Title: Intellectual landscapes
Description: This study presents portraits of three Asian American women in higher education who engage in social justice research in education. These professors, Susan Lee, Maria Rodriguez and Thuy Tran, are women at different points in their academic career, but they share one thing in common. They are committed to using the creation of knowledge in Asian American education to further goals of social justice in the community. This study examines childhood moments with race and racism and how their professional experiences as activists shape their identities as scholars. It also interrogates the social justice research projects that they are involved in. Finally, this study documents their experiences in scholars in the academy as Asian American women committed to social justice. The research questions that framed this study are: How do three Asian American female scholars describe and understand their experiences of doing social justice research on race in education? Within this larger question, I explored the following questions: (1) How, if at all, do their autobiographical stories affect their motivations and interest in doing social research? (2) How do they describe and understand the successes and challenges, the casualties and opportunities, in doing social research? (3) How do they seek to make their work matter in the academic community and the community being studied? Portraiture, a genre of social science research, gave me the tools to capture the complexity of my participants' personal and professional experiences. Through portraits, I have woven together the biography and personal narratives of my participants, their professional experiences in the university, their research experiences in the field, and how they navigate the boundaries of race, ethnicity, and gender.

Through portraiture, I have sought to capture this complicated story of how, why, and with what tools these Asian American women practice social justice research. In-depth interviews, observations, and document review of their scholarship provide rich data for this study. While the literature on ethnic scholars, social justice research and Asian American studies points to specific strategies in doing this kind of research, this study argues that social justice research is more than a set of strategies. Even more than the methods used, it is a way of life for the scholars in this study. For these participants, social justice research is a living, growing process, one that has many dimensions. It involves who does the research as well as how the research is being done. This data revealed that social justice research also involves where in the academic literature scholars focus their work and what researchers decide to do their work on as well. Also influencing decisions around social justice research is why scholars do this work, and when in the course of their personal and professional lives they can pursue social justice work. Taking this perspective on social justice research, that it is more than the methods used, broadens the definition and understanding of social justice research and how it is lived and practiced in the academy.
Subjects: Social justice, Minorities, Education (Higher), Asian American women, Intellectual life
Places: United States