Jennifer A. Huynh Curriculum Vitae June 2020 Department of American

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Jennifer A. Huynh Curriculum Vitae June 2020 Department of American Jennifer A. Huynh Curriculum Vitae June 2020 Department of American Studies 574 631 6689 (office) University of Notre Dame 574 631 4399 (fax) 1040 Flanner Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 [email protected] (email) EDUCATION Ph.D. Princeton University. Sociology. 2016 Committee: Alejandro Portes (chair), Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, Min Zhou (UCLA) M.A. Princeton University. Sociology. 2010 M.A. University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Anthropology. 2007 Thesis: Reimagining the Homeland: Somali Nationalism in the Diaspora B.A. University of California, Berkeley. Sociology. 2005 Thesis: Vietnamese Amerasians & the 1988 Homecoming Act PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS 2018-present: Assistant Professor, Department of American Studies, University of Notre Dame, Faculty Fellow, Liu Institute for Asia & Asian Studies 2017-2018: Adjunct Professor, Department of American Studies, University of Notre Dame 2015-2016: Lecturer, Program of Asian American Studies & Sociology, Northwestern University PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS in progress: Suburban Enclaves: Growing up Vietnamese in Little Saigon (Three chapters completed. Anticipated Completion Date: 2021). PUBLICATIONS: ARTICLES & ESSAYS In progress: “Changing the Narrative: Visual Representations of COVID-19 in Diasporic Chinese and US Newspapers.” Under Review: “Internalized Racial Oppression & Second-Generation Vietnamese.” Submitted May 2020 Under Review: “Beyond Remittances: Transnational Organizing & Activism,” Submitted April 2020 2019: Huynh, Jennifer. “La Charla: Documenting the Experiences of Unaccompanied Minors in Immigration Court.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. June: 1-15 PUBLICATIONS: BOOK CHAPTERS forthcoming: “I Love Pho: Intergenerational Entrepreneurship,” in Tuong Vu, Alex Thai-Vo, & Linda Ho Peche, eds., Handbook of Vietnamese Americans. 2016: “Breaking Blocked Transnationalism: Intergenerational Change in Homeland Ties” in Alejandro Portes & Patricia Fernandez Kelly, eds., The State & the Grassroots: Immigrant Transnational organizations in Four Continents (New York: Berghahn Books) PUBLICATIONS: BOOK REVIEWS 2018: Review of Kathryn E. Wilson, Ethnic renewal in Philadelphia’s Chinatown. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2015), in Studies in Ethnicity & Nationalism CONFERENCE PAPERS 2020: “Where do I go? Unaccompanied Minors Navigating Immigration Court,” American Studies Association Annual Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, November 13. “Research on Ethnic Entrepreneurship among Vietnamese-Americans,” Association for Asian American Studies Conference, Washington DC, April 9. (Cancelled COVID) 2019: “La Charla: Unaccompanied Immigrant Minors in the US Courtroom,” 114th American Sociological Association, New York, New York. August 5. “States of Deportation: Undocumented Asian Minors,” Asian American Studies Association, Madison, Wisconsin, April 7. 2018: “I Love Pho: Gentrification & Survival in Little Saigon,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, November 10. “Teaching Ethnic Studies on a White Campus,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta Georgia. November 11. “Navigating Race & Class Hierarchies in School: Becoming Asian in Southern California,” American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 6. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: EDITORIAL 2018-: Reader/reviewer for International Journal of Contemporary Sociology; International Migration Review; Social Problems PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: BOARDS, COMMITTEES, SELECTION PANELS 2018: National Science Foundation, External Reviewer, Early CAREER Award, Sociology American Sociological Association, Section on Asia and Asian American Studies, Transnational Book Award Committee 2 2017: Sage Teaching Innovations & Professional Development Award Committee, Sage Publishing TEACHING EXPERIENCE University of Notre Dame 2018 - Critical Refugee Studies Immigrant America Asian American Experience Senior Seminar 2019 Faculty Fellow, Notre Dame International Summer, “America & the World Today,” with Keio University, Zhejiang University, & Aichi Prefectural University, Tokyo. 