Join us for this in-person lecture! Dr. Min Zhou from the University of California, Los Angeles discusses their research for the Anthropology Department's Proseminar Lecture Series, spring 2023. 

Asian Americans comprise about seven percent of the US population, yet, their levels of educational, occupational, and income attainments are higher than those of the general US population, including non‐Hispanic Whites. As a racial minority group, they are thus celebrated as a “model minority.” Is the model minority a fact or a myth? What accounts for the extraordinary socioeconomic outcomes of Asian Americans? How does the model minority affect members of the group so stereotyped? Dr. Min Zhou engages with these questions by offering an overview of the changes in contemporary Asian America impacted by international migration, diverse modes of incorporation, and the construction and deconstruction of the model minority myth. Her analysis suggests that immigrant selectivity has transformed contemporary Asian America and that, behind the extraordinary achievement, long‐standing racial stereotyping, including the seemingly positive “model minority” stereotype, negatively impacts Asian American life. While Asian Americans are generally treated favorably in schools, they face a bamboo ceiling in the workforce—an invisible barrier that impedes their upward mobility.