Mongolian, Bahasa Indonesia, Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese and Sinhala.
Advocates Program Training Dates (10am-5pm): 8/27, 8/28, 9/11, 9/17, 9/18, 9/24, 9/25, 10/1, 10/2
To apply: www.dvrp.org and click on “Get Involved.”
2012 Joint Conference of Librarians of Color Conference — Call for Proposal.
The 2012 Joint Conference of Librarians of Color, JCLC 2012: Gathering at the Waters: Celebrating Stories and Embracing Communities will take place from September 19-23, 2012 in Kansas City, Missouri. The mission of JCLC is to advance the issues affecting librarians of color within the profession and to also explore how best to serve the incredibly diverse and changing communities that use our libraries.
The Joint Conference of Librarians of Color is a conference for everyone and brings together a diverse group of librarians, library staff, supporters, trustees and community participants to explore issues of diversity inclusion in libraries and how they affect the ethnic communities who use our services. JCLC deepens connections across constituencies, creates spaces for dialogue, promotes the telling and celebrating of one’s stories, and encourages the transformation of libraries into more democratic and diverse organizations.
This groundbreaking event is sponsored by the five ethnic caucuses: the American Indian Library Association (AILA), Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA), Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA), and the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking (REFORMA). JCLC 2012 follows the first gathering in 2006 in Dallas, Texas.
We are now accepting session proposals! Please visit our website to learn more and to submit your proposal.
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship In Asian-American Studies
Wellesley College invites applications for a two-year Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Asian-American studies, to begin Fall 2012. Candidates should have received the Ph.D. within the past three years (ABD considered). Preference will be given to the fields of history, ethnic studies, American Studies, anthropology, and sociology.
The Fellow will be in residence at the Newhouse Center for the Humanities the first year and will be expected to take an active role in its intellectual community. In the first year year, the Fellow will teach one course, and in the second year one course each semester, including an introductory course in Asian American Studies. The Fellow will also be expected to advise students and participate in programming for American Studies. The fellowship includes support for research and travel.
Please submit only in electronic form the following: a letter of application, a c.v., a graduate school transcript, three letters of recommendation (the online application will request names/email address so that recommenders or dossier services may submit the letters directly), a brief statement of teaching experience and research interests, and a writing sample to https://career.wellesley.edu.
Applications must be received by October 15, 2011. If circumstances do not allow you to submit materials through our on line application system, please email us at working@wellesley.edu. Wellesley is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer, and we are committed to increasing the diversity of the college community and the curriculum. Candidates who believe they can contribute to that goal are encouraged to apply.
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. The dissertation records are compiled by Dissertation Abstracts International. Copies of the dissertations can be obtained through your college’s library or by addressing your request to ProQuest, 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346. Telephone 800-521-3042, email: disspub@umi.com. As always, works included in this list are for informational purposes only and do not imply an endorsement of their contents.
Yasuike, Akiko. 2011. “Economic Opportunities and the Division of Labor among Japanese Immigrant Couples in Southern California.” Sociological Inquiry 81:353-376.
Abstract: Based on 36 in-depth interviews conducted with 18 Japanese couples who live in Southern California, this study examines the impact of differential economic opportunities on the division of labor among Japanese immigrant couples. Three main factors facilitate Japanese professional and businessmen’s mobility to and settlement in Southern California: (1) the gender-based stratification of the workplace in Japan; (2) U.S. immigration policies that favor foreign nationals with strong corporate ties and business experience; and (3) the strong presence of Japanese corporations in Southern California.
Whereas these conditions enable men to maintain their earning power, they do not benefit women in employment opportunities. The difference in economic opportunities encourages Japanese couples to preserve a breadwinner and homemaker division of labor, and women continue to do a bulk of housework and childcare even when women reenter the labor force later in their lives.
Xiea, Yu, and Emily Greenman. 2011. “The Social Context of Assimilation: Testing Implications of Segmented Assimilation Theory.” Social Science Research 40:965-984.
Abstract: Segmented assimilation theory has been a popular explanation for the diverse experiences of assimilation among new waves of immigrants and their children. While the theory has been interpreted in many different ways, we emphasize its implications for the important role of social context: both processes and consequences of assimilation should depend on the local social context in which immigrants are embedded. We derive empirically falsifiable hypotheses about the interaction effects between social context and assimilation on immigrant children’s well-being.
We then test the hypotheses using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Our empirical analyses yield two main findings. First, for immigrant adolescents living in non-poverty neighborhoods, we find assimilation to be positively associated with educational achievement and psychological well-being but also positively associated with at-risk behavior. Second, there is little empirical evidence supporting our hypotheses derived from segmented assimilation theory. We interpret these results to mean that future research would be more fruitful focusing on differential processes of assimilation rather than differential consequences of assimilation.
Thomas, Kevin J. A. 2011. “What Explains the Increasing Trend in African Emigration to the U.S.?” International Migration Review 45:3-28.
Abstract: In this study, data from the U.S. State Department on visas issued abroad and information from other sources are used to examine trends in African emigration to the U.S. The results suggest that, on average, moderate increases in African Gross Domestic Product between 1992 and 2007 had a buffering effect on emigration trends. Yet, emigration to the U.S. increased much faster from the poorest than wealthiest countries in Africa. Contrary to expectations, larger emigration increases were found in Africa’s non-English than English-speaking countries.
Despite the increasing overall trend, however, critical differences were observed in the impacts of specific types of flows. For example, overall trends were driven by increases in Diversity Visa migration, refugee movements, and the migration of immediate relatives. However, significant declines were observed in employment-related emigration from Africa to the U.S. The results further suggest that impact of trends in African fertility, urbanization, and phone use are circumscribed to specific contexts and types of migration flows. The findings, therefore, provide an empirical basis for concluding that the dynamics of African migration to the U.S. are becoming increasingly more complex.
Taylor, Marylee C., and Peter J. Mateyka. 2011. “Commuity Influences on White Racial Attitudes: What Matters and Why?” Sociological Quarterly 52:220-243.
Abstract: Tracing the roots of racial attitudes in historical events and individual biographies has been a long-standing goal of race relations scholars. Recent years have seen a new development in racial attitude research: Local community context has entered the spotlight as a potential influence on racial views. The race composition of the locality has been the most common focus; evidence from earlier decades suggests that white Americans are more likely to hold anti-black attitudes if they live in areas where the African-American population is relatively large.