2015-2016 Northwestern University, Department of Sociology & Program in Asian American Studies: Southeast Asian American Histories Ethnic Economies & Neighborhoods Second-Generation Immigrant Experiences 2008-2010 Princeton University, Department of Sociology, Graduate Teaching Assistant: Race, Class, & Gender Stratification Sociological Theory Race in Comparative Perspective 2006-2007 Missouri State University, International Campus, Dalian China Introduction to Sociology HONORS AND AWARDS 2016-2017: Northwestern University, Faculty Honor Roll, university wide teaching award for outstanding teaching GRANTS: PERSONAL RESEARCH & SCHOLARSHIP 2021: Russell Sage Foundation Summer Institute on Migration Research Methods, University of California, Berkeley (5% acceptance rate). May 2021. Project: “Measuring the Undocumented Asian American Population.” 2016: Sage Teaching Innovations & Professional Development Award, Sage Publishing, Travel Grant to American Sociological Association annual meeting & pre-conference 2007-2012: Princeton University, President’s Fellowship 2009: Center for Migration and Development, Dissertation Fellowship, Princeton University 2008: East Asian Studies Program, Summer Research Grant, at the University of Hong Kong, Princeton University. 2004: Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship to the United Kingdom. 3 GRANTS: CLASSROOM SUPPORT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME 2020: Teaching Beyond the Classroom (TBC) Small Grant, Undergraduate Studies, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame. 2019: Teaching Beyond the Classroom (TBC) Small Grant, Undergraduate Studies, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame. 2018: Liu Institute Asian Studies Faculty Conference Grant. ACADEMIC SERVICE, UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME Department of American Studies: 2020-2021 Executive Committee University of Notre Dame: 2018 Panelist, “Crazy, Rich Asians” sponsored by Department of Film/Television, Nov. 29. Center for Social Concerns Community Engagement Faculty Institute, June 5. Key Note Speaker, Asian & Pacific Islander Commencement Ceremony, May 19. SENIOR THESIS SUPERVISION 2020 Alexandra Lloyd, “Refugees and NGOs: An Analysis of Power in the US Resettlement Process,” UROP grant recipient 2019 Darcy Dehais, “Indiana’s Housing Crisis: Weak Renter Policy Protections & a Culture of Eviction,” UROP grant recipient GRADUATE STUDENT SUPERVISION 2018- University of Notre Dame PhD Committee member for Mette Evelyn Bjerre, Department of Sociology PhD Committee member for Nancy Diaz, Department of Sociology MEMBERSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS American Studies Association Asian American Studies Association American Sociological Association Critical Mixed-Race Studies 4 .
Recommended publications
  • Creating a Sense of Place: the Vietnamese-Americans and Little Saigon
    UC Irvine UC Irvine Previously Published Works Title CREATING A SENSE OF PLACE: THE VIETNAMESE-AMERICANS AND LITTLE SAIGON Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3km8x13g Journal Journal of Environmental Psychology, 20(4) ISSN 02724944 Authors MAZUMDAR, SANJOY MAZUMDAR, SHAMPA DOCUYANAN, FAYE et al. Publication Date 2000-12-01 DOI 10.1006/jevp.2000.0170 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Journal of Environmental Psychology (2000) 20, 319^333 0272-4944/00/040319 + 15 $35.00/0 # 2000 Academic Press doi:10.1006/jevp.2000.0170, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on CREATING A SENSE OF PLACE: THE VIETNAMESE-AMERICANS AND LITTLE SAIGON 1 2 1 1 SANJOY MAZUMDAR ,SHAMPA MAZUMDAR ,FAY E DOCUYANAN AND COLETTE MARIE MCLAUGHLIN 1School of Social Ecology, Department of Urban and Regional Planning 2Department of Sociology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, U.S.A. Abstract Based on a study of Little Saigon, an ethnic enclave in Westminster, California, this paper examines the phy- sical, social, symbolic and emotional signi¢cance of such places in the lives of immigrants. We focus on three speci¢c aspects of the ethnic enclave: architectural elements, everyday social interaction within the enclave, and public ritual events. We highlight how the built architectural environment and the immigrants’ social, commercial, and ritual activities interact to create and sustain a sense of place, foster community identity, and structure social relations. We conclude that ethnic enclaves constitute an important aspect of an immi- grant’s place identity enabling him/her to simultaneously remain connected to the places left behind and yet appropriating and forging signi¢cant new place ties.
