Featured Projects

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 a Queer Central American today by applying Queer framework of orientation and using photography as a mode of analysis. 

Click here to read IDA Creative Thesis

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 now have 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. 

Click here to read Honors Thesis

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.

Click here to read Honors Thesis

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.

Click here to read Honors Thesis

Abstract 

In this work, I, a second generation Vietnamese American, conduct an auto-ethnography of myself, my mother, and my grandfather on their political beliefs to gather qualitative data on shifting Vietnamese American political attitudes between generations. Through a series of interviews, I aim to determine to what extent Vietnamese American ethnic background has on individual political beliefs, if at all. Ultimately, I have found that it is not ethnic and racial identity that uniformly influence political affiliation; rather, it is the range of experiences in immigration and assimilation that affect said beliefs. I divide my findings into three core themes: the refugee experience, the Americanization experience, and the racial consciousness experience.

Click here to read the winning paper for the 2022 Alberto M. Camarillo Senior Paper Prize 

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.

Click here to read Honors Thesis

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 a Queer Central American today by applying Queer framework of orientation and using photography as a mode of analysis. 

Click here to read IDA Creative Thesis

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.

Click here to read Honors Thesis

Abstract

This project seeks to begin studying the intersections of race and content moderation that have yet to be investigated. While the literature about the field has revealed instances of hate speech to be some of the most impactful upon commercial content moderators, the specificity of the harm created upon those most impacted has yet to be interrogated. Thus, this research seeks to better understand the distinct impacts of regulating hate speech on Black people who are tasked with the jobs of content moderation and platform policy enforcement.

The research highlights the daily experiences of individuals whose work in the shadows has helped ensure the protection and safety of those who interact with the Internet. Through in-depth interviews, the project aims to collect new qualitative data about the field of content moderation and trust and safety and its intersections with race. By centering the experiences of Black people with the free expression policies of social media platforms, this research will also illuminate vital gaps in the enforcement of hate speech policy at social media companies and offer a different path forward at a crucial time where the industry faces intense scrutiny and increased calls for an end to self-regulation.

Click here to read final paper

This summer, I worked with the HANA center, a community center serving Korean American immigrants in the Chicagoland area, on an ongoing project to work towards a racially just future for Korean Americans. The past summer, HANA had conducted ten listening sessions with various Korean American members of the community, grouped into several categories including ministers/pastors, members of a feminist book club, mothers, second generation college-aged youth, and even an ajussi group. 

Participants were asked questions about personal experiences with anti-Asian racism in the states, their perspectives on other communities of color and the racism that they face, as well as perspectives on BLM and looting, among other questions. Each group discussed for at least an hour, coming to shared conclusions, new insights and realizations, along with disagreements or differences in opinion. 

The primary aim of these listening sessions was to start up a conversation, and to generally get people talking about topics of racial discrimination, as well as examining their own biases and prejudices. It was an opportunity to build solidarity as Korean Americans listened to and recognized each others’ shared experiences with racism, while encouraging deeper reflection on existing viewpoints and instilling a desire in many who participated to continue the conversation either under the direction of HANA or on their own, with family and friends. 

I came in this summer to help analyze the listening session notes, and put together a brief written report for the purposes of HANA. The report will serve as a tool that HANA can build upon as they continue towards their ultimate goal of mobilizing the Korean American community towards racial justice.

Entering an existing project meant that I was unfortunately not there to attend the listening sessions that had happened the previous summer. It so happened that I came into the project in between phases, after the first collection of listening sessions and before the next, should HANA choose to direct more in the future. Thus I felt that I was somewhat in a blind spot, not having been able to attend the conversations in person. I did my best to work off of the notes available for me, and the direction and guidance of Eujin Park, my faculty mentor, Inhe Choi, the director of HANA, and Youngwoon Han, organizing manager. With this mentorship, I came to some preliminary themes/conclusions about the listening sessions. 

Some of these preliminary conclusions include: 

-Children seem to be learning the rules of the racial hierarchy and/or white supremacy from an early age.

-Related to this, parents observe that their kids are racially segregating themselves within social groups in school and in recreational activities.

-Perhaps due to their enhanced awareness and racial consciousness, youth are more likely to express anger or hostility about facing racial discrimination, as well as express a desire for racial justice and social change. 

-First generation participants were more likely to be uncertain whether something they experienced was racial discrimination or not.

-Many participants shared common experiences of experiencing a spike in racism due to COVID-19, as well as experiencing childhood bullying.

-Several expressed uncertainty on how to respond to racism.

-There was an acknowledgement of the anti-Blackness that remains prevalent in the Korean American community, particularly among first generation elders.

-Participants spoke of prejudices against Chinese and other ethnic Asian-American communities as well

-Following this self-acknowledgement, participants called for an internal change of heart, and for continued self-reflection on one’s own biases and prejudices. 

For an in depth overview of the analysis and written conclusions that I came to, please view here.