However, an influential 2000 article argued that the socioeconomic composition of the white community is a more powerful influence on white attitudes: In low-socioeconomic status (SES) locales, “stress-inducing†deprivations and hardships in whites’ own lives purportedly lead them to disparage blacks. The study reported here reassesses this “scapegoating†claim, using data from the 1998 to 2002 General Social Surveys linked to 2000 census information about communities. Across many dimensions of racial attitudes, there is pronounced influence of both local racial proportions and college completion rates among white residents. However, the economic dimension of SES exerts negligible influence on white racial attitudes, suggesting that local processes other than scapegoating must be at work.
Son, Deborah, and J. Nicole Shelton. 2011. “Stigma Consciousness Among Asian Americans: Impact of Positive Stereotypes in Interracial Roommate Relationships.” Asian American Journal of Psychology 2:51-60.
Abstract: The present research examined the intrapersonal consequences that Asian Americans experience as a result of their concerns about appearing highly intelligent, a positive stereotype associated with their racial group. A daily diary study of Asian-American college students (N = 47) revealed that higher levels of stigma consciousness were associated with greater anxiety, contact avoidance, perceived need to change to fit in with a roommate, and concerns about being viewed as intelligent for Asian Americans living with a European-American (vs. racial minority) roommate.
Further, among Asian Americans with a European-American roommate, concerns about appearing intelligent partially mediated the relationships between stigma consciousness and the outcomes of anxiety and perceived need to change to fit in. In sum, these findings demonstrate that positive stereotypes about the group—not just negative stereotypes—may lead to undesirable intrapersonal outcomes.
Ruzek, Nicole A., Dao Q. Nguyen, and David C. Herzog. 2011. “Acculturation, Enculturation, Psychological Distress and Help-Seeking Preferences among Asian American College Students.” Asian American Journal of Psychology July 4, 2001.
Abstract: We examined the relationship between Asian American college students’ levels of acculturation, enculturation, and psychological distress. We also explored the methods Asian American college students prefer when seeking help for psychological concerns. The sample included 601 Asian American students from a large public university in Southern California. Respondents completed an online questionnaire, which included instruments assessing acculturation and enculturation levels as well as psychological distress and help-seeking preferences.
Regression analyses indicated that when Asian American students hold a greater degree of European values they are less likely to experience psychological distress. A repeated-measures ANOVA found that Asian American students prefer more covert approaches to mental health treatment. These findings both compliment and contradict previous studies of acculturation, enculturation, psychological distress and help-seeking among the Asian American college student population.
Hunt, Geoffrey, Molly Moloney, and Kristin Evans. 2011. “‘How Asian Am I?’ Asian American Youth Cultures, Drug Use, and Ethnic Identity Construction.” Youth & Society 43:274-304.
Abstract: This article analyzes the construction of ethnic identity in the narratives of 100 young Asian Americans in a dance club/rave scene. Authors examine how illicit drug use and other consuming practices shape their understanding of Asian American identities, finding three distinct patterns. The first presents a disjuncture between Asian American ethnicity and drug use, seeing their own consumption as exceptional. The second argues their drug consumption is a natural outgrowth of their Asian American identity, allowing them to navigate the liminal space they occupy in American society.
The final group presents Asian American drug use as normalized and constructs identity through taste and lifestyle boundary markers within social contexts of the dance scenes. These three narratives share a sense of ethnicity as dynamic, provisional, and constructed, allowing one to go beyond the static, essentialist models of ethnic identity that underlie much previous research on ethnicity, immigration, and substance use.
Howard, Tiffiany O. 2011. “The Perceptions of Self and Others: Examining the Effect Identity Adoption has on Immigrant Attitudes toward Affirmative Action Policies in the United States.” Immigrants & Minorities 29:86-109.
Abstract: While there exist several studies devoted to evaluating the political attitudes of US citizens, very little has been done to distinguish between the political attitudes of immigrants and citizens of the same racial or ethnic group. Using data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, 1992-94, this study evaluates the role identity adoption plays in highlighting the distinctions which exist between the political attitudes of immigrants and those of US citizens from the same racial/ethnic group.
The results reveal that despite pronounced cultural distinctions between immigrants and US citizens, in many cases race and ethnicity are important unifiers on opinions regarding public policy issues, specifically that of affirmative action. This is an important finding because it suggests that there is some homogeneity of attitudes and public
To highlight the continuing growth and vitality of Asian American Studies, the following is a list of recent journal articles and doctoral dissertations from scholars in the social sciences and humanities that focus on Asian Americans. As you can see, the diversity of research topics is a direct reflection of the dynamic and multidimensional nature of the Asian American population.
The academic journal articles are generally available in the libraries of most colleges and universities and/or through online research databases. The dissertation records are compiled by Dissertation Abstracts International. Copies of the dissertations can be obtained through your college’s library or by addressing your request to ProQuest, 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346. Telephone 800-521-3042, email: disspub@umi.com. As always, works included in this list are for informational purposes only and do not imply an endorsement of their contents.
Farrell, Chad R. and Barrett A. Lee. 2011. “Racial Diversity and Change in Metropolitan Neighborhoods.” Social Science Research 40:1108-1123.
Abstract: This study investigates the changing racial diversity and structure of metropolitan neighborhoods. We consider three alternative perspectives about localized racial change: that neighborhoods are bifurcating along a white/nonwhite color line, fragmenting into homogeneous enclaves, or integrating white, black, Latino, and Asian residents into diverse residential environments. To assess hypotheses drawn from these perspectives, we develop a hybrid methodology (incorporating the entropy index and majority-rule criteria) that offers advantages over previous typological efforts.
Our analysis of 1990–2000 census tract data for the 100 largest US metropolitan areas finds that most neighborhoods are becoming more diverse and that members of all groups have experienced increasing exposure to neighborhood diversity. However, white populations tend to diminish rapidly in the presence of multiple minority groups and there has been concomitant white growth in low-diversity neighborhoods. Latino population dynamics have emerged as a primary force driving neighborhood change in a multi-group context.
Reitz, Jeffrey G., Heather Zhang, and Naoko Hawkins. 2011. “Comparisons of the Success of Racial Minority Immigrant Offspring in the United States, Canada and Australia.” Social Science Research 40:1051-1066.
Abstract: The educational, occupational and income success of the racial minority immigrant offspring is very similar for many immigrant origins groups in the United States, Canada and Australia. An analysis based on merged files of Current Population Surveys for the United States for the period 1995–2007, and the 2001 Censuses of Canada and Australia, and taking account of urban areas of immigrant settlement, reveals common patterns of high achievement for the Chinese and South Asian second generation, less for other Asian origins, and still less for those of Afro-Caribbean black origins.