    [Show full text]
  • Little Saigon Landmark Project Feasibility Study
    Little Saigon Landmark Project Feasibility Study October 2014 Completed for the Friends of Little Saigon by SCIDpda Table of Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................. 1 Introduction and Overview .................................................................................................. 2 Space Program .................................................................................................................... 6 Site Selection ..................................................................................................................... 14 Massing Studies and Cost Estimates .................................................................................. 15 Market/Economic Analysis ................................................................................................ 16 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 17 Appendix A—Space Program Appendix B—Site Selection Appendix C—Massing Studies and Cost Estimates Appendix D—Market/Economic Analysis Appendix E—Vietnamese Cultural Center Feasibility Study Appendix F—Little Saigon Housing Needs Assessment Executive Summary The Friends of Little Saigon (FLS) group seeks to create a gathering place for the regional Vietnamese community in or adjacent to the Little Saigon business district. This can be accomplished by bringing together the district’s cultural, shopping, and culinary
    [Show full text]
  • SAN JOSE Food Works FOOD SYSTEM CONDITIONS & STRATEGIES for a MORE VIBRANT RESILIENT CITY
    SAN JOSE Food Works FOOD SYSTEM CONDITIONS & STRATEGIES FOR A MORE VIBRANT RESILIENT CITY NOV 2016 Food Works SAN JOSE Food Works ■ contents Executive Summary 2 Farmers’ markets 94 Background and Introduction 23 Food E-Commerce Sector 96 San Jose Food System Today 25 Food and Agriculture IT 98 Economic Overview 26 Food and Agriculture R & D 101 Geographic Overview 41 Best Practices 102 San Jose Food Sector Actors and Activities 47 Summary of Findings, Opportunities, 116 County and Regional Context 52 and Recommendations Food Supply Chain Sectors 59 APPENDICES Production 60 A: Preliminary Assessment of a San Jose 127 Market District/ Wholesale Food Market Distribution 69 B: Citywide Goals and Strategies 147 Processing 74 C: Key Reports 153 Retail 81 D: Food Works Informants 156 Restaurants and Food Service 86 End Notes 157 Other Food Sectors 94 PRODUCED BY FUNDED BY Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAGE) John S. and James L. Knight Foundation www.sagecenter.org 11th Hour Project in collaboration with San Jose Department of Housing BAE Urban Economics Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority www.bae1.com 1 San Jose Executive Summary What would San Jose look like if a robust local food system was one of the vital frameworks linking the city’s goals for economic development, community health, environmental stewardship, culture, and identity as the City’s population grows to 1.5 million people over the next 25 years? he Food Works report answers this question. The team engaged agencies, businesses, non- T profits and community groups over the past year in order to develop this roadmap for making San Jose a vibrant food city and a healthier, more resilient place.
    [Show full text]
  • Narratives of the Vietnamese American Community in Post-Katrina Mississippi Yoosun Park Smith College
    Smith ScholarWorks School for Social Research: Faculty Publications School for Social Work 2010 “Everything has Changed”: Narratives of the Vietnamese American Community in Post-Katrina Mississippi Yoosun Park Smith College Joshua Miller Smith College, [email protected] Bao Chau Van Smith College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.smith.edu/ssw_facpubs Part of the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Park, Yoosun; Miller, Joshua; and Van, Bao Chau, "“Everything has Changed”: Narratives of the Vietnamese American Community in Post-Katrina Mississippi" (2010). School for Social Research: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA. https://scholarworks.smith.edu/ssw_facpubs/2 This Article has been accepted for inclusion in School for Social Research: Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Smith ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected] “Everything has Changed”: Narratives of the Vietnamese American community in Post-Katrina Mississippi YOOSUN PARK JOSHUA MILLER BAO CHAU VAN Smith College School for Social Work In this qualitative study of the Vietnamese American community of Biloxi, Mississippi, conducted three years after Katrina, we at- tended not only to individual experiences but to the relationship of individuals to their collective and social worlds. The interlocked relationship of individual and collective loss and recovery are clearly demonstrated in respondents’ narratives. The neighbor- hood and community of Little Saigon was significant not only
    [Show full text]
  • Little Saigon, Japantown, Chinatown – International District Vision 2030
