This paper explores the relationship between social and cultural capital and the experience of Asian Americans in law school and after graduating from law school. Bourdieu’s (1986) conceptualizations of institutional cultural capital, embodied cultural capital, and social capital guide this analysis. Two electronic surveys resulted in participation by fourteen Asian American law students and nine Asian American law school graduates from American Bar Association-accredited law schools in the United States. The research design is qualitative, and a partial grounded theory approach based upon Charmaz’s (2006) work was utilized. Thematic coding, line-by-line coding, and focused coding were also used to analyze survey responses. Results demonstrate that there is a relationship between social and cultural capital and the experience of Asian Americans in law school and post-law school graduation. Institutional cultural capital, in the form of J.D. degrees, seems to influence the development of embodied cultural capital and social capital, particularly when considering membership in groups and forming personal and professional connections. When considering embodied cultural capital, family members appear to influence important personal characteristics that participants carry into law school and the workplace. These results may have implications for the larger trend of Asian Americans leaving large law firms; in addition, perceptions of embodied cultural capital may influence barriers to career advancement. Suggested areas for future research include the role of mentorship in Asian American career development, patterns within specific Asian American ethnic/cultural groups in the legal field, and the intersection of gender and Asian American identities in legal practice.

A preliminary critical ethnographic study was conducted to garner Punjabi Sikh U.S. young adults’ understandings and experiences with their cultural, religious, gender, and sexual identity development. Nine participants from King County, Washington were interviewed and engaged in a weeklong self-reflective journal writing activity. This data was then analyzed alongside existing scholarship. This study indicates that participants experience challenges in navigating their bicultural identity, grappling with the historical and present trauma their communities endure. Additionally, to navigate such challenges, Punjabi Sikh U.S. young adults invoke various methods to negotiate their various cultures, identities, and desires, and remain resilient.

My journey with “korean mourning rituals” began in search of understanding myself. Like many others, I use poetry as an emotional outlet, and as a way of understanding why I feel the way I do. Sometimes, even being able to put a name to what I feel. “korean mourning rituals” is a poetry collection comprised of 30 poems, created over the span of two years. “korean mourning rituals” is an accumulation of poems about intergenerational trauma, romantic relationships, family matters, and navigating the colonial settler state as a Korean american womxn. In this paper, I will be dissecting one poem selected for “korean mourning rituals,” and its editing process. Additionally, I will be discussing what I have planned for distribution of “korean mourning rituals,” as well as the self-publishing process and the different avenues I sought out.

One of the poems in my collection, “and the paperwork asks for my family’s history of mental health,” I dissect the intergenerational trauma of my Korean American family as a way to understand the guilt, sorrow, and difficulties buried within me. Intergenerational trauma is trauma transferred through the generations, even if those beyond the first-generation did not directly experience the traumatic incidents (Bombay, Matheson, Anisman, 2). This intergenerational trauma, when specifically tied to Koreans, is called, “han.” “Han” is described as a cultural phenomenon, that scholars often have trouble defining. Theologian Suh Nam-dong describes han as, “a feeling of unresolved resentment against injustices suffered, a sense of helplessness because of the overwhelming odds against one, a feeling of acute pain in one's guts and bowels, making the whole body writhe and squirm, and an obstinate urge to take revenge and to right the wrong—all these combined,” (Yoo, 221). Han, when applied to the Korean diaspora, is referred to as “postmemory han,” which refers to the feelings of han experienced by second-generation Korean Americans. “Postmemory han” is the idea that even if these second-generation Korean Americans did not directly experience the trauma the first-generation Koreans did, they still feel residual han, regardless of whether they actively pursue “remembering” their family’s trauma (Chu, 98-105). This “nonconsensual remembering,” is a concept I have, and continue to, explore throughout my written work, and is the nucleus of “korean mourning rituals.”

Belonging to a tribe or American Indian Indigenous group in the United States, even if one has already been enrolled or accepted into the community, is a lifelong endeavor. Belonging may be achieved by meeting specific criteria during one life stage yet one must continue to behave and act in ways that align with community expectations to maintain a sense of belonging throughout all life stages. This descriptive qualitative case study presents the findings of in-depth interviews, with five individual tribal members, two male and three female participants, ranging in age from 25 to 55, who are college graduates and tribal members. The study aimed to understand the different forms and ideas of belonging for tribal members, how the notion of belonging is understood and achieved over the life course, and how phenotypic arguments, blood quantum, the role of schooling and demonstration of tribal knowledge influences the extent to which belonging is earned and how that can change over time. The study sought to answer the following questions: How do tribal members define “belonging”? How and in what ways do tribal members learn how to become members of the community? And, what can tribal communities and tribal members do to foster a sense of belonging for members who have left to obtain professional or academic training and seek to return to serve the nation?

The study focused on participants the Gila River Indian Community, a tribal community in southwest Arizona with approximately 23,000 enrolled members, who completed a higher education degree and sought to return to serve as professionals and/or leaders at their tribal nation. Interviews were conducted off-reservation in the Phoenix metropolitan area within a 30-day window and held during the month of September



2015. Interviews were analyzed using three iterative levels of content analysis. Findings suggest there can be three methods of belonging within Gila River: belonging by cultural practices, belonging by legal definition, and belonging by both cultural and legal definition. However, the three methods of belonging do not automatically equate to being accepted by other tribal members.