Relatively lower entry statuses for these immigrant groups in the US are eliminated for the second generation, indicating they experience stronger upward inter-generational mobility. As well, ‘segmented assimilation’ suggesting downward assimilation of Afro-Caribbean immigrants into an urban underclass in the US, also receives little support.
Robnetta, Belinda and Cynthia Feliciano. 2011. “Patterns of Racial-Ethnic Exclusion by Internet Daters.” Social Forces 89:807-828.
Abstract: Using data from 6070 U.S. heterosexual internet dating profiles, this study examines how racial and gender exclusions are revealed in the preferences of black, Latino, Asian and white online daters. Consistent with social exchange and group positions theories, the study finds that whites are least open to out-dating and that, unlike blacks, Asians and Latinos have patterns of racial exclusion similar to those of whites.
Like blacks, higher earning groups including Asian Indians, Middle Easterners and Asian men are highly excluded, suggesting that economic incorporation may not mirror acceptance in intimate settings. Finally, racial exclusion in dating is gendered; Asian males and black females are more highly excluded than their opposite-sex counterparts, suggesting that existing theories of race relations need to be expanded to account for gendered racial acceptance.
Haller, William, Alejandro Portes, and Scott M. Lynch. 2011. “Dreams Fulfilled, Dreams Shattered: Determinants of Segmented Assimilation in the Second Generation.” Social Forces 89:733-762.
Abstract: We summarize prior theories on the adaptation process of the contemporary immigrant second generation as a prelude to presenting additive and interactive models showing the impact of family variables, school contexts and academic outcomes on the process. For this purpose, we regress indicators of educational and occupational achievement in early adulthood on predictors measured three and six years earlier. The Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, used for the analysis, allows us to establish a clear temporal order among exogenous predictors and the two dependent variables.
We also construct a Downward Assimilation Index, based on six indicators and regress it on the same set of predictors. Results confirm a pattern of segmented assimilation in the second generation, with a significant proportion of the sample experiencing downward assimilation. Predictors of the latter are the obverse of those of educational and occupational achievement. Significant interaction effects emerge between these predictors and early school contexts, defined by different class and racial compositions. Implications of these results for theory and policy are examined.
Tran, Nellie and Dina Birman. 2010. “Questioning the Model Minority: Studies of Asian American Academic Performance.” Asian American Journal of Psychology 1:106-118.
Abstract: The current paper reviews literature on the academic performance of Asian Americans with a critical eye toward understanding the influence of discrimination on this process. Speciï¬cally, this study seeks to understand the extent to which researchers have gathered sufï¬cient knowledge to dispel “conventional knowledge†of Asian Americans as model minorities. We questioned the extent to which studies explicitly measured student performance as a product of individual effort and Asian cultural influences, while simultaneously measuring the impact of exposure to discrimination.
We present a review of studies on Asian American academic performance published 1990–2008. Our analysis suggests that social science research has continued to perpetuate the stereotype of Asian Americans as a “model minority.†The majority of the reviewed studies did not differentiate among Asian American ethnic and generational groups. These studies also tended to infer culture as an explanation for the high achievement of Asian Americans without examining the impact of sociopolitical factors, such as racial discrimination.
In fact, many of the reviewed studies reported that Asian Americans were deï¬cient relative to Whites on attributes thought to be related to culture (e.g., personality characteristics, parenting behaviors) while ï¬nding that they achieved academically at levels similar to or higher than Whites. Finally, the majority of these studies have not used culturally appropriate methods to test their hypotheses and research questions. Thus, we recommend that studies embrace emic/population-speciï¬c and sociopolitical (Sasao & Sue, 1993) approaches to understand and explore factors that contribute to academic achievement in this group.
Dissertation: Relation of Depression to Substance Use, Chronic Illnesses and Asian American and Pacific Islander Adults in Hawaii
Aczon-Armstrong, Marife Celebre (University of Hawai’i at Manoa)
Abstract: Asian Americans (AA) are often portrayed as the model minority but it is also known that both AA and Pacific Islanders (PI) are least likely to seek help for mental disorders. Few studies have focused on AAPI, and even fewer have reported findings for each AAPI subgroup separately despite the unique characteristics of each subgroup. Using the aggregate group makes identifying actual differences in health and mental health of these subgroups difficult. As a result, little is known about the specific characteristics of APPI subgroups.
To fill this gap in knowledge, the purpose of this study was to (a) identify the prevalence of current depression, substance use (smoking and alcohol use) and chronic illnesses (diabetes, cardiovascular disease and asthma) among AAPI adults in Hawaii; (b) determine if there are significant differences in the prevalence of current depression, substance use, and chronic illnesses between AA and PI adults in Hawaii, and (c) determine if there is a relationship between current depression, substance use, chronic illnesses and individual characteristics (such as age, gender, employment status, educational level, frequency of emotional support, life satisfaction and healthcare access) among AAPI adults in Hawaii.
Using the 2008 data from Hawaii Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (HBRFSS), significant differences in prevalence of current depression between AA and PI were found. PIs in Hawaii were two times more likely to have severe/moderately severe depression compared to AAs. The prevalence of moderate and mild depression, among AA and PI did not differ significantly. Several factors affect these prevalence rates. The results of the multiple logistic regression cumulative model indicated that smoking, chronic illness, gender, level of education completed, employment status, frequency of emotional support, life satisfaction, health care coverage and age were strongly associated with current depression.
Dissertation: Asian American Sexual Politics: The Construction of Race, Gender, and Sexuality
Chou, Rosalind Sue (Texas A&M University)
Abstract: Why study Asian American sexual politics? There is a major lack of critical analysis of Asian Americans and their issues surrounding their place in the United States as racialized, gendered, and sexualized bodies. There are three key elements to my methodological approach for this project: standpoint epistemology, extended case method, and narrative analysis. In my research, fifty-five Asian American respondents detail how Asian American masculinity and femininity are constructed and how they operate in a racial hierarchy. These accounts will explicitly illuminate the gendered and sexualized racism faced by Asian Americans.
The male respondents share experiences that highlight how “racial castration” occurs in the socialization of Asian American men. Asian American women are met with an exotification and Orientalization as sexual bodies. This gendering and sexualizing process plays a specific role in maintaining the racial status quo. There are short and long term consequences from the gendered and sexualized racist treatment. The intersected racial and gender identities of the respondents affect their self-image and self-esteem. For the women, femininity has been shaped specifically by their racial identity. “Orientalization” as a colonial concept plays a role in these racialized and gendered stereotypes of Asian American Women. The gendered and sexualized racialization process and “racial castration” has impacted Asian American men in a different way than their female counterparts. Violence is a prevalent theme in their gendered and racial formation.