    Little Saigon, Japantown, Chinatown – International District Vision 2030 A Community Response to the Preliminary Recommendations of the “South Downtown Livable Communities Study” June 2006 Thomas Im Edgar Yang Don Mar Tuck Eng Paul Lee Alan Cornell Paul Mar Stella Chao Sue Taoka Fen Hsiao Joyce Pisnanont Mike Olson Tomio Moriguchi Ken Katahira Virgil Domaoan Joe Nabberfeld 1 Little Saigon, Japantown, and Chinatown/International District Vision 2030 Executive Summary The City of Seattle initiated the Livable South Downtown study in 2005 as an extension of the Center City Initiative, a plan to increase housing capacity and economic activity in the downtown core. After several meetings with twenty-five South Downtown community stakeholders, the City released a draft report in January 2006, outlining land use and rezoning recommendations. An alliance of Little Saigon, Japantown, and Chinatown-International District stakeholders met to discuss the report and agreed that the City needed to broaden its scope of work, as well as its vision for the neighborhood. The community went through a visioning process and produced a narrative document called Vision 2030 (in reference to the year 2030). This vision builds on the recommendations and values of the 1998 Chinatown-International District Neighborhood Plan. This vision document describes the Little Saigon, Japantown, Chinatown-International District in the year 2030 as a healthy, vital, and vibrant community supported by safe, pedestrian-friendly streets, new and improved open spaces, and a diverse array of retail stores that support the variety of people who live in the area. Vision 2030 also advocates for a balanced mix of neighborhood housing options, ranging from condos for empty nesters to affordable family housing units.
    [Show full text]
  • JOHN DO Interviewer
    VAOHP#### 1 Vietnamese American Oral History Project, UC Irvine Narrator: JOHN DO Interviewer: Bob Nguyen Date: January 1, 2017 Location: Westminster, California Sub-collection: Vietnamese American Experience Course, Spring 2017 Length of interview: 01:45:50 ABSTRACT An oral history with Mr. John Do, born in 1930 in Saigon, Vietnam. He was an officer in the South Vietnam military and served his country from 1950-1975. After the collapse of South Vietnam, he was imprisoned for 10 years in various reeducation camps and was released in 1985. He discussed his memories of South Vietnam before 1975 and his experiences in reeducation camp. He also discussed how his family left Vietnam through the Orderly Departure Program in 1992 due to his time in reeducation camp. After coming to the United States, he became a machinist in an oil refinery and retired at the age of 70. He has 5 children and lives in Westminster, California with his wife. ABSTRACT (another sample) Oral history of Mr. Nguyen Dinh Cuong (or Cuong Dinh Nguyen, western-style) who was born in Hanoi in 1942. His family migrated to Dalat after the Geneva Conference partitioned Vietnam into north and south. Most of his education was attained in Dalat. He became a teacher and met his wife, also a teacher, at a school where he taught. They had a son in 1975 and fled Vietnam by boat in 1977, arriving in a make-shift refugee camp in Taman Muara, Malaysia. They were resettled to Los Angeles County, California where he had a brother already there. He continued his schooling and became a civil engineer, added one more child (daughter) to the family, and settled in Cerritos, California.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bond Between Boba and Asian American Youth in San José, Califor
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles “Wanna Get Boba?”: The Bond Between Boba and Asian American Youth in San José, California A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Asian American Studies by Talitha Angelica Acaylar Trazo 2020 © Copyright by Talitha Angelica Acaylar Trazo 2020 ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS “Wanna Get Boba?”: The Bond Between Boba and Asian American Youth in San José, California by Talitha Angelica Acaylar Trazo Master of Arts in Asian American Studies University of California, Los Angeles 2020 Professor Victor Bascara, Chair The tenth largest city in the United States with a population of over 1 million, San José, California resides on the southernmost edge of the Silicon Valley. Though high-tech narratives often subsume this region, a closer examination of San José’s (sub)urban landscape reveals the presence of over 100 boba shops and their multiethnic community of local patrons. Boba, a milk tea beverage which originated in Taiwan in the 1980s, made its U.S. debut in the late 1990s when Taiwanese American entrepreneurs aimed to emulate Taiwan’s unique boba shop experience in their American hometowns. Over the past 20 years, boba within the United States has morphed into a distinctly Asian American cultural phenomenon, which I argue makes boba a unique lens by which to examine Asian American youth culture. For this ethnographic study, I conducted and analyzed 17 interviews and 156 survey responses from Bay Area-based young adults (between the ages of 18 and 40) with varying degrees of familiarity with San José boba ii shops: from the occasional boba drinker to what some may call the “boba addict.” I opened the survey to all racial groups but focused my data analysis on those who self-identified as Asian American.
