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Lisa Sun-Hee Park

Protrait: Lisa Sun-Hee Park

Associate Professor
Ph.D. 1998 Northwestern University
Room 1035 Social Sciences
Phone: 612-624-8563
Email: lspark@umn.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Interest Areas

Immigration and Welfare Policy; Immigrant Health Care; Race, Class, and Gender; Asian American Studies; Environmental Justice; Urban Theory and Methods.

Current Research

Prof. Park’s current research project, “Bearing the Burden: Immigrant Women’s Health Care in the Age of Welfare Reform” investigates the impact of federal welfare and immigration policies on Asian and Latina immigrant women’s prenatal care access. This study focuses on the political ramifications of contemporary constructions of pregnant immigrant women as “public charges” or burdens upon the state. She recently completed a book, The Slums of Aspen: Race, Immigration, and Environmental Privilege. This joint project with D. N. Pellow examines the politics of immigrant labor in the global economy. By analyzing community reactions to growing numbers of low-income Latino immigrant workers in the exclusive tourist town of Aspen, Colorado, this study identifies how “environmentalism” is used as a rhetorical tool for promoting a particular idyllic image of a post-industrial refuge from racism and poverty. Prof. Park is also in the early stages of a new research project on the household health strategies among immigrant and refugee families.

Selected Publications

The Slums of Aspen: Race, Immigration, and Environmental Privilege. Forthcoming. Co-authored with D. N. Pellow. New York: New York University Press.

“Challenging Public Charge Policy: Coalitional Immigrant Community Strategies.” Forthcoming. Journal of Asian American Studies.

“Continuing Significance of the Model Minority Myth: The Second Book Cover: Consuming CitizenshipGeneration.” 2008. SocialJustice 35(2):134-144.

Consuming Citizenship: Children of Asian Immigrant Entrepreneurs. 2005. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.

Silicon Valley of Dreams: Immigrant Labor, Environmental Injustice, and the High Tech Global Economy. 2002. Co-authored with D.N. Pellow. New York: New York University Press.