Asian American men begin as targets of violence and sometimes become perpetrators. I also analyze how romantic and sexual partners are chosen and examine the dynamics of Asian American intraracial and interracial relationships. While Asian American “success” as “model minorities” is challenging white supremacy, gender and sexuality become “regulating” forces to maintain both the racial and gendered order. Finally, I offer and discuss the resistance strategies against gender and racial hierarchy utilized by my respondents. Asian Americans must be creative in measures that they take for group and individual survival. Respondents resist in intimately personal ways against ideologies.
Dissertation: The Warrior Women of Transnational Cinema Gender and Race in Hollywood and Hong Kong Action Films
Funnell, Lisa (Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada)
Abstract: In The Warrior Women of Transnational Cinema, I consider the significance of transnational Asian action women in the post-1997 Hong Kong cinema; more specifically, I explore how Pan-Asian (e.g. Michelle Yeoh, Pei Pei Cheng, Ziyi Zhang), Asian American (Lucy Liu, Maggie Q, Marsha Yuen), and Asian Canadian (e.g. Francoise Yip, Charlene Choi, Kristy Yang) warrior women function as a source of transnational female identity for local, Pan-Asian (Le. East and Southeast Asian), and diasporic Asian audiences. I argue that the post-1997 Hong Kong cinema — and not Hollywood — has offered space for the development of Pan-Asian and Asian North American screen identities which challenge the racial stereotypes historically associated with the Asian female body in the West.
In the new millennium, Hollywood has redefined its representation of transnational Asian action women by incorporating Hong Kong choreographers, action aesthetics, and/or female stars into its blockbusters. In these films, however, the representation of Pan-Asian and Asian North American action women caters to the tastes of American/Western audiences and relates American/Western ideals of gender, race, and heroism. Furthermore, I argue that Hollywood’s recent investment in Hong Kong and/or Mainland Chinese co-productions reflects America’s attempt to tap into the burgeoning Asian film market and wield significant political, economic, and social power particularly in Mainland China.
Dissertation: Performance of Japanese Americans on Selected Cognitive Instruments
Kemmotsu, Nobuko (University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University)
Abstract: There is ample evidence that African Americans and Hispanic Americans demonstrate lower scores on widely used neurocognitive tests, compared to non-Hispanic Caucasians. However, there is a scarcity of empirical data for Asian Americans. This study aimed to examine cognitive test performance of one of the Asian American subgroups: Japanese Americans. Seventy-one Japanese Americans (JAs) and 71 Caucasian Americans (CAs), ages between 45-91, participated in the study. The Boston Naming Test-2 (BNT), San Diego Odor Identification Test (SDOIT), Controlled Oral Word Association test (COWA-FAS), category fluency test (Animal Fluency), California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT), California Odor Learning Test (COLT), and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R) were administered. We collected data on levels of acculturation, quality of educational attainment (Wide Range Achievement Test-4 Reading and Math Computation subtests), bilingual status, and generation status in the U.S.
There were no significant differences between the two ethnic groups on the battery of neuropsychological tests. However, the two groups showed somewhat different patterns in the associations between the test performance, and age and gender. JAs tended to show a stronger age-score relationship on the BNT, SDOIT, BVMT-R total recall, and COLT total recall. With regard to gender, JA men tended to score lower than JA women and than CA men on CVLT Trial 5. Additionally JA men tended to score lower than JA women on the CVLT Long Delay Cued Recall. When the raw scores of the JAs were converted into demographically corrected scores using the Caucasian norm, JAs had more measures that yielded larger “impairment” rate compared to theoretically driven rate (15.6%) compared to Caucasian Americans. The second-generation JAs showed a much larger proportion of “impaired” compared to the third-generations, on the BVMT-R Total Recall and BVMT-R Delayed Recall.
The results indicated that some neuropsychological test results need to be interpreted with caution in the older JAs, at least until culturally appropriate norms become available. Future studies are needed to investigate if this pattern would persist in the succeeding generations, and in the descendants of the post-war immigrants from Japan.
As part of this blog’s ongoing mission of making academic research and data more easily accessible, understandable, and applicable to a wider audience, and for readers who like to keep on top of the latest academic research, I highlight new research and studies in academic journals about Asian Americans and other racial/ethnic groups as I hear about them. An article’s inclusion is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily mean an endorsement of its contents.
The widely-respected Asian American Pacific Islander Nexis journal has just released a special issue that focuses on various dimensions of mental health among Asian Americans:
The UCLA Asian American Studies Center announces the publication of Asian American Pacific Islander Nexus Journal: Policy, Practice and Community, Special Issue on Mental Health. This issue features select papers presented at the first “State of AAPI Mental Health” conference held in 2010, which was a transdisciplinary gathering on mental health research, treatment, and practice among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). The release of the Special Issue on Mental Health is in conjunction with the second conference on Friday, April 22, 2011.
The goals of the two conferences and this special issue are to increase the understanding about mental health and service needs of AAPIs. Research has shown that AAPIs have unique economic, linguistic, and cultural characteristics that require specific mental health services that can adequately address their needs. This issue on Mental Health highlights some of the emerging research for AAPIs with topics ranging from current policies, new research paradigms, to personal and cultural
roadblocks in relation to mental health.
Contextualizing the challenges of addressing AAPI mental health, guest editors, Gilbert C. Gee (UCLA), Phillip D. Akutsu (CSU Sacramento), and Margaret Shih (UCLA), in their introduction illustrate how cultural, historical, and community diversity have led to underutilization of services and a lack of data. They call for new research that seriously considers the theories related to differences among diverse AAPI populations.
Marguerite Ro and Wendy Ho then provide an overview of the current California and Federal policies and legislation related to mental health in “Aligning Policy to the Mental Health Needs of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.†The authors propose recommendations on how to better address issues of data and research, culturally competent services, and accountability of existing policies.
Frederick T.L. Leong and Zornitsa Kalibatseva, in “Comparative Effectiveness Research on Asian American Mental Health: Review and Recommendations,†provide an overview of the latest research paradigm called comparative effectiveness research (CER), which evaluates the efficacy of one or more interventions for a specific group. The authors urge researchers to use CER methods in order to stimulate more funding and foster a research environment that is responsive to the various issues in AAPI communities.
