The dissolution of the Soviet Union resulted in a large emigration of people to the U.S., Western Europe, and Israel. The Greater Seattle Area, in particular, is home to sizeable Russian, Ukrainian, and Uzbek communities. Many people in the now independent countries of the former USSR still use the Russian language, and many are bilingual or multilingual before coming to the U.S. Despite the diversity of the post-Soviet space, studies have primarily focused on Russian language use while other languages of the former Soviet Union have received little attention. This research includes Russians, Ukrainians, and Uzbeks who speak other languages in addition to Russian. Through autoethnography, semi-structured interviews, surveys, and participant observations, this study explores the factors, including language ideology, cultural and linguistic identity(ies), family dynamics, age of arrival to the U.S., and community engagement, that affect heritage language retention of the 1.5 generation immigrants from Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan in the Greater Seattle Area. Age of arrival to the U.S., community engagement, and family dynamics emerge as particularly important indicators for heritage language maintenance. This research fits into the greater context of linguistic anthropology, post-Soviet studies, and contributes to the understanding of diverse immigrant youth from the former Soviet Union.

Researchers have examined the role of diversity, political opportunity, economic factors, and exclusion from executive power on interethnic conflicts. However, there is a lack of research to explain the impact of ritual behavior on interethnic conflicts. I use comparative historical research to focus on the role of religious rituals in Turkey and Iran by applying the following criteria of Randall Collins’ Interaction Ritual Model; bodily co-presence, barriers to outsiders, a mutual focus of attention, and shared mood. The descriptions of the rituals come from sociological, anthropological and religious works. In this research, I also use data from PEW and other research centers on the rate of participation in rituals such as visiting shrines, rate of pilgrimage participation, and other variables. In addition, I used the extant survey datasets on religious and ethnic relations in both countries. Iran and Turkey are two predominantly Muslim and ethnically diverse countries where people practice religious rituals. In this research, I investigated the effect of practicing Sunni rituals in Turkey and Shia rituals in Iran on interethnic relations among the ethnicities that share the same rituals. Since intensity and components of the rituals differ from each other, the potency of them to create social cohesion varies. Through analyzing the rituals and social cohesion in Iran and Turkey, I found a strong association between intensity of the religious rituals and interethnic social cohesion. Shia rituals in Iran are more intense, and because of that there is a high degree of social cohesion among Shia ethnicities. Contrarily, Sunni rituals in Turkey are not intense, and because of that the Sunni ethnicities in Turkey have a weak social cohesion. This study helps to understand the dynamics of interethnic conflicts and the political implications of religious rituals in Muslim societies.

Research Family is a group of Pacific Islander students who research a variety of topics including healthcare, education, and representation. In Spring 2017, Research Family explored connections between the movie Moana and the living cultures of Oceania, which many students are part of. In a video produced by the Burke Museum, they shared cultural knowledge within the Oceanic objects in the museum collections and how they are featured in Moana. Methods used includes analysis of material culture and film, and interviews with Pacific Islander community members. Material culture and film analaysis compared cultural objects in the Burke collections and those in scenes from Moana. Results were used to develop a video used in the Burke's educational programs. This project has been valuable in giving voice to Islander students in sharing their own perspectives and ancestral stories. For the symposium, a Research Family member will present this research so that knowledge within Pacific Islander communities and the Burke can continue to be made more accessible.

There is a health crisis of unusually high rates of suicidal ideation, alcohol abuse, and other problems of identity and, in turn, mental health among Filipinx Americans today. These indicators of individual and community suffering can be attributed to historical trauma—a concept initially used among Indigenous scholars to describe the psychological trauma and other embodied impacts of centuries of colonization and oppression—which in the Philippines, has meant colonization by several nations and the ongoing imperialism and military presence of the United States. Outside of traditional healthcare, music culture has provided Filipinx Americans a safe space for healing, resistance, and resilience through creative expression and identity development. In the face of US imperialist policies, racism, and other oppressions, Filipinx Americans have had significant contributions to music culture and radical political movements that largely go underrepresented in US history and contemporary studies, including Seattle’s rich narratives of social justice and art. As a self-identified Filipinx American queer femme, DJ, artist, and social justice advocate, I conducted oral life histories and collaborative art projects among Filipinx musicians, artists, activists, and community organizers. Preliminary findings suggest several themes, including (1) relations between Filipinx American music culture, identity development, and health; (2) sociocultural anthropology research’s potential to support radical political movements for Philippine independence and collective liberation; and, (3) the role collectivism can play in building power among Seattle’s Filipinxs and people of color and their art scenes, so that we may compensate and duly recognize the city’s marginalized communities. This work advocates for anti-imperialist action among Filipinx artists and activists through a framework of personal healing, community relationships, and collective movements for justice. Overall, my research supports my journeys of identity, health, and art alongside ongoing legacies of music as a significant political resistance tool in Seattle and the greater Filipinx American diaspora.

“Jamming” is characterized by fluid behavioral coordination of musicians unhindered by expectations. The jammers come together without a plan on what they are producing in hopes of finding unification through their music leading to a sense of self-satisfaction. More specifically, a musical jam session, originally coined by the jazz community, is an impromptu gathering of musicians with the purpose of improvising together. Jamming has had an effect on the players, but no qualitative research has been done pertaining to the audience. It is important to look at the relationship between the jammers and the audience because whether one is jamming or a member of the audience, that person is still considered a listener of the music and can, therefore, interpret the musical “conversation” from different perspectives. Listening to people jam increases the listener’s sense of wholeness and it is likely that the players feed off the audience and vice versa. Thus everyone in attendance is involved.

Hip hop is both a globalized movement and culture that gives marginalized community members an outlet to express themselves creatively. The hip hop community posits itself as one that welcomes individuals based on one’s credibility through the four pillars: rapping, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti art. However, despite the “openness” the industry pushes forth, an individual’s race and gender, especially not being a Black, heterosexual male, complicates one’s access to opportunities. Asian Americans, in particular, must simultaneously subvert and reclaim their identities from controlling ideologies through their navigation of hip hop. In this study, I conducted a semi-structured focus group with Asian American hip hop artists from the greater Seattle area (all ranging in age). I conducted individual follow-up interviews with participants, utilizing a narrative inquiry methodology. The combination of the focus group and individual interviews enables me to outline the richness of participants’ hip hop experiences. My preliminary findings indicate that Asian Americans must not only face impositions by mainstream media outlets but also within the liminal spaces of hip hop. Renegotiations and reaffirmations of identity prove critical for Asian Americans because they correspond to a liberation from racialized and gendered scripts. Moving forward, one implication of this study is the limited scope of Asian ethnic representation within all four of the pillars of hip hop, and the need for Asian Americans to redefine themselves within hip hop.