Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago

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Soo Young Lee

Soo Young Lee is a doctoral candidate in Social Work at the University of Chicago. Grounded in an Asian American and Women of Color feminist praxis, her research engages critical storytelling methods to explore experiences and meanings of political awakening, identity, and solidarity with Asian American and other young people of color. Her dissertation is guided by inquiry into how young, politically engaged Asian American women in the Chicagoland area spanning a range of ethnic backgrounds, immigrant legacies, political histories, and social locations are moved to work towards addressing the conditions of inequity that impact people’s lives. She draws on reflexive group-based storytelling as both a data collection method and feminist practice of critical care ethics. Through these explorations at the intersections of race, gender, place, and beyond, she seeks to illuminate sites of possibility within young people’s social contexts to develop their critical consciousness while tending to their wellbeing.