University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

"""Minority Times Two"": A look at life for an LGBT student of Asian descent on campus"

Benham, Greg

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/3630

Description

Title
"""Minority Times Two"": A look at life for an LGBT student of Asian descent on campus"
Author(s)
Benham, Greg
Issue Date
2008-02-19
Keyword(s)
  • Ethnicity
  • LGBT
  • Gay
  • Discrimination
  • AAS346 F07
  • Asian
  • Asian American
Abstract
In this project I investigated the lives of LGBT students of Asian descent on campus through interviews and observations and how difficult it was to embrace their sexuality on campus and what support they received from the university. I discovered that in proportion to their population on campus, LGBT students of Asian descent were very underrepresented. This was put down to pressure from family and community as well as potential discrimination on campus. Also, I found a distinction between Asian and Asian American students with Asian students studying from abroad more likely to embrace their sexuality here. Finally, I also discovered discrimination from the university administration itself against not only Asian American students but LGBT students as well.
Series/Report Name or Number
AAS 346, Asian American Youth, Prof. Soo Ah Kwon: This course explores the ways that second-generation Asian and Pacific Islander (API) youth are actively shaping the U.S. landscape in terms of identity formation, youth cultural production, education, organizing, and community formations. These experiences are examined within larger historical, economic, racial, social and political forces in the United States. Rather than approach the study of youth through a developmental psychological model of adolescence, this course will examine youth as a culturally specific social formation. We will engage with texts that draw from different academic disciplines to provide us with theoretical, historical, and ethnographic perspectives of young people. We will also compare and situate the unique (and not so unique) experiences of API youth with young people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. The course syllabus is available at: www.eui.uiuc.edu/docs/syllabi/AAS346F07.doc
Type of Resource
text
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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/3630

Owning Collections

Diversity on Campus/Equity and Access PRIMARY
This collection examines ways in which the U.S. university and the American college experience are affected by diversity, and difference. In particular, these student projects examine experiences of diversity on campus, including important contemporary social, cultural, and political debates on equity and access to university resources.
Student Communities and Culture
The university offers an extraordinary opportunity to study and document student communities, life, and culture. This collection includes research on the activities, clubs, and durable social networks that comprise sometimes the greater portion of the university experience for students.