McNair Scholar 2020 Saulkdi Yangh
Saulkdi Yangh is a first-generation, Hmong American, third-year student at the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities majoring in Sociology with a minor in Asian American Studies. He is passionate about social justice and community engagement and works to incorporate these things into his research. His research interests include American imperialism in Asian countries, Asian American studies, critical race studies, and Southeast Asian American diaspora.
I dream to one day get a Ph.D. and travel internationally to conduct transformative research. I hope to decolonize research and instead use it to empower communities.
Research project
Beyond Demographics: Extracurricular Activities and Southeast Asian American Identity
Abstract: This research paper works to unpack how Southeast Asian Americans construct and develop critical consciousness towards Asian American identity within extracurricular activities. Through interviews and focus groups with primarily Southeast Asian Americans, we’ve discovered that critical consciousness towards race identity can be invoked by being in spaces outside of one’s ethnic or racial identity. Furthermore, we were able to identify how navigating dominant White spaces can foster racial resilience and the importance of Afro-Asian relations in the renaming of Asian American racial identity. The results of this study indicate that extracurricular activities assist in Asian American racial identity formation. It can become a catalyst for critical consciousness towards race by establishing Asian American racial belonging and empowerment for Southeast Asian Americans. Understanding how Southeast Asian Americans develop racial pride contributes to existing critical race studies by exploring how Afro-Asian relations and multi-ethnic communities empower social, particularly Asian American, identity.
Faculty mentor
Dr. Teresa Swartz is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department and the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities. Dr. Swartz attained her Sociology Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego, CA in 2001. Her research specialties include families intergenerational relations, youth and young adulthood, social inequality, Asian American studies, gender, and welfare state. Dr. Swartz has published two books and her research has appeared in various academic journals. She is currently working on a youth studies project called the Kids Involvement and Diversity Study. She is also the director of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Minnesota.