Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-179).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-158). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Inspired by my personal experience as a South Asian-American, I chose to create a series of paintings that seek to analyze the relationship between South Asians and a Western environment. I was further influenced by Bollywood painted posters, which I argue encapsulate postcolonial aesthetics in the form of fair skin, colored eyes, and exoticism. Moreover, I believe that Bollywood has continued to disseminate these aesthetics to the South Asian collective community. Bollywood and its implicit fascination with the West, in addition to its inherently South Asian identity, embody the struggle that many South Asians face. This struggle, which I as a South Asian-American woman painter have also experienced, includes a constant internal conflict between desiring to fit into Western culture and trying to maintain one’s cultural heritage within a Western environment. Ultimately, through these paintings and this essay, I seek to shed light on this complex relationship between South Asian culture and a Western context.

abstract: Parenting approaches that are firm yet warm (i.e., authoritative parenting) have been found to be robustly beneficial for mainstream White Americans youths, but do not demonstrate similarly consistent effects among Chinese Americans (CA) adolescents. Evidence suggests that CA adolescents interpret and experience parenting differently than their mainstream counterparts given differences in parenting values and child-rearing norms between traditional Chinese and mainstream American cultures. The current study tests the theory that prospective effects of parenting on psychological and academic functioning depends on adolescents' cultural frameworks for interpreting and understanding parenting. CA adolescents with values and expectations of parenting that are more consistent with mainstream American parenting norms were predicted to experience parenting similar to their White American counterparts (i.e., benefiting from a combination of parental strictness and warmth). In contrast, CA adolescents with parenting values and expectations more consistent with traditional Chinese parenting norms were predicted to experience parenting and its effects on academic and psychological outcomes differently than patterns documented in the mainstream literature. This study was conducted with a sample of Chinese American 9th graders (N = 500) from the Multicultural Family Adolescent Study. Latent Class Analysis (LCA), a person-centered approach to modeling CA adolescents' cultural frameworks for interpreting parenting, was employed using a combination of demographic variables (e.g., nativity, language use at home, mother's length of stay in the U.S.) and measures of parenting values and expectations (e.g., parental respect, ideal strictness & laxness). The study then examined whether prospective effects of parenting behaviors (strict control, warmth, and their interaction effect) on adolescent adjustment (internalizing and externalizing symptoms, substance use, and GPA) were moderated by latent class membership. The optimal LCA solution identified five distinct cultural frameworks for understanding parenting. Findings generally supported the idea that effects of parenting on CA adolescent adjustment depend on adolescents' cultural framework for parenting. The classic authoritative parenting effect (high strictness and warmth leads to positive outcomes) was found for the two most acculturated groups of adolescents. However, only one of these groups overtly endorsed mainstream American parenting values. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2011

abstract: Ascribed elements of one's self-identity such as sex, race, and the place of birth are deeply related to one's national identity among Japanese immigrant women. Spouses, offspring, friends, networks in the U.S., or even information about their local area also represent the nation they feel they belong to. The feelings of belonging and comfort are the basis for their achieved sphere of identification with the U.S. This study found that few elderly immigrants would identify only with the host county. Likewise, very few elderly immigrants would identify only with the homeland. Therefore, most of them identify with both countries (transnational), or they identify with neither country (liminal) to an extent. Developing transnational or liminal identity is a result of how Japanese elderly immigrant women have been experiencing mundane events in the host country and how they think the power relations of the sending and receiving countries have changed over the years. Japanese elderly immigrant women with transnational identity expressed their confidence and little anxiety for their aging. Their confidence comes from strong connection with the local community in the host country or/and homeland. Contrarily, those with liminal identity indicated stronger anxiety toward their aging. Their anxiety comes from disassociation from the local community in the U.S. and Japan. With regard to the decisiveness of future plan such as where to live and how to cope with aging, indecisiveness seems to create more options for elderly Japanese immigrant women with the transnational identity, while it exacerbates the anxiety among those who have liminal identity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Sociology 2012

The long-standing phenomenon of occupational segregation among Asian Americans in the United States has been well-documented (e.g., Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013). This study will explore the validity of an existing measure on values in the context of work, among a group of Asian American college students. Furthermore, it examines the impact of work values on culturally specific factors (i.e., Asian cultural values, ethnic identity endorsement, racism-related stress) and major-related outcome variables (i.e., major choice, major satisfaction) among Asian American college students. Specifically, it is hypothesized that work values will mediate the relationships between three cultural variables (i.e., adherence to Asian cultural values, ethnic identity endorsement, and racism-related stress) and individual’s major-related outcomes (i.e., major choice and major satisfaction). Participants will include 200 Asian-American identified undergraduate college students over the age of 18, surveyed through college courses, social media, and email advertisement. Measures will include the Values Scale (VS; Super & Nevill, 1985); the Asian American Value Scale-Multidimensional (AAVS-M; Kim, Li, & Ng, 2005); the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure - Revised (MEIM-R; Phinney & Ong, 2007); the Asian American Racism-Related Stress Inventory (AARRSI; Liang, Li, & Kim, 2004); and the Academic Major Satisfaction Scale (AMSS; Nauta, 2007). Implications of this study include illuminating the role of cultural context in shaping the function of work value endorsement and major choice patterns of Asian American college students, as well as advancing vocational assessment scholarship by establishing the cultural validity of the existing Values scale in its use with the Asian American college population.

