Honors

Abstract

For decades, the United States has been composed of a diverse migrant population from across Latin America. However, within these broader migrant groups, there exists a vast population of Indigenous migrants whose migration stories often entail experiences of displacement due to political violence, climate change, or racial/ethnic discrimination. Studies have indicated that up to 20% of the 1.5 million farm workers in the U.S. are estimated to be Indigenous immigrants. From the 2000 census, 407,000 people identified themselves with communities such as Mixtec, Zapotec, Triqui, P'urépecha, and Maya. While there have been advancements in research illuminating the experiences of Latin American migrants, there has only recently been a growth towards magnifying the narratives of migrant, Indigenous peoples. Within this premise, I center this thesis on the intergenerational experience of the Maya Peninsular community within the United States. As social and political contexts shift across the Yucatan Peninsula and in the U.S., I emphasize the need to interrogate how diasporic Maya communities are navigating their identities and communities. Through a Critical Latinx Indigeneities framework, this thesis examines how intergenerational Maya Peninsular communities 1) explicitly define and reflect on their identities' influence on their ways of life in the U.S. and 2) conceptualize their diasporic futures. To center these narratives, I conduct 7 semi-structured interviews with Mayas who encompass first-generation and second-generation experiences. First-generation migrants are defined as those who were in Yucatán Peninsula and second-generation migrants are defined as those born in the United States and who have at least one Maya parent. I argue that by illuminating the experiences of the diasporic Maya community, the findings from this study will serve to magnify the need to uplift Indigenous migrant communities across the U.S. and will highlight multiple areas for future research studies. 

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Abstract 

This thesis advocates for the study and reintroduction of Indigenous and diasporic Jewish wisdom to confront colonial and imperial violence, and process collective trauma before it further perpetuates itself. It brings into dialogue two traditions: first, the scholarship of Healing Justice activists and organizers who urge us to reprioritize ancestral wisdom to repair our fractured relationships with land, community, ancestors, ritual, and spirit; and second, my own Jewish lineage and ancestors, who have long wrestled with questions, fears, and wisdom about diasporic survival within complex, violent, and hegemonic colonial projects. From the rich tapestry of diasporic Jewish wisdom, I unearth insights about grief, enshrined within yearly ritual processes like Tisha B'av, as the medicine needed to dress these abstract, oft-invisibilized, and intergenerational wounds. I draw upon the poetic tradition of communal lament in the Jewish tradition, which offers a spiritual and political framework for redistributing power in the face of colonial catastrophe. These threads are interwoven in this project, informing a ritual performance that grieves the violence of the Israeli occupation and destruction of Gaza, heightened since October 2023.

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Abstract

This thesis applies the Hawaiian concept of moʻokūʻauhau, or genealogy, to the archival study of the history of Native student activism at Stanford University from 1894 to the present. Combining archival research with autoethnography and oral history interviews, the resulting narrative history portraits weave together various movement-building histories across space and time to create an expansive intellectual genealogy of Native student activism and resistance. The genealogy begins with John Milton Oskison, the very first Native student to attend Stanford, then moves forward in time, recounting stories of student activists who courageously worked to carve out spaces that continue to be important sites of belonging for the Stanford Native community today–including the 1970 Native students' unauthorized takeover of the abandoned Tecumseh House and the more recent effort of Native students, faculty, and allies to create and care for a California Native plants garden on the back slopes of the Stanford Dish. Ultimately, the thesis concludes that our histories are our future. They teach us that Native students have carved out spaces on this campus for transformation and resistance before and that we can do it again. Not only that we can, but that we must. We must keep fighting to hold space for liberation at this university–in the gardens we grow, in the communities we create, in the dreams we seed. Our intellectual ancestors leave us no other option.

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Abstract

In collaboration with Two-Feathers Native American Family Services and Stanford University stakeholders, I investigate the current status of protective factors and risk factors associated with the mental health among Native American youth in the Klamath-Trinity Joint Unified School District (KTJUSD). Through a community-engaged framework, strong relationships were built with local tribal organizations and educational partners to ensure the study's relevance and effectiveness. The research utilized 60-minute focus groups and 20-minute surveys with 40 participants from grades 6 through 8, primarily from the Yurok, Hupa and Karuk tribes. Content analysis of these focus group discussions aimed to capture the youth's perspectives on their mental health and well-being, and to identify the most effective resources for preventing severe mental health issues within this group of participants. The findings provide valuable insights into the mental health needs and protective factors within the KTJUSD community, contributing to more targeted and culturally appropriate interventions. 