The field of developmental psychology often underrepresents Latinx individuals within their corpus of published scholarship. In the area of lifespan identity development this is particularly evident from the scarcity of Latinx life story narratives. In addition, Latinx family parenting styles is an underdeveloped area of scholarship. At the same time, a robust literature base demonstrates that for youth from non-dominant culture families, ethnic racial identity increases measures of adaptive well-being and academic achievement. Because academic achievement for Latinx students does not proportionately reach levels of educational success as compared to whites, research investigating foundations of ethnic racial identity within Latinx families is warranted. This investigation extends parenting style literature within the field of developmental psychology by exploring inter-generational practices of Latinx families. Participants within this study include mothers of Mexican descent who have earned at least one Master's degree, a level of high academic achievement attained by only 10 percent of adults within the U.S. Each Latina mother, ranging in age from 36 to 63 years, participated in two or more semi-structured interviews. Protocols were based on McAdams's life story interview; McAdams's life story narrative analysis, based upon Erikson's lifespan theory of identity development, provided a model of analysis. In addition, transcripts of participant interviews, totaling more than twelve hours, were analyzed according to themes of parenting styles and family socialization practices. Familial ethnic socialization was embedded within routines and practices of mothers' families of orientation. Mothers employed a concerted cultivation parenting style within their families of procreation. In alignment with McAdams's framework, mothers narrated life stories in a redemptive manner. In other words, a negative life event was conveyed as having a positive outcome. Implications from my study inform scholars and can offer usable information for parent and teacher education by means of contextualized family activities and parental practices gleaned from participants' life story narratives.

Asian Americans have a unique relationship with food. From the moment they landed on American soil, their history and experiences have been tied to food, and not entirely by their own will. Now, the general American population enjoys foods from a multitude of ethnic groups, but in America’s early history, these foods were abhorred and used as justifications for legal discrimination, murders, massacres, and banishment. These struggles forced Asian Americans to work in the food industry (the only work they could do without as much backlash), further promoting the association of Asian Americans and food. While working in the food industry in order to find passage into America and to survive, many Asian dishes had to be assimilated to the palette of the general White American population and many dishes were made up and presented as authentically Asian. Some of these dishes have become iconic when thinking of classic American foods—chow mein, orange chicken, and more. For many non-Asian Americans, these popular dishes contribute to the pairing of Asian Americans with food and the food industry. But for Asian Americans, these dishes symbolize their struggles—leaving their homes and families behind, trying to live out the American dream, assimilating and changing their foods in just the right way in order to fit in, be accepted, and to survive. This project, in the form of a cookbook, examines the significance of food in the Chinese American, Japanese American, and Filipino American experiences in America while looking at the histories of those specific foods as well as histories of each group.

This phenomenological study explores the question: What are the lived experiences of Arizonans who identify their gender identities as ‘non-binary’? (‘non-binary’ defined here as anyone who identifies their gender as something other than ‘always and exclusively male or always and exclusively female’). The study explores the lived realities of four non-binary identified transgender people living in Arizona. Each participant took a short survey and conducted a 45-minute in-person interview, conducted through phenomenological questioning to evoke deep descriptions of experience. After analyzing the results through feminist hermeneutic phenomenology, this study suggests that the experience of non-binary gender identity presents an essential pattern of cultivating self-realization. The essential themes of internal recognition, external presentation, and movement toward wellness fell into this pattern. The United States has conceptualized transgender identity in many ways, from pathologizing to politicizing, to medically affirming views. Although the literature on this topic is quite small, there is no doubt that non-binary transgender people exist in U.S. public life. Ultimately, if non-binary people are to find affirming paths toward self-realization, they must be heard from their own experiences in their own voices.

“Okage Sama De (I Am Who I Am Because of You): A Comparative Examination of Japanese & Okinawan Experiences in Hawaiʻi” analyzes archival research, publications, and oral histories to map the generational progression of Japanese and Okinawan Americans in Hawaiʻi toward the American dream. The American dream and its meaning are questioned, particularly with regards to first generation experiences and the cultural shedding required for acceptance into American society. “Okage Sama De” is a saying that refers to the generational succession and accumulated wealth of Japanese and Okinawan Americans in Hawaiʻi, which these groups attribute their privileged position in society to. Although the strong emphasis placed on the hardships their ancestors overcame and on values like hard work allow members of this group to justify their privilege, the true origin of this privilege lies in the upward mobility afforded to them after World War II.

This work also explores how Japanese and Okinawans have maintained aspects of their culture and recreated their own distinct histories, particularly in Hawaiʻi. It analyzes how the Japanese and Okinawan communities have worked to preserve aspects of culture in Hawaiʻi and how their efforts have been received. Emphasis is placed on the third and fourth generations and how they have recreated their histories, particularly since many of them are largely Americanized. Furthermore, a critical lens is placed on the relationship between Japanese and Okinawans, who are often lumped together by larger society, to extract a better understanding of their historical and cultural differences. There is also analysis on how Japanese discrimination against Okinawans manifested in Hawaiʻi and what effect this had on each generation.

The Japanese American internment in Arizona proved to be one of the greatest assaults on the civil liberties of American citizens in the 20th century. Families lived in shabby facilities, had meager food, fought isolation, and strict military control. However, they overcame these challenges and built a strong community relationship and courageously sought to prove their loyalty to a government that deemed them untrustworthy. With time, their fortitude and solidarity helped bring an end to World War II and create new lives afterwards.

This thesis investigates the role of colorism and the practice of skin whitening for women in China. By analyzing the historical evolution of ideal skin beauty in China, this project found that the cultural fixation with women's skin tone was used as a sociopolitical tool to regulate women's agency. Furthermore, this thesis also examines current skin whitening advertisements to understand modern impacts of Westernization and consumerism on contemporary discourses of femininity and beauty. Finally, it concludes with a discussion on skin whitening's ability to empower but also subjugate women within the confines of patriarchal expectations.