Lee Ann S. Wang

/in , , , , , , , /by

Lee Ann S. Wang is Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies and Social Welfare at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. Her current work is an ethnographic study of immigration law and enforcement at the site of gender and sexual violence, focusing on the work of service providers and legal advocates with Asian immigrant women and their communities.  She examines how the law writes and maintains the meaning of protection under the Violence Against Women Act’s immigration provisions, the enlistment of the non-citizen legal subject towards policing, accumulative cooperation, and the visa petition’s role in neoliberal punishment practices.  At its core, the work strives to take up the already gendered and racialized task of writing about people and life, without re-inscribing victimhood in legal evidence and the violences of legal archive.  She teaches courses on feminist theory, Asian Americans and law, immigration law and public policy, gender violence and policing, social welfare policy, and legal intimacies.  Dr. Wang is a former UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley School of Law and held faculty appointments in Law and Public Policy, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington Bothell and visiting positions at the University of Hawai‘i Mānoa.

 

Publications:

Amy Ritterbusch

/in , , , , , , /by

Dr. Ritterbusch has led social justice-oriented participatory action research initiatives with street-connected communities in Colombia for the last decade and recently in Uganda. Her work involves the documentation of human rights violations and forms of violence exerted against homeless individuals, sex workers, drug users and street-connected children and youth, and subsequent community-driven mobilizations to catalyze social justice outcomes within these communities. Throughout her research and teaching career she has explored different approaches to engaging students and community leaders through critical and responsible interaction between classroom and street spaces in Colombia and Uganda through the lens of social justice-oriented PAR. Her research has been funded by the Open Society Foundations, the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright U.S. Program and other networks promoting global social justice.

 

Selected Publications:

Ritterbusch, A, Correa, C. & Correa, A. (2018). Stigma-Related Access Barriers and Violence Against Trans Women in the Colombian Healthcare System Global Public Health            doi:10.1080/17441692.2018.1455887

Ritterbusch, A. (2016).  Mobilities at Gunpoint: The Geographies of (Im)mobility of Transgender Sex Workers in Colombia. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 106(2), 422-433. doi: 10.1080/00045608.2015.1113112

Ritterbusch, A. (2016).  Exploring Social Inclusion Strategies for Public Health Research and Practice: The Use of Participatory Visual Methods to Counter Stigmas Surrounding Street-Based Substance Abuse in Colombia. Global Public Health 11(5-6), 600-617.

doi:10.1080/17441692.2016.1141971

Ritterbusch, A. (2012).  Bridging Guidelines and Practice: Toward a Grounded Care Ethics in  Youth Participatory Action Research. The Professional Geographer 64(1), 16 – 24.            doi:10.1080/00330124.2011.596783

Garcia, S. & Ritterbusch, A. (2015). Child Poverty in Colombia: Construction of a Multidimensional Measure Using a Mixed-Method Approach. Child Indicators Research 8(4), 801-823. doi: 10.1007/s12187-014-9274-2

 

Selected Advocacy and Collective Writing Initiatives in Latin America:

I have also supported social justice-oriented publications in both global human rights networks and policy circles in Colombia, including a human rights shadow report on violence against homeless communities and their right to the city in Bogotá and policy briefs written with community-based collaborators presenting recommendations for the protection of homeless communities and sex workers’ fundamental human rights:

Ritterbusch, A, Correa, A, Leon, S, Salamanca, J & Lanz, S. (2016). Ni aquí ni allá: las geografías emocionales de las trabajadoras sexuales transgénero, víctimas del conflicto armado. Nota de Política No. 25, Bogotá: Agosto de 2016. Available online:

https://egob.uniandes.edu.co/images/2016/publicaciones-np25-digital.pdf

Ritterbusch, A, Cubides M.I & Navarro, A. (2014). De la estigmatización de los consumidores de bazuco y pegante hacia la inclusión de sus voces en la política pública. Nota de Política No. 19, Bogotá: Noviembre de 2014. Available online:

https://egob.uniandes.edu.co/images/np19.pdf

 

Writing on Social Justice-Oriented PAR in Global Media Spaces:

https://theconversation.com/who-are-the-real-targets-of-bogotas-crackdown-on-crime-83949

 

Community Partnerships for Current PAR Initiatives:

*Red Comunitaria Trans (Bogotá, Colombia)

*Casa Diversa, Comuna 8 (Medellín, Colombia)

 

Global Action Research Networks:

HENA – UCLA:

CPC: http://www.cpcnetwork.org/partners/countries/colombia/

Jianchao Lai

/in , , , , , , , , , /by

Jianchao Lai is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Social Welfare of the Luskin School of Public Affairs. She received her Bachelor of Social Work from Nanjing University and Master of Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests focus on examining the underreporting and service outcomes of child maltreatment and gender-based violence in Asian American communities. Through her research and advocacy effort, she aims to promote adequate and effective services for Asian American children and families and to raise public awareness of such issues in the Asian communities.

The model minority myth has largely obscured Asian Americans’ lived experiences, often causing their needs to be disregarded by the general public. Given the concern of understudied problems in the Asian communities, Jianchao conducted multiple mix-method research projects, using quantitative datasets in both local and national scales and qualitative interviews, to examine the unique risk and protective actors in Asian communities concerning the underreporting and service inadequacy of child maltreatment and sexual violence incidents. Her projects were funded by various grants such as the UCLA Racial and Social Justice Grant, Pearl Wang Fellowship, Institutional Courage Research Grant.

Upon completing her undergraduate and graduate programs, she practiced at various government agencies, non-profit organizations, and community agencies related to early childhood development and prevention of adverse childhood experiences such as the Wisconsin Children’s Trust Fund and Center for Community and Non-Profit Studies. During her doctoral program at UCLA, she collaborated with interdisciplinary teams in both quantitative and qualitative research projects. One of her current projects is in collaboration with the Center on Children, Families and the Law (CCFL) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to evaluate the Alternative Response program outcomes using longitudinal state-wide child protective services case files. She is also co-organizing a funded transmedia project with a team of public health researchers and filmmakers to raise public awareness of sexual violence against Asian college students during the COVID-19.

As the Asian population has been gaining attention in the states and internationally, the demand for culturally appropriate services for this population will only increase. Dedicated to filling the significant gaps about this population and child welfare services, she is motivated to further expand her current research agenda to seek an applicable and effective service model for the Asian population globally.

Ph.D. expected in 2022.