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Abstract

To Be Queer Hmong is a state of worldbuilding and reimagining of queer Hmong people across space, place, and time. In this thesis, I examine how queer Hmong people form their intersectional identity in the relation to their family and Hmong community. To center queer Hmong voices, I introduce a concept of "Queer Hmong Epistemology" which reimagines the existence of queer Hmong people in the Hmong community through the lack of historical Hmong documentation and performance. With a methodology of narrative inquiry, I conduct 7 semi-structured, one-on-one qualitative interviews with queer Hmong community members to listen, learn, and share queer Hmong stories and experiences. From these interviews emerge three major themes. First, I identify birth order and gender roles as integral axes when examining queer Hmong intersectionality. Second, I situate coming out stories as an active and ongoing site of Hmong cultural preservation, challenging, and reimagination. Third, I find that queer Hmong women are severely underrepresented in queer Hmong communities and that performing as heteronormative, or "straight," continues to keep queer Hmong people hidden. To Be Queer Hmong redefines queer Hmong love and acceptance. Instead of relying on validation and acceptance from the Hmong community, to Be Queer Hmong emphasizes the agency queer Hmong people have over their own sense of belonging, acceptance, and importance in the Hmong community.

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Abstract

My debut short film, "To Be Queer Hmong: A Spiritual Awakening," follows a queer Hmong individual who embarks on a spiritual journey in self discovery and enlightenment of their queer Hmong identity. Through the dreamscape, their spirit is confronted by their queerness, their Hmongness, and their fears of their communities. As the spirit navigates the unpredictable and nonlinear dreamscape, they try to reconcile their intersectional identity, finding success in some areas and defeat in others. Posing questions rather than providing concrete answers, this film centers Hmong spirituality, with minimal intelligible dialogue and haunting scenes, inviting the viewer to interact and watch through their subconscious mind and their spiritual being. The film seeks to capture the supernatural occurrences in identity formation that cannot be translated into words and only embodied. 

Watch "To Be Queer Hmong: A Spiritual Awakening" here.

Abstract

In this thesis I join a continuum of Tongan scholar-artist-cultural bearers in healing our community through defiant remembrance of the sacred feminine which colonial violence was desperate to eliminate. Through what is at its core a Pasifikafuturist endeavor, I revisit the past and rectify the historical record in order to understand the present and imagine anti-colonial Tongan and Pasifika futures where the divine feminine is not just restored to its original status but even remade in further empowering, layered ways. Using a genealogy-based Pasifikafuturist approach, I journey into a critical moment of Tongan culture and political transformation from matriarchal polytheistic chiefdom to patriarchal Christian monarchy. My focal point within this transformation is Hikūle'o, highest-ranking deity of Indigenous Tongan pantheon, goddess of fertility and agriculture, and protector of Pulotū, the Tongan ancestral homeland and realm of spirit ancestors. In addition to exploring this historical moment, I use archival research, dreaming, and art to content that the attempted desecration of the sacred divine feminine is bound to the subsequent increase in violence against women, and therefore to intervene in these colonial trajectories we must remember and reinfuse value into the sacredness of the divine feminine embodied in ancestors such as Hikūle’o and each of us today.

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Abstract

This work explores the importance and transformative power of two concepts from the Philippines, which continue to evolve and shapeshifted in diaspora and which have transformed me personally, as modes of relationship to land for Filipinos in diaspora, peoples who have experienced intergenerational colonial and imperial violence manifesting, for many of us, in severance from ancestral lands, languages, and land-based cultural practices. The project is situated on Lisjan Ohlone and Muwekma Ohlone lands and looks towards nourish reciprocal relationships to these lands for diasporic Filipinos residing here. The two concepts explored are tabi tabi po, a spoken practice which grounds us in humility, respect, and focused attunement to land and co-inhabitants, and kapwa, or the seeing of self in other, a form of collective kinship beyond notions of the individual which can be understood as an expansive mode of solidarity and radical care. The project is centered in collaborative creative process and multi-directional intergenerational learning around these concepts, and has involved a series of art workshops and small gatherings exploring participants' experiences of tabi tabi po, kapwa, and relationships to land, as well as the creation of a short film on these experiences. It is predicated on the necessity of taking our children seriously as culture-bearers, as wise observers of the world and of their own communities, and as carriers and shapers of the practice that will build the future and all our generations.  

Read the Honors Thesis and watch the short film here.