    [Show full text]
  • Little Saigon As a Model of Ethnic Commercial Belts1
    Conveying a Sense of Community along Bolsa Avenue: Little Saigon as a Model of Ethnic Commercial Belts1 Colette Marie McLaughlin* and Paul Jesilow* ABSTRACT In the past, ethnic enclaves have functioned as homogeneous residential areas providing support and comfort to newly arrived immigrants. A new form of urban village is increasingly serving commuting immigrants who live in integrated residential neighbourhoods. Little Saigon, a Vietnamese commercial belt in Southern California, serves as a model of this emerging form. Participant observation and interviews with users of Little Saigon and other ethnic commercial belts in Southern California reveal that these areas provide users with places where they can experience the sense of community previously provided by ethnic ghettos. Little Saigon demonstrates that ethnic, commercial enclaves benefit diverse groups of individuals: in these places immigrants with limited English gain employment, older immigrants find solace, and “Americanized” immi- grants and their children connect with their ancestral culture. Concomitant with the cultural advantages are the perpetuation of stereo- types, erosion of ethnic boundaries and persistent forms of specialized crime that threaten these areas’ success and yield negative perceptions of the areas’ ethnic groups. INTRODUCTION Ethnic populations have become dispersed throughout diverse urban areas; the urban villages where immigrants adapted their former non-urban culture and institutions to a new neighbourhood (Gans, 1962) are decreasing rapidly in * School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, USA. Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd., © 1998 IOM 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK, and International Migration Vol. 36 (1) 1998 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. ISSN 0020-7985 50 McLaughlin and Jesilow number (Abu-Lughod, 1994a).
    [Show full text]
  • Bar #132111 James R
    Case 2:17-bk-20227-WB Doc 19 Filed 08/30/17 Entered 08/30/17 15:13:38 Desc Main Document Page 1 of 37 1 Daniel Weintraub - Bar #132111 James R. Selth - Bar #123420 2 Elaine V. Nguyen - Bar #256432 3 WEINTRAUB, SELTH & NGUYEN, APC 11766 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1170 4 Los Angeles, CA 90025 Telephone: (310) 207-1494 5 Facsimile: (310) 442-0660 6 Email: [email protected] 7 [Proposed] Attorneys for Debtor and Debtor-in-Possession, LITTLE SAIGON SUPERMARKET, LLC 8 9 UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT 10 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES DIVISION 11 12 In re: Case No.: 2:17-bk-20227-WB Chapter 11 13 LITTLE SAIGON SUPERMARKET, LLC. NOTICE OF MOTION AND MOTION FOR 14 ORDER: Debtor and Debtor-In-Possession. 15 1. APPROVING THE SALE OF 16 SUBSTANTIALLY ALL ASSETS OF THE ESTATE FREE AND CLEAR OF LIENS, 17 CLAIMS, INTERESTS AND ENCUMBRANCES PURSUANT TO 11 18 U.S.C. §363(b)(1) AND (f)(2); AND 19 2. AUTHORIZING ASSUMPTION AND ASSIGNMENT OF UNEXPIRED 20 COMMERCIAL LEASE 21 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND 22 AUTHORITIES; DECLARATIONS OF PETER NGUYEN, ELAINE NGUYEN, AND 23 KIMHENG “SAM” LAO IN SUPPORT THEREOF 24 Hearing 25 Date: September 21, 2017 Time: 10:00 a.m. 26 Place: Courtroom 1375 255 E. Temple St. 27 Los Angeles, CA 90012 28 1 Case 2:17-bk-20227-WB Doc 19 Filed 08/30/17 Entered 08/30/17 15:13:38 Desc Main Document Page 2 of 37 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 Page 3 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES…………………………………………….
