Class of 2025
(He/Him/His)
Hometown: Kentwood, Michigan
Major: History (Race & Ethnicity) and International Comparative Studies
Minor: Asian American & Diaspora Studies
Activities and societies: figure skating, swimming, reading, writing poetry, and watching too many movies
I am currently a senior studying history and international comparative studies with a minor in Asian American & diaspora studies. For the past four years at Duke, I have dedicated my time to learning and writing about my community: the Chin people. We are a small, predominantly working-class community who were displaced and pushed from the mountains of western Myanmar by the military junta. A people whose history was not written but passed down orally, my fascination with research began with stories. Who are the Chin people? Where do we come from? Where are we heading? Questions like these led me to take classes in oral history and creative writing. Most importantly, they also led me to my parents. Year after year, I sat with my parents and we talked about their lives—their dreams as children, their likes, their dislikes, and much more. I was meeting my parents for the first time. These conversations eventually developed into a keen interest in critical refugee studies.
As a Mellon Mays fellow, my research —which eventually became the backbone of my thesis—attempted to trace the history and politics of the Chin diaspora in West Michigan. Particularly, how do Chin refugees, in their everyday lives as refugees navigating the U.S., produce knowledge? What are their lives like? How do they understand and experience race, class, and gender? What do they value? How did they (re)build community after years of displacement? In the years to come, I intend to continue investigating these questions (and many more) by pursuing a PhD in either history or American studies as a Beinecke Scholar. My hope is that the stories my people have passed down to me can be shared with as many people as possible.