Abstract 

Southwest Detroit, a predominantly Latine neighborhood, is located near Detroit’s rapidly gentrifying downtown area. In response to devastating economic challenges, Detroit has taken a “growth first” approach to revitalization. In the past decade, this approach has become apparent through the city’s focused investments of its limited resources in Downtown Detroit and the improvement of pathways to the business district, such as the construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Drawing on the concept of revitalization as a paradox and the significance of culture and place, I investigate how residents of Southwest Detroit have been affected by these changes and how their sense of belonging and place is affected. I conducted 21 semi-structured interviews to study how residents in Southwest Detroit perceive these changes. The findings of this study suggest that the “growth first” approach results in poor infrastructure outcomes within Southwest Detroit due to disinvestment and exacerbates issues, including legal insecurity, displacement, and pollution. This approach has also brought gentrification to Southwest Detroit, along with a declining sense of belonging and sense of place among Southwest Detroit residents. This study furthers research on the role of gentrification in shaping belonging and attachment to place. Within Detroit, it contributes to expanding conversations about revitalization beyond Black-white relationships by capturing the perspectives of a predominantly Latine community.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the potential of Buffalo restoration to lead the Lakota people to a healthful Lakota future. Through background and socio-cultural context, storytelling and the intergenerational life-story analysis of the author and her father, and a discussion of medical anthropology and radical hope, this thesis aims to assert Buffalo restoration as mechanism towards realizing a radical reconceptualization of Lakota public health.

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Abstract

This thesis is an endeavor to study the organized resistance against Hindutva in the United States, exploring the development of contradictions between Hindutva and anti-Hindutva movements, as well as explaining current contentions within the anti-Hindutva movement. I start by tracing the historical development of global Hindutva, from its origins in India towards its current manifestations in the United States. Then, through a combination of analysis of semi-structured interviews from representatives from three anti-Hindutva organizations (Ambedkar King Study Circle, Hindus for Human Rights, and Indian American Muslim Council), as well as the examination of digital documents and reports, I explore the current landscape of anti-Hindutva activism in the United States. In particular, I consider how the issues of Hindu majoritarianism and caste discrimination have mobilized South Asian American and Indian American communities to oppose Hindutva both in India as well as within the United States. I specifically argue that the current anti-Hindutva movement has increasingly resisted against the expression of Hindutva politics within the United States through analyzing two key incidents - the protests against the appearance of a bulldozer at an Indian Independence Day rally in August 2022 at Edison, NJ, and the February 2023 passing of an ordinance against caste discrimination in Seattle. I also explore contentions within the anti-Hindutva movement in the United States, explaining how the relationship between caste and Hindutva has led some anti-Hindutva organizations to emphasize the distinction Hindutva from Hinduism, while others have offered a deeper critique of caste violence that opposed Hindutva, but also investigates the Brahmanical origins of caste and its relationship to Hinduism. Despite certain disagreements about the relationship of caste, Hindutva, and Hinduism, I maintain that critical unities between organizations have featured prominently in the successful actions against Hindutva in the United States. I also note how these solidarities have extended beyond just the issues of Hindutva, arguing that the fight against Hindutva in the United States has become increasingly connected to other struggles for liberation, from anti-capitalist struggles to the battle against racism.

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Abstract

All the Water in the World and None of it to Drink is story of what happens when structural racism, disinvestment, and local and state policy decisions align to cut off the water of 141,000 in the Great Lakes State's largest city over a decade. But more than that, it's a story about how we have created the conditions for widespread failure in disinvested cities, and then act with shock and disdain when their local structures fail.

In 2022, Detroit put in place a water assistance plan that, on the surface, was everything activists ever asked for. But one year in, problems and distrust persist. What does it take to move forward after a decade of harm? And what do the suburbs and bigger governments owe the city?

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Abstract

Informed by the current trend in Asian American studies to question Asian Americans’ and Asian Americanist scholars’ attachments to ‘America,’ this thesis considers how Vietnamese American literature currently contributes to the negotiation and imagination of Vietnamese American citizenship, and the possibilities for this literature to contribute to utopian political projects that imagine a world beyond the U.S. nation-state. In the Introduction, the thesis examines dominant narratives about the Vietnam war to understand Vietnamese American positionality, then analyzes Vietnamese American literature, theorizing that dominant narrative forms (most notably, the ocean-crossing chronotope) have emerged within V.A. literature and problematizing their dominance. The bulk of the thesis is a collection of three original short stories, which are foregrounded with sociopolitical context. The stories explore model minority subject formation and patriarchy, the climate crisis and displacement (and the generic possibility of speculative fiction for Vietnamese American literature), and intergenerational trauma and relationships.

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Abstract

Over the last decade, undocumented students have been given access to the American dream of pursuing higher education which opens the doors to economic and social mobility. While undocumented students can pursue higher education, they can only achieve half the dream. The existence of education access policies is not enough for these students to access the benefits of higher education. This project seeks to understand the experiences of undocumented students as they pursue higher education with the existence of the following education access policies: Assembly Bill 540 and the California Dream Act. These two laws open the doors to higher education for undocumented students in California by providing access to in-state tuition and state financial aid, respectively. Through this project, I sought to learn what barriers these policies fail to address and how the experience of undocumented students differs with DACA and no DACA. My thesis will center on three higher education milestones: high school to college, navigating undergrad, and post-college graduation. I structured my interview guide around these three milestones to understand how my participants experienced these transitions. In the 11 interviews I conducted, I found themes of self-advocacy, exclusion from the typical college experience, the necessity of high levels of resilience, and differences in how both groups of students (DACA and no DACA) experience the transition post-college graduation. Undocumented students must achieve high levels of resilience and self-advocacy to persevere through the barriers they face pursuing higher education. I argue that pursuing higher education provides undocumented students without DACA protection from the limitations of their immigration status while DACA students are able to access the benefits of higher education. Lastly, I conclude that the existence of education access policies is not sufficient to support the journey of undocumented students pursuing higher education.

