Monica M. Trieu

Ph.D., Sociology (graduate certificate in Asian American Studies), University of California, Irvine
M.A., Sociology, University of California, Irvine               
B.A., Sociology (major) and Asian American Studies (minor), University of California, Davis

Race and Ethnicity; Children of Immigrants and Refugees (1.5 and Second-Generation Identity); Post-1950s Immigrants and Refugees; Transnational American Studies; Historical and Contemporary Asian American Experiences

Dr. Trieu is an Associate Professor of American Studies and Asian American Studies Program, in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology, with an emphasis in Asian American Studies, from the University of California, Irvine. Her research primarily focuses on children of the post-1960s Asian immigrants and political refugees—the 1.5 and second-generation Asian Americans. Her work explores the intersection of race, ethnicity, immigration, and identity. Specifically, she empirically examines the contextual factors (e.g., space, region, language, transnational behaviors, education) that influence identity formation and adaptation. Her interdisciplinary work is situated within, and contributes to, multiple disciplines. This includes the fields of Asian American studies, sociology, racial and ethnic studies, international migration studies, transnational studies, and refugee studies. She has written on themes including: internalized racism, race and space, (differential) racialization, family obligation, language and identity, transnational ties, and the role of Asian American Studies.

She is the author of Fighting Invisibility: Asian Americans in the Midwest (Rutgers University Press, 2023) and Identity Construction among Chinese-Vietnamese Americans: Being, Becoming, and Belonging (LFB, 2009). Her work has also appeared in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Journal of Asian American Studies, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Sociological Inquiry, Journal of Family Issues, Ethnicities, and Race Ethnicity and Education.

Currently, she is working on research project examining the relationship between Asian Americans, the U.S. National Parks, and the great outdoors.

Selected Publications:

Trieu, Monica M. and Hana C. Lee. 2018. “Asian Americans and Internalized Racial Oppression: Identified, Reproduced, and Dismantled.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 4(1): 67-82. 

Trieu, Monica M. 2018. “‘It was about Claiming Space’: Exposure to Asian American Studies, Ethnic Organization Participation, and the Negotiation of Self Among Southeast Asian Americans.” Race Ethnicity and Education 21 (4): 518–539.

Trieu, Monica M. 2018.  “The ‘Isolated Ethnics’ and ‘Everyday Ethnics’: Region, Identity and the Second-Generation Midwest Asian American Experience.” National Identities 20(2): 175-195.

Trieu, Monica M. 2016. “Family Obligation Fulfillment among Southeast Asian American Young Adults.” Journal of Family Issues 37(10): 1355–1383.

Trieu, Monica M., Nicholas Vargas* and Roberto G. Gonzales. 2016. “Transnational Patterns among Asian American and Latina/o American Children of Immigrants from Southern California.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 42(7): 1177-1198. 

Trieu, Monica M. and Chia Y. Vang. 2015. “A Portrait of Refugees from Burma/Myanmar and Bhutan in the United States.” Journal of Asian American Studies 18(3): 347-369.