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Explanations for Vietnamese Youth Involvement in Street Gangs
    Cultural Explanations for Vietnamese Youth Involvement in Street Gangs Public Safety: Gangs and Delinquency Research Project 95-JD-FX-0014 ___________________________ Final Report _____________________ to the United States Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Principal Investigators: Douglas R. Kent, Ph.D. Director, Office of Research and Planning City of Westminster Police Department George T. Felkenes, J.D. Crim.D. Professor Emeritus, Center for Politics and Economics Claremont Graduate University June, 1998 FOREWORD This project was conducted under Grant No. 95-JD-FX-0014 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice. Funding was provided under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, Part D, Sections 281, 282, and 283, as amended. Points of view expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, nor the official position or policies of the United States government. SUGGESTED CITATION Kent, D.R. & Felkenes, G.T. (1998). Cultural Explanations for Vietnamese Youth Involvement in Street Gangs. Westminster, CA: Westminster Police Department, Office of Research and Planning. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This research required the participation of many parents and youths. We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of each family interviewed as part of this project. Many parents participated not only out of concern for their own teens, but also out of concern for youth in the community who choose to become involved in street gangs and those who become delinquent. We share this concern, and deeply appreciate the effort put forth by many individuals who joined us in our search for effective means to keep youth from gangs and delinquency: Project Administration Betty M.
    [Show full text]
  • Karin Aguilar-San Juan. Little Saigons: Staying Vietnamese in America
    49 th Parallel , Vol. 26 (Autumn 2011) Barnhill ISSN: 1753-5794 (online) Karin Aguilar-San Juan. Little Saigons: Staying Vietnamese in America . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009. 222 pp. Dr. John Barnhill * Independent Scholar When the United States’ venture in Vietnam failed in the early 1970s, one consequence was that a large number of Vietnamese became refugees, and the refugee population continued to grow as the southern government fell to the north and additional waves left Vietnam. Vietnamese refugees in the United States are of diverse classes and ethnicity, including a large ethnic Chinese cohort. Under family reunification law, Vietnamese immigration is ongoing. The initial U.S. approach was to scatter Vietnamese refugees throughout the United States in order to reduce disruption to local economies and social arrangements. Quickly, inevitably, dispersed refugees relocated to a handful of locations, particularly those more amenable in climate, those with at least nascent communities of similar people, perhaps Chinatowns, to provide a semblance of home. The dozen or so significant centers of Vietnamese population in the United States, some more sophisticated and concentrated than others, are known collectively as Little Saigons. Little Saigons are sites of adjustment, adaptation and accommodation, as people uprooted have to define and negotiate what it means to be Vietnamese in America. They have to deal with racial issues – what is white, what is Asian, and where does Vietnamese fit? Is Vietnamese-American a commercial come on for tourists, an anti-communist legacy of South Vietnam? How do Vietnamese people fit into a white society that defines Vietnam as a war, not a home they know as “Viet Nam”? This is not to even consider the generation gap or the class differences or the multiple ethnicities broadly covered by “Vietnamese-American.” Aguilar-San Juan chose her two Little Saigons less for inherent qualities than for familiarity and convenience for research.
    [Show full text]
  • CALIFORNIA GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY James A. Tyner 43
    CALIFORNIA GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY Vol. XXXIII, 1993 IMMIGRANT SIGNATURES ON THE LANDSCAPE: ASIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES IN Los ANGELES James A. Tyner n recent decades, major cities in the United States have undergone Irapid and dramatic shifts in their ethnic compositions (Roseman 1991). These shifts have largely resulted from changes in international migra­ tion policies since the second World War and have been augmented by global economic restructuring. In microcosm, Los Angeles reflects these structural changes in the reorganization of capital and labor (Soja, Morales, and Wolff 1983; Sassen 1988); tied directly into this process has been an enormous influx of immigrants into Los Angeles, primarily from countries along the Pacific Rim (Soja, Morales, and Wolff 1983, 219). Considerable research has addressed the history and spatial distribu­ tion of ethnic groups (Bouvier and Gardner 1986; Turner and Allen 1991). Studies employing various indexes of segregation and dissimilar­ ity have provided insights into the distribution and concentration of eth­ nic groups in relation to one another (Harries 1971; Van Arsdol and Schuerman 1971; Garcia 1985; Langberg and Farley 1985; White 1986; Turner and Allen 1991) while other studies have examined neighbor­ hood change or ethnic shifts in genera] (Van Arsdol and Schuerman 1971; Garcia 1985; War£ 1990; Denton and Massey 1991). However, very little research has addressed the physical appearance-the "visibility" of ethnic communities (Arreola 1984, 1988) particularly Asian American communities. This paper compares and contrasts the visibility of selected Asian American communities! in the Los Angeles area (Figure 1) through the use of photographs. Whereas the visibility of an ethnic community may Mr.
    [Show full text]