Dr. Esther Yoona Cho is a former Policy and Communications Fellow at BIMI, former member of the Interdisciplinary Immigration Workshop, and completed her PhD dissertation in the Sociology Department. Dr. Cho is currently a Research Programs Director at Stanford University.
Dr. Esther Cho's research agenda focuses on how intersectional stigmatization affects the lived experiences and identities of those in immigrant and minority communities. Her work investigates the intersections of race and legality among undocumented immigrants of East Asian origin, asking: How do race and ethnicity shape pathways of incorporation for undocumented young adults? And, in particular, how do those who can “pass” as documented navigate their everyday lives? Asian undocumented immigrants are uniquely suited to explore this question as they reside at the nexus of two racialization processes: the invisible stigma of undocumented immigration status and the visible identity of a non-threatening model minority. In future work, Dr. Cho hopes to continue her inquiry of intersectional stigmatization and plans to explore the negotiation of LGTBQ identity within Black American and Asian American Christian religious spaces.
