Education
• Ph.D. program, University of Southern California, American Studies & Ethnicity (2002-present)
• Ph.D. program, New York University, American Studies (2000-2002)
• B.A., University of California at San Diego, Ethnic Studies (1994-1998)
• Monterey High School (1990-1994)

Intellectual Interests
• Almost anything, but I'm currently obsessed about the 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign. It's especially gratifying that my parents and two brothers also voted for the next President of the Unitee States. And I have to give a shout out to Monterey County. My que huong voted 67-31 in favor of President Barack Obama.

Ph.D. Dissertation Topic
• The first ever social and cultural history of Little Saigon. It's not the sexiest topic, but hey, it's never been done before by any academic, so why not give it a shot?

Publications
• Book Review of Viet Nguyen's Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America, published in Amerasia Journal (20:3) 2004-2005

Fellowships
• Dora and John Randolph Haynes Dissertation Fellowship (2007-2008)
• FLAS fellowship to attend SEASSI 2006
• Irvine Foundation Fellowship, USC (2002-2004)
• McCracken Fellowship, NYU (2000-2002)
• UC Undegraduate Summer Research Grant, UCSD (1997)

"Rosa Parks sat so that Martin Luther King could walk so that Barack Obama could run so that the American people could fly."
—anonymous citizen, 4 November 2008

Was it me, or were the networks' victory announcements subdued in light of the occasion? My dad and I watched the returns on ABC, which had the least cluttered graphics of the three major networks. Interestingly, it seemed like the white guys wanted to hold back their emotions while allowing black journalists to speak from the heart. The exception was MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, who was understandably choked up in the midst of calling the 2008 election for President-Elect Barack Obama. Mad props to all the volunteers, organizers, and activists who helped make this possible.

Watching Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the DNC, I wonder if Roman Catholics felt the same way when Pope John Paul II visited their town.

I was driving in the rain from San Jose to Monterey when I heard the news on NPR. Like most Americans I was in shock that Mike Huckabee won the Iowa Caucuses. But who cares about Chuck Norris' BFF? The shot heard around the world was Obama's victory. And man, what a victory speech. Betty and I saw it on CSPAN after we got home.

And the announcement itself from the oil and water duo of Matthews and Olbermann.

And here is Keith Olbermann channelling former pro wrestler Duane "The Rock" Johnson while blowing up the credibility of three conservative wingnuts. I still can't believe Bill Kristol holds a Ph.D. from Harvard. Maybe being the son of Irving Kristol makes up for his nonpareil idiocy.