In the third manuscript, Phillip Akutsu and his colleagues discuss the issue of clients not showing up to their initial appointment to see a mental health provider in “Pre-Intake Attrition or Non-Attendance of Intake Appointments at an Ethnic-Specific Mental Health Program for Asian American Children and Adolescents.†Their findings show that key factors in motivating attendance involve matching the client’s language and ethnicity with the provider as well as fostering a personal connection between the provider and the client.
Van M. Ta et al. provide an ethnographic study in “Cultural Identity and Conceptualization of Depression among Native Hawaiian Women.†The authors seek to understand the correlation between cultural identity and depression among Native Hawaiian women. Their study across various age groups suggests that stressors resulting from U.S. occupation of Hawai’i such as acculturation, oppression, marginalization, and financial difficulties are important factors related to depression.
The issue closes with a non-theme article by Paul Ong and Albert Lee entitled, “Asian Americans and Redistricting: Empowering through Electoral Boundaries.†The authors contextualize the difficulties of building “communities of common interest†which ultimately helps preserve Asian American neighborhoods. They advocate for the need to bridge gaps and form coalitions to foster political empowerment for the AAPI community.
AAPI Nexus copies are $13.00 plus $4.00 for shipping and handling and 8.25% sales tax for California residents.
Here are some more announcements, links, and job postings about academic-related jobs, fellowships, and other related 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.
Lecturer Positions: Asian American Studies, UC Irvine
The Department of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine invites applications for a part-time Non Senate Faculty position with primary responsibility in teaching an upper division interdisciplinary course in Asian American Studies for academic year 2011-12. Minimum base salary per course is $5579. The appointment dates would be as follows: Fall Quarter 2011 (09/19/11 to 12/9/11) or Winter Quarter 2012 (01/04/12 to 03/23/12). We are looking for applicants who can teach the following courses:
Applicants with a Ph.D. preferred. Applicants who are ABD or have a M.A., M.F.A., or equivalent will be considered. UC graduate students must have filed their dissertation or have a degree in hand by mid-August 2011 to be eligible to teach in Fall 2011 and by mid-December 2011 to be eligible to teach in Winter Quarter 2012. Preference will be given to applicants who can teach in the Fall quarter. You may apply for one, some, or all courses, but please note that all course availability is subject to budgetary approval.
The Department of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine offers a major, minor, a graduate emphasis, and contributes to the Ph.D. Program in Culture and Theory. Applications will be accepted until positions are filled. However, to ensure fullest consideration, all applications materials should be submitted by May 6, 2011. Send materials via e-mail attachment to Jim Lee at jkl@uci.edu to include:
Cover letter
Curriculum vitae
Teaching evaluation summaries (no raw data needed)
Two letters of recommendations sent directly from the recommender
Complete sample syllabi of the course(s) you are proposing
Indicate quarters available (Fall/Winter)
The University of California, Irvine is an equal opportunity employer committed to excellence through diversity and has an ADVANCE Program for Faculty Equity and Diversity.
James Kyung-Jin Lee
Chair, Department of Asian American Studies
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-6900
o: 949.824.8716
f: 949.824.7006
Check us out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/uciasianam and Twitter @UCIAsianAm
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) invites applications for the inaugural competition of its Public Fellows program. The program will place eight recent Ph.D.s in staff positions at partnering agencies in government and the non-profit sector for two years, beginning in some cases as early as September 2011. Fellows will participate in the substantive work of these agencies and receive professional mentoring. Compensation will be commensurate with experience and at the same level as new professional employees of the hosting agency and will include health insurance.
This program, made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aims to demonstrate that the capacities developed in the advanced study of the humanities have wide application, both within and beyond the academy. ACLS seeks applications from recent Ph.D.s who wish to begin careers in administration, management, and public service by choice rather than circumstance. Competitive applicants will have been successful in both academic and extra-academic experiences.
Fellowship Details:
Stipend: $50,000 – $78,000 dependent on position. Health benefits will also be provided
Tenure: Two years; start dates will vary but range from September 2011 to as late as February 2012 (if security clearance is necessary)
Summer Youth Career Exploration Program Project Coordinator
Boat People SOS, Inc. (BPSOS) is a national Vietnamese-American community-based organization with 30 years of service. Our mission is to empower, equip and organize Vietnamese-American individuals and communities in their pursuit of liberty and dignity. Our local branch provides programs and services are in the areas of community development, immigration and translation services, health programming, youth programming, and workforce readiness programming.
BPSOS-Delaware Valley seeks a highly motivated, enthusiastic and responsible individual for our part-time Project Coordinator position for our Summer Youth Career Exploration Program (SYCEP). This position will be based out of our Philadelphia office in the BPSOS-Delaware Valley Branch. The SYCEP Project Coordinator is part of a seasonal team designed to provide citywide access to Southeast Asian immigrant youth, ages 16-21, who are interested in exploring career opportunities in a broad array of fields over a six week period. This position requires a flexible schedule and the ability to work nights and weekends from May to August.
Responsibilities:
Recruit, interview and support 25 Southeast Asian immigrant youth in SYCEP Program
Conduct parent/youth informational sessions for the program as needed
Recruit and maintain relationships with employers throughout the program
Conduct youth enrollment sessions in accordance with applicable labor laws and practices
Assess youth readiness for program referrals
Review the quality of youth enrollment files
Enter data files into proprietary database
Maintain filing system for youth and provider files, including payroll, timesheets, and other HR paperwork as necessary
Organize, plan and carry out six professional development for youth on WorkReadiness
Embody and integrate excellent customer service into daily work
Serve as an example of professionalism
Travel to worksites throughout the City of Philadelphia
Translation of brochures, flyers and pamphlets of information as needed
Requirements:
Must have experience in working with immigrant communities and/or high needs communities
Excellent organization skills
Ability to multi-task in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment
Highly-developed interpersonal abilities
Flexible work schedule (some nights and weekends required)
Bilingual in Vietnamese/English preferred
Access to transportation preferred
PC computer literacy, proficient in Word, Excel and Internet usage
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Salary: Negotiable, depending on experience and qualifications. Seasonal position. To apply: Send cover letter, resume and list of three professional references to:
Human Resources
Fax: 703-538-2191 – hr@bpsos.org
Hyphen and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop are very excited to present the 2011 Asian American Short Story Contest – the only, national, pan-Asian American writing competition of its kind. Prize: $1,000, publication in Hyphen magazine and the honor of “Short Story of the Year.”
