University of California, Davis
Graduate Student, Cultural Studies
University of San Francisco, Director of the Cultural Centers
Thesis Title: Neoliberal Asian American Panethnicity: Higher Education Multiculturalism, Youth Pedagogies, and the Performance of Asian American Identity
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Dina Okamoto
Laura Grindstaff Gloria Rodriguez Sunaina Maira |
About
I am currently a PhD candidate researching and thinking about why Asian American panethnic identity and multiculturalism continue to be salient for Asian American college youth. I focus on three areas: how Asian American college youth assemble and perform Asian American panethnicity through cultural performance in college, the role of higher education administrators in creating and mediating diversity policies that shape students' experiences with college diversity, and the historical memory of 1960s and 1970s radical Asian American activism. Through these three lenses I consider the broader implications of how Asian American college youth construct a sense of Asian American identity and are made into productive, entrepreneurial, multicultural American citizens.
I explore these research questions through mixed-methodology: in-depth interviews of self-identified Asian American students, mid-level administrators who advise these students, and senior-level administrators who are responsible for construction institutional narratives of diversity and multiculturalism; participant observation of student planning and advising meetings; and archival research of previous Asian American cultural heritage celebrations. In addition I conduct analyses of public performances and peer-to-peer presentations of Asian American panethnic identity as critical counter-narratives to institutional forms of diversity.
Research Interests: Multiculturalism, diversity, and neoliberalism in higher education and social justice education; panethnicity in transnational and diasporic contexts; Asian American youth culture; cultural citizenship; cultural productions and the performance of panethnicity; critical theory in higher education
