updated August 2024
ACADEMIC POSITION
California State University, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Assistant Professor in Higher Education and Social Work (Fall 2022-)
EDUCATION
New York University, New York, NY
Ph.D., International Education (September 2022)
Dissertation Title: “Face, Race, and Legality: How Class Origins and Cultural Practices matter among Transnational Undocumented and Mixed-Status Chinese Families”
Dissertation Committee: Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng (Chair), Philip Kasinitz (CUNY Graduate Center), Robert C. Smith (CUNY Graduate Center), Lisa M. Stulberg, Niobe Way, and Hirokazu Yoshikawa
NYU Steinhardt Outstanding Dissertation Award 2023 Winner
RESEARCH INTEREST
Race and ethnicity, comparative and international education, immigration, Chinese Diaspora, children and families, qualitative research methods
BOOK
Liu, Jia-Lin. “Far from the Model Minority: the Reimagination of Success among Transnational Chinese Families.” (Under contract with the University of California Press)
PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES
Cherng, Hua-Yu Sebastian, Martha Moreno, and Jia-Lin Liu. 2024. “Unclean for 200 years: post-COVID-19 Impacts on Asian Restaurant Citations.” Ethnicities, 24(1): 161-181.
Liu, Jia-Lin and Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng. 2023. “Breaking the Mold: Social Class, Education, and Saving Face among Undocumented Chinese.” American Journal of Education, 130(1): 89-117.
Liu, Jia-Lin and Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng. 2023. “Beyond Remittances: how face drives immigration stories of undocumented and mixed-status Chinese immigrant families.