Christopher Hu, Ph.D.

About Me

Hi there! I am an ethnographer who studies race, immigration, and education. I am an assistant professor of social and cultural foundations of education at The University of Alabama. I completed my PhD in the social foundations of education at the University of Virginia. Questions? Want to connect? Email me at chu8@ua.edu!

Synopsis

My research and teaching are grounded in the social-cultural-philosophical-and-historical foundations of schooling and education. At the core of my research is an enduring interest in understanding why/how race matters and is so consequential in education. In particular, I focus on Asian immigrant and Asian American communities, their perspectives on education, and their racialization within educational contexts. My work also centers youth, parents, families, and community-based practices. Themes throughout my work include racialization, space, power, and equity. I engage these questions through ethnographic, qualitative, and discourse analytic methods.

Current Projects

• Education and the Pursuit of Success in a Chinese Immigrant Community: My dissertation examines the collective cultural practices of a highly educated professional-class Chinese community in the white affluent suburbs of NJ. My analysis focuses on how immigrant communities navigate racialized America and define what it means to be successful. I am currently in the process of revising this work into both journal articles and an eventual monograph.
• School Segregation in the South: I am undertaking a qualitative project that seeks to understand patterns of resegregation and white flight in the Deep South, specifically asking the discourses and practices that are employed to rationalize and justify resegregation.
• Asian American Racialization in the South: An additional project I am working on is understanding how Asian Americans navigate the racial binary in the South. I am interviewing university students, faculty, and local community members to better understand how people make sense of their place in the racial matrix and the specific contexts, experiences, and interactions that mediate this process.

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