Navigating the Dreams, Possibilities, and Challenges of Graduate Education as a First-Generation, Hmong American Woman and Mother

• In Event: Crown Plaza Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Beyond East Asia: The Pursuit of Higher Education

Abstract

This study highlights the dreams, possibilities and challenges of graduate education by deconstructing the intersectionality of race, gender and culture that influences a first-generation, Hmong American woman and mother in graduate education. A Critical Race Feminist lens is used to highlight and center the diverse stories that aim to illuminate the struggles and challenges I encountered in pursuit of this dream that is often misunderstood as a first-generation graduate student. As a result, this study deconstructed the gender and racial discourses that revolve around family, culture, and academia through autoethnography to create space and agency that will illuminate my personal stories as political learning.

Author

• Manee Moua, Lewis & Clark College