FOCUS
How do we create social, economic, and political conditions where people can thrive and build meaningful connections? Achieving shared liberation for marginalized communities requires a critical and interdisciplinary analysis of power and politics as they are shaped by racial capitalism—a system of racialized violence and extraction of people, labor, land, and water. James studies how processes of racial capitalism and queerphobia impact queer communities of color. To center queer people of color’s narratives, James explores how these communities construct various family and kinship structures, and how they use grassroots organizing to foster cultures of health. By using a community-based participatory research approach, James seeks to help build the capacity of queer people of color to address issues on their own terms, and to rethink economic and social policies as a starting point to fostering healthy communities.
MORE ABOUT JAMES
James is the queer son of Vietnamese refugees who come from the city of Huế. His scholarly and activist commitments are to issues of health equity in communities of color, immigrants, refugees, Indigenous peoples, and LGBTQ people. James is actively involved with Viet Rainbow of Orange County, a local advocacy organization that serves as his social and political home.
DISSERTATION GRANT AWARDEE — FALL 2022
How Kinship and Coalition Networks Shape Distress, Anxiety, and Well-Being Among People Involved in LGBTQ+ Vietnamese American Issues in Orange County, CA
This dissertation explores how people involved in LGBTQ+ issues in Vietnamese American communities in Orange County, CA sustain everyday life via kinship and coalition networks. Guided by a transdisciplinary approach that integrates queer and trans of color critiques with the minority stress model, ethnography and social network analysis is used to understand how chosen kin and political coalitions shape distress, anxiety, and well-being.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HPRS DISSERTATION AWARDS, CLICK HERE.