Purpose: Although Asian Americans are the only racial group for whom cancer is the leading cause of death, colorectal cancer screening is consistently lower than that of White Americans. Physicians also recommend colorectal cancer screening to Asian Americans at nearly half the rate as White Americans. This study tests a mechanism that may underlie low recommendation rates. I based my hypothesis on a conceptual model that integrates the literature on information processing and decision making with Asian American stereotypes. Methods: I conducted an online study of primary care physicians and measured their cancer screening referral behavior in response to clinical vignettes. I used the existing Asian Attitude Implicit Association Test (IAT) and developed a new Health Attitude IAT to measure implicit attitudes about Asian American foreignness and health advantages, respectively. Explicit attitudes about these constructs were also assessed through self-report. I used binary logistic regression models to evaluate the association of attitudes about Asian Americans foreignness and health advantage with screening recommendation. Results: My sample included 167 physicians (23% response rate). I found strong implicit bias that Asians are foreign (Cohen’s d = 1.09) and strong implicit bias favoring a white health advantage (Cohen’s d = -0.86). There were weaker explicit biases that Asians are foreign (Cohen’s d = 0.62). Explicit beliefs about health advantage favored Asians (Cohen’s d = 0.73). Physician race, age and gender were significant moderators of bias score. .I found no evidence of a race based screening disparity and no association between implicit or explicit bias scores and making a cancer screening recommendation. Conclusions: Foreign and health advantage biases exist among a sample of physicians, but may not influence cancer screening recommendation behavior. Physicians demonstrated both implicitly and explicitly held attitudes that Asian Americans are perpetual foreigners. Physicians also reported explicit beliefs that Asian Americans have health advantages relative to other races. Implicitly, their attitudes indicated that White Americans are a healthier group. Further research should address whether race-based cancer screening disparities persist in real world settings, both in terms of screening completion, and physician recommendation. If disparities still exist, alternate explanatory mechanisms should be identified.

abstract: Ethos or credibility of a speaker is often defined as the speaker's character (Aristotle). Contemporary scholars however, have contended that ethos lies with the audience because while the speaker may efficiently persuade, the audience will decide if it wants to be persuaded (Farrell). Missing from the scholarly conversation is attention to how ethos is performed between speaker and audience under institutional structures that produce inequitable power relations subject to changing political contexts over time. In this dissertation I analyze how ethos is performed that is a function of a specific social and political environment. My grandfather, Al Foon Lai, was a paper son. As an adult, I learned that paper sons were members of paper families that may or may not actually exist except on paper; furthermore paper immigration was the way many Chinese entered the United States to get around the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943). Grandfather held legal status, but grandfather's name was fictitious and thus his entry to the United States in 1920 was illegal. Today by some authorities he would be classified as an illegal immigrant. As Grandfather's status as a paper son suggest, Grandfather's credibility as someone with the legal prerogative to reside in the U.S. was a dynamic construct that was negotiated in light of the changing cultural norms encoded in shifting immigration policies. Grandfather constructed his ethos "to do persuasion" in administrative hearings mandated under the Chinese Exclusion Act that produced asymmetrical power relations. By asymmetrical power relations I mean the unequal status between the administrator overseeing the hearing and Lai the immigrant. The unequal status was manifest in the techniques and procedures employed by the administrative body empowered to implement the Chinese Exclusion Act and subsequent laws that affected Chinese immigrants. Combining tools from narrative analysis and feminists rhetorical methods I analyze excerpts from Al Foon Lai's transcripts from three administrative hearings between 1926 and 1965. It finds that Grandfather employed narrative strategies that show the nature of negotiating ethos in asymmetrical power situations and the link between the performance of ethos and the political and social context. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2016

abstract: With the push towards interdisciplinary approaches, there has been tremendous growth of scholarship in the comparative ethnic studies field. From studies on multiracial people, to residential segregation, to the study of multiracial spaces, there is a lot to say about cross-cultural experiences. “Te de Boba” explores the relationship between identity, race, and ethnicity of millennials through a food studies lens. In particular, I analyze the role of food spaces and food pathways in developing identity and conceptions of race and ethnicity. My research site consists of a small business, a boba tea shop in Baldwin Park, California: What happens when a boba shop opens up in downtown Baldwin Park, a predominantly Latinx community? How do interethnic relationships shape the structure and city landscape of Baldwin Park, and how do these experiences in turn shape self-identity among millennials? I draw from qualitative interviews, cognitive mapping, and surveys conducted within the boba shop to understand millennial identity formation in Baldwin Park. Millennials growing up in Baldwin Park experience unique relationships between cultures, foods, and lifestyles that cross ethnic and racial barriers, creating new forms of community, which I call hub cities. I develop “hub cities” as new terminology for discussing suburban spaces that foster a sense of community within suburban areas that challenges and break down popular discourse of race and ethnicity, giving way for youth creation of alternative discourses on race and ethnicity, consequently shaping the way they form self-identity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Justice Studies 2016