Now in its fourth year, the 2011 Asian American Short Story Contest will name 10 finalists and one grand prize-winner who will win a cash prize of $1000 and have the winning story published in an upcoming issue of Hyphen. Judges for the 2011 contests include renowned Asian American writers:
Yiyun Li, a 2010 MacArthur Genius Award winner; author of “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers,” and, “The Vagrants,” winner of the gold medal of California Book Award for fiction
Porochista Khakpour, author of “Sons and Other Flammable Objects,” a New York Times “Editor’s Choice,” Chicago Tribune “Fall’s Best,” and a 2007
California Book Award winner
Our first contest winner Preeta Samarasan was discovered based on her contest-winning story. She went on to write the acclaimed novel Evening is the Whole Day (Houghton Mifflin), which was long-listed for the Orange Prize.
The deadline for this contest is May 16th. Open to all writers of Asian descent living in the United States and Canada. Please visit http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/shortstory or http://www.aaww.org for more information.
Held in collaboration between San Francisco-based Hyphen, a non-profit news and culture magazine, and The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, the preeminent literary arts organization devoted to Asian American literature — the 2011 Asian American Short Story contest is a unique competition highlighting the amazing literary talent coming out of our communities. Garnering hundreds of submissions from all parts of the country and representing all peoples of Asian America, this contest has proven itself as a major cultural event.
Lecturer Position: Hmong American Studies, Wisconsin – Madison
Visiting Assistant Professor in Hmong American Studies
Asian American Studies Program
University of Wisconsin-Madison
2011-2012
Application Deadline: June 10, 2011 or until filled. PhD required.
Disciplines sought: Hmong Studies, Sociology, American Studies, Asian American Studies, Counseling Psychology, Education, Human Development and Family Studies, Nursing, Community Studies, Public Health, Psychology, Communication Arts, or an interdisciplinary or related discipline.
The Asian American Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is hiring a visiting assistant professor for 2011-2012 who will teach courses about Hmong in the United States with a contemporary focus. We are interested in someone who has already completed their PhD and who already has experience teaching at least one college level course. Experience or strong interest with community based research or service learning is desirable but not required.
A critical race, race relations, or ethnic studies perspective is preferred. This position also includes providing consultation about the future of Hmong Studies as a field and involvement in programming (e.g., speakers, conferences, research institute, etc.) in the Asian American Studies Program. The teaching load will be 2 courses per semester.
This will be the fourth year that we are hiring a visiting assistant professor in Hmong American Studies. It is part of a longer term strategy to identify and promote the development of new scholars in this area, with the hope that we will have a pool of scholars to select from for a permanent tenure line in the future.
During the Visiting Assistant Professor’s year at UW, we provide mentoring, professional development support, and opportunities to strengthen one’s academic profile. The visiting assistant professor will have an office in the Asian American Studies Program and have opportunities to meet and work with members of the academic and local Hmong community. Previous visiting assistant professors have gone on to post-docs and tenure track positions.
We have already put two courses in the timetable for the Fall (generically titled so that they can be tailored to the interests of the instructor).
Asian Am 240 Hmong Experiences in the U.S.
Asian Am 540 Hmong American Studies
This is a 33.33% appointment for the Fall 2011 semester, beginning on August 29, 2011 and ending on January 12, 2012. The salary is $5,700 for the one course (33.33% of the full time academic rate of $34,202.) If you are interested in being considered for this position, please send the following:
Your curriculum vita, including names and phone numbers of teaching references listed
A letter describing:
Your teaching perspective
A sample syllabi for either of the two courses listed above
Discussion of your specific area of expertise in teaching about Hmong Americans and what the course content for a topic specific course in this area might be
Please apply BY EMAIL by June 10, 2011 to both:
luttal@wisc.edu
aasp@mailplus.wisc.edu
with the subject line: VAP 2011-2012 YOUR FULL NAME
If you have any questions about this position, please contact: Lynet Uttal, Director, Asian American Studies Program, luttal@wisc.edu
Believe it or not, this month marks the 10 year birthday of my website and blog, Asian-Nation.org. I hope you’ll forgive me if I take a few minutes to reflect on where Asian-Nation has been as it enters its second decade on the internet.
The Origins of Asian-Nation
Around 10 years ago, I was finished with my graduate school course work and was trying to finish my dissertation (‘ABD’ or ‘all but dissertation’ in grad school lingo). My wife, daughter, and I had just moved from the hustle and bustle of New York City to the calmer and less expensive environs of Albany NY where I lived previously when I was doing my graduate course work at SUNY Albany.
I just started a full-time job as a Research Associate at the Center for Technology in Government (an applied research center at SUNY Albany) in which I analyzed how state government agencies used information technology to improve their public services. The internet was also just beginning to realize its potential as a medium for groups and individuals to express themselves and to claim their voice in U.S. society.
I was also eager to kick start my dissertation-writing and my research on different forms of assimilation among Asian Americans. Also, I was (and still am) a firm believer in doing “public sociology” — making academic research and data relevant and directly applicable to addressing important real-world issues that people and our society face and in the process, not being afraid to take a stand on controversial issues, as long as I used objective data and examples to support my viewpoints.
With these factors in mind, I also saw a need for Asian Americans to represent ourselves in mainstream U.S. society, rather than allowing others to represent us however they wanted. In other words, I wanted to directly educate people about the Asian American experience myself instead of having them rely on distorted portrayals and ignorant stereotypes that were unfortunately common.
Throughout my life, I frequently found myself in the position of being one of the few Asians (or even pople of color) around. In those situations, I sometimes had to be a “spokesperson” for the entire Asian American community and educating people a little bit about Asian American history, culture, and issues at a time. So I figured, why not leverage the power of the internet to create an online resource where I can do just that as many people and as wide of an audience at once?
Putting It All Together
So I decided to create a website and on April 26, 2001, I registered the domain name Asian-Nation.org. Why did I name the site “Asian-Nation?” There was not one specific reason and actually, I chose that name somewhat on a whim and as a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. Basically I liked the sound of it and it generally represents the contributions that Asians have made to the history and culture of U.S. society.
My initial plans were modest — I was only going to put up a few articles on different aspects of Asian American history and culture. But the more I got into it, the more material and information I decided to include until I organized them into the structure that currently exists right now — roughly six main categories of static HTML articles (the articles in the “Ethnic Groups” category were added in 2008). Here’s one of the earliest versions of my front page banner:
Back in 2001, blogs were not as common and popular as they are now but nonetheless, in my “Issues” category, I had an article that I titled “Behind the Headlines” in which I regularly updated and commented on current events and news items related to Asians and/or Asian Americans, so it was basically an early form of blogging. In fact, the first such entry I wrote was in April 2001 titled, “War and Conscience” about Kansas Senator Bob Kerry’s participation in the Viet Nam War. In 2004 I switched my blogging from just static HTML entries over to the WordPress software that I use now.
