research

This spring, I graduated from the College of William and Mary, where I studied history and international relations. My undergraduate research highlighted the intersections between American immigration law, gender and sexuality, public conceptions of health, and the Asian American diaspora.

"Lepers for Show": The Performance of Medical Authority and the Illusion of the Chinese Medical Threat in Nineteenth-Century America, my senior thesis, explored how doctors derived social and political power from perpetuating medicalized nativism against Chinese migrants from 1850-1900. I argued that physicians tied their public platforms to discrimination against the Chinese not only to express their genuine belief in racist ideas but also to increase their own social capital. In advancing medicalized nativist rhetoric, health authorities advanced their credibility in American communities, their position in the American marketplace, and their political power. The violence that resulted manifested at the individual, organizational, and state levels.

My undergraduate work received the Swem Undergraduate Research Library Award, the William Elbert Fraley Award, and the Sue Herzog Johnson Scholarship. I presented my paper at three academic conferences, including the American Historical Association (AHA) Annual Meeting.