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Abstract 

This thesis is a twofold project - at once, Mōhala Nā Pua Kahiki is the cultivation of a research methodology centering Kanaka Maoli epistemology and ontology and the application of this methodology to understand the Kanaka Maoli diaspora in California through a multidisciplinary lens. Firstly, this thesis investigates personal contradictions in the discipline of history that conflict with Kanaka Maoli epistemes of relationship and multiplicity. From there, using the Hawaiian ethnolinguistic orientation to time, where ka wā mua (the time before) is the past and ka wā hope (the time behind) is the future, a philosophical foundation for research is constructed that allows researchers to apply to the past the same theories of knowledge used to produce beliefs about the natural world. This thesis constructs a methodology using foundations of research proffered by Hawaiian scholars in history, Hawaiian studies, ecology, and culture studies that incorporates methods from a number of disciplines and sets forth principles using Hawaiian cultural values. By exploring a personal relationship in relation to research subjects, kilo mua serves to allow Hawaiians to procure and articulate a stronger proximity to Hawaiianness through the attainment of ʻike about the past. The second component of this thesis is an application of kilo mua to the Hawaiian diaspora. Three research sites, dubbed wāhi, which combines the Hawaiian words for time and place, are explored: a traditional moʻolelo called “Ka Ipumakani a Laamaomao”, a brief study of William Heath Mahi Davis, and ethnographic interviews conducted with diaspora Hawaiians. Through these wāhi, the Hawaiian cultural motifs of moʻokūʻauhau (genealogy), kuleana (responsibility), and ʻike (knowledge) are explored reflexively both in regards to the wāhi as well as the author’s personal journey, which is investigated through autoethnographic asides that bookend each chapter.

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Abstract

What does it mean to be a Queer Central American? This photo exhibition is an elevation of my family’s personal photography as part of a transnational, intergenerational journey in/through Queerness. Being Central American is already fraught with colonial and imperial trauma; US imperialism and the dispossession of land from Campesinos, nation-states that employ a culture of fear and silencing to further their political projects, and a culture that centers religiosity with oftentimes anti-Queer/Trans sentiment/social structures. Put into conversation with my own photography of Queer Central Americans, I ask us to complicate our understandings of Diaspora, Family, and what it looks like to be Queer Central American today by applying Queer framework of orientation and using photography as a mode of analysis.

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Abstract 

Since 2002, the United States has deported over 1,000 Cambodian American refugees back to Cambodia, with many of these refugees being from the 1.5 generation, having arrived in the US in the 1980s as children with few memories of Cambodia. Southeast Asian American studies scholars and immigration scholars have primarily focused on 1st and 2nd generation Southeast Asian refugees’ resettlement, incorporation into the US, and remembrance of historical trauma. This project seeks to understand the experiences of the 1.5 generation who called the US home but have now been deported back to Cambodia, the country they once fled from. How does this group understand their political and social membership to the US and to Cambodia given their deportation? Between June 2021 and January 2022, I conducted 8 one-time virtual interviews, 7 with deported Cambodian American refugees and 1 with a Laotian American refugee awaiting deportation. I asked questions about growing up in the US, life in Cambodia now, and thoughts on the criminal legal and immigrant control systems. I find themes of refugees’ continued movement between countries and internally within the US, statelessness and community exclusion, and hope in the ongoing search for a refuge. These results further our understandings of how the war in Southeast Asia, US policy, and Cambodian policy continues to impact the lives of these refugees and demonstrates the divide between political-legal and social membership to the US and Cambodia.

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Abstract 

This paper aims to study how urban North American Indigenous communities represent their identities and cultures; specifically, it will analyze how these practices have evolved since the rise of Native activism in the mid-20th century, catalyzed by the creation of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the late 1960s. As there is little existing research in this field, especially by Indigenous scholars, my argument will be primarily circumstantial and will advocate for further development of the analysis. Furthermore, as my research is interdisciplinary, I will utilize multiple theoretical frameworks and contextual analyses to develop my argument and subsequent close visual analysis. More specifically, I will utilize the frameworks from the fields of visual studies and Native studies in formulating my work. I assert that AIM and the rise of Native representation has forced the American public to reconcile with contemporary self-representation which has subsequently shaped modern Native and urban Native identity.

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