Here’s to the Next 10 Years and Beyond
Over these past 10 years, I have received approximately 4,000,000 visitors (that averages to about 33,000 a month). My site statistics tell me that on average, each visitor stays a little less than 4 minutes on the site and views about 3.5 pages. But what is more important than the numbers are the reactions and messages I get from visitors, a few of which I list in the “What Others Are Saying” section of my main page. I always feel invigorated when readers from all backgrounds tell me not just how much they like my site but also that it’s opened their eyes to stuff they’ve never heard or learned about before.
As I celebrate Asian-Nation’s 10th birthday, I hope to continue to educate people one at a time about the history, experiences, culture, and contemporary issues of Asian Americans (and immigrants and people of color as well) and hope that people will still find it to be a useful information resource and perhaps even an enlightening experience for them.
To highlight the continuing growth and vitality of Asian American Studies, the following is a list of recent articles published in academic journals from scholars in the social sciences and humanities that focus on Asian Americans. As you can see, the diversity of research topics is a direct reflection of the dynamic and multidimensional nature of the Asian American population.”
These 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.
Cheng, Yen-hsin Alice and Nancy S. Landale. 2011. “Adolescent Precursors of Early Union Formation Among Asian American and White Young Adults.” Journal of Family Issues 32:209-236.
Abstract: Using a framework that emphasizes independent versus interdependent self-construals, this study investigates the relatively low rates of early marriage and cohabitation among Asian Americans compared with Whites. Data from Waves 1 and 3 of Add Health are used to test five hypotheses that focus on family value socialization and other precursors measured in adolescence. Analyses of early marriage indicate that the Asian-White difference is driven primarily by differences in adolescent sexual and romantic relationship experiences and that several measures of family values play a stronger role among Asian Americans than Whites. Asian-White differences in cohabitation persist net of socioeconomic status and other adolescent precursors, but differences are attenuated when parental value socialization, intimate relationship experiences, and educational investments are controlled. These results are interpreted within a culturally sensitive conceptual framework that emphasizes interdependent construals of the self among Asian Americans.
Greenman, Emily. 2011. “Asian American-White Differences in the Effect of Motherhood on Career Outcomes.” Work and Occupations 38:37-67.
Abstract: U.S.-born Asian Americans are unique among American minority groups in that they lack earnings disadvantages relative to Whites with similar education levels. Controlling for education and age, there is little difference in the earnings of U.S.-born Asian and White men, but Asian women have higher earnings than comparable White women. Using data from SESTAT, this study tests the hypothesis that Asian American women’s high earnings may result from adjusting their labor supply less than White women in response to parenthood, leading to greater work experience over time. Findings show that Asian American women are less likely than White women to reduce labor supply in response to parenthood and that their resulting greater work experience explains their high rate of earnings growth.
Tamaki, Emi. 2011. “Transnational Home Engagement among Latino and Asian Americans: Resources and Motivation.” International Migration Review 45:148-173.
Abstract: Is immigrant groups’ assimilation to host society at odds with their engagement with the country of ancestral origin? This study divides the concept of assimilation into socioeconomic resources and attachment to host society, and argues that assimilation and transnational perspectives are coexisting paradigms. Analyses using the nationally representative samples of Latino and Asian Americans indicate that higher-order generations reduce the odds of home country engagement, i.e., frequent return visits; attachment to American society does not discourage return visits; socioeconomic resources increase frequent visits; and the country of origin is a significant predictor of home country visits.
Greenman, Emily. 2011. “Assimilation Choices Among Immigrant Families: Does School Context Matter?” International Migration Review 45:29-67.
Abstract: This article explores the relationship between social context, measured in terms of school characteristics, and the assimilation of immigrant adolescents. First, it develops a measure of assimilation based on comparing immigrant adolescents to native peers within the same school. Second, it investigates whether immigrant adolescents’ degree of assimilation varies systematically according to school socioeconomic status (SES). Third, it explores the role of parental and adolescent behavior in creating such variation. Results show that both Asian and Hispanic immigrant youth are less assimilated to native youths’ substance use and delinquency patterns in lower-SES schools. This association can be explained by parenting behaviors and adolescent friendship choices for Asian youth, but not Hispanic youth.
Kim, Chigon and Pyong Gap Min. 2010. “Marital Patterns and Use of Mother Tongue at Home among Native-Born Asian Americans.” Social Forces 89:233-256.
Abstract: This article examines marital patterns and use of mother tongue at home among native-born Asian Americans using the 2005-2007 American Community Survey 3-Year Public Use Microdata Sample. There are variations in mother-tongue use across Asian ethnic groups, but variations among different types of marriage are even greater. Those who marry within their ethnicity (in-married) have a greater likelihood of mother-tongue use at home than those who intermarry. Among the in-married, those having 1.5- and first-generation co-ethnic spouses are far more likely to use a mother tongue than those having native-born, co-ethnic partners. Results of logistic regression analyses indicate that marital patterns are the strongest predictor of mother-tongue use at home, and that ethnic variations in mother-tongue use are significantly reduced when marital patterns are taken into account.
Chhuon, Vichet and Cynthia Hudley. 2010. “Asian American Ethnic Options: How Cambodian Students Negotiate Ethnic Identities in a U.S. Urban School.” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 41:341-359.
Abstract: Research suggests that Cambodian students often endure conflicting ethnic stereotypes from larger society and their school and communities. We examine the ways in which Cambodian youth negotiated their ethnic identities in response to these stereotypes and argue that Cambodian students adopted, rejected, and affirmed certain ethnic identities in relation to perceived advantages associated with different labels across varying school contexts.
Cheng, Wendy. 2010. “‘Diversity’ on Main Street? Branding Race and Place in the New ‘Majority-Minority’ Suburbs.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 17:458-486.
Abstract: The emergence in the United States of an increasing number of spaces across the socioeconomic spectrum with majority nonwhite populations merits close attention because of these spaces’ potential in reconfiguring historical and contemporary claims to place. In an era in which the neoliberalization of urban development has spurred local governments toward more active involvement in defining relationships between race, ethnicity, consumption, and space, ‘majority-minority’ suburbs are particularly important sites of study. In the late 2000s, two branding campaigns in majority-Asian American and Latina/o municipalities in Los Angeles’s San Gabriel Valley-a densely populated region popularly known as a ‘suburban Chinatown’-put forth specific discourses of race, ethnicity, and culture in attempts to actualize specific visions and claims to place, identity, and history. In doing so, these campaigns illuminated and reinforced larger racial, geographic, and ideological divides. ‘Diversity’ on Main Street embraced pluralist multicultural discourses of the nation, while the ‘Golden Mile’ proposal sought to showcase the transformation of a central thoroughfare by ethnic Chinese capital and immigration. A close examination and comparison of these two campaigns shows how struggles over race, geography, and history are intertwined in the contemporary identities of places and integral to the shaping of civic landscapes.
Kim, ChangHwan and Arthur Sakamoto. 2010. “Have Asian American Men Achieved Labor Market Parity with White Men?” American Sociological Review 75:934-957.
Abstract: The emergence in the United States of an increasing number of spaces across the socioeconomic spectrum with majority nonwhite populations merits close attention because of these spaces’ potential in reconfiguring historical and contemporary claims to place. In an era in which the neoliberalization of urban development has spurred local governments toward more active involvement in defining relationships between race, ethnicity, consumption, and space, ‘majority-minority’ suburbs are particularly important sites of study. In the late 2000s, two branding campaigns in majority-Asian American and Latina/o municipalities in Los Angeles’s San Gabriel Valley-a densely populated region popularly known as a ‘suburban Chinatown’-put forth specific discourses of race, ethnicity, and culture in attempts to actualize specific visions and claims to place, identity, and history. In doing so, these campaigns illuminated and reinforced larger racial, geographic, and ideological divides. ‘Diversity’ on Main Street embraced pluralist multicultural discourses of the nation, while the ‘Golden Mile’ proposal sought to showcase the transformation of a central thoroughfare by ethnic Chinese capital and immigration. A close examination and comparison of these two campaigns shows how struggles over race, geography, and history are intertwined in the contemporary identities of places and integral to the shaping of civic landscapes.
Chang, Esther S., Jutta Heckhausen, Ellen Greenberger, and Chuansheng Chen. 2010. “Shared Agency with Parents for Educational Goals: Ethnic Differences and Implications for College Adjustment.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 39:1293-1304.
Abstract: This study proposed and confirmed three ways in which college students can perceive shared agency and two ways in which they can perceive non-shared agency with parents when pursuing educational goals in college. Differences and similarities were examined among participants from four ethnic backgrounds (N = 515; 67% female): East Asian American, Southeast Asian American, Filipino/Pacific Islander American, and European American. Results indicated that Asian American youth reported higher levels of non-shared agency with parents (i.e., parental directing and noninvolvement), lower levels of shared agency (i.e., parental accommodation, support, or collaboration), and poorer college adjustment compared to European Americans. However, ethnic similarities were found whereby perceived shared agency in education with parents was associated with college adjustment. Multiple mediation analyses also indicated that our model of shared and non-shared agency with parents explained differences in college adjustment between Asian and European Americans, though more strongly for comparisons between European and East Asian Americans. Our results suggest that parents continue to be important in the education of older youth but that continued directing of youth’s education in college can be maladaptive.
Abrams, Jessica R. 2010. “Asian American Television Activity: Is it Related to Outgroup Vitality?” International Journal of Intercultural Relations 34:541-550.
Abstract: Applying a uses and gratifications and social identity gratifications approach, the present study explores Asian American television viewing. Specifically, Asian Americans report on the quantity of television they watch, what shows they watch, why they watch, and whether their uses are related to their perceptions of Caucasian vitality. The data reveal that using television for entertainment and to escape/relieve boredom were the most important television uses for this group of Asian Americans. At the same time, these two uses were significant predictors of how vital Asian Americans perceived Caucasians. Although selecting and avoiding television for ethnic identity gratifications were not important relative to other gratifications, television selection for identity gratifications was important to Asian Americans who highly identify with their ethnic group.
Haines, David A. and Karen E. Rosenblum. 2010. “Perfectly American: Constructing the Refugee Experience.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 36:391-406.
Abstract: Over the last 60 years, the United States has accepted some two million refugees for resettlement. Standard opinion polls suggest that the American response to these refugees has been mixed. Yet, despite much ambivalence about particular refugees and where they may belong in the grid of American social and cultural categories, the notion of refuge and the imperative toward support and welcome to refugees endure. As an extended example, this paper considers press treatment of refugees in Richmond, Virginia during the last quarter of the twentieth century—before security concerns and surging numbers of illegal immigrants irrevocably changed the nature of American immigration. Unlike the ambivalent response that emerges in national opinion polls and some other venues, in this case the construction of refugees is neither negative nor ambivalent, but is instead solidly positive. This positive construction extends across a broad range of racial and national-origin groups and is conditioned by a peculiarly American notion of how refugees relate to broader American categories, particularly that of ‘immigrant’. In this local story from the United States lies a broader tale of how refugees are woven into the existing social and cultural categories of the countries in which they resettle.
Hwang, Sean-Shong, Juan Xi, and Yue Cao. 2010. “The Conditional Relationship Between English Language Proficiency and Earnings Among U.S. Immigrants.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 33:1620-1647.
Abstract: Using the 2000 US census data for immigrants of twenty language groups resided in metropolitan areas, we test the hypothesis that the rate of returns (in earnings) to English proficiency is not constant but varies with the language environment (as defined by group size, segregation, linguistic heterogeneity and inequality) in which immigrants are embedded. Results from our hierarchical model indicate that while an increase in the size and segregation of the language group diminishes returns to English proficiency, a rise in linguistic heterogeneity and inequality in the metropolitan area has the opposite effects. This study expands the scope of the previous studies by identifying conditions under which returns to English proficiency among immigrants are modified by a set of contextual factors often overlooked.
Kim, Wooksoo and Robert H. Keefe. 2010. “Barriers to Healthcare Among Asian Americans.” Social Work in Public Health 25:286-295.
Abstract: The myth of the well-adjusted Asian American resulted from sample-biased research studies that concluded that Asian Americans are physically healthier and financially better off than Caucasians. The myth has been perpetuated by researchers who have often categorized Asian Americans as a single, undifferentiated group rather than as distinct ethnic groups. Consequently, data analysis techniques do not reveal distinctions that may exist had the researchers controlled for ethnic group variation. The authors discussed four major barriers–language and culture, health literacy, health insurance, and immigrant status–to healthcare that may influence within-group disparities among Asian Americans that may go unreported. The authors argue that healthcare policy makers and researchers should consider Asian Americans as members of discrete ethnic groups with unique healthcare needs. Recommendations for health policies and future research are provided.
