Research

I am interested in examining different ways in which social relations are constructed, maintained, and subverted by language use and ideology.

My dissertation project was an ethnographic study of Latino immigrants in a California adult education class that prepares students for their U.S. naturalization interview. It examined the multiple ways in which ideologies of U.S. citizenship are constructed through various practices in the classroom such as the ritual of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and the Oath of Allegiance as an embodiment of U.S. citizenship.

Additionally, I was part of a large-scale collaborative project on successful female undergraduates in science with Mary Bucholtz, Elena Skapoulli Brendan Barnwell, and Madeleine Adkins (and many undergraduate research assistants). We examined a wide of range of issues such as disciplinary ideologies, science humor, scientific discourse and identity, and gender. You can learn more about our findings here and here.

Continuing my research interest in citizenship and race in a multilingual setting, I recently turned my attention to my native South Korea, a society that is quickly becoming increasingly multilingual and multicultural. In that context, I examined how language competence, citizenship, and race play out in the media.

Research interests include:
Sociolinguistics
Discourse analysis
Linguistic anthropology
Asian American Studies
Ethnography
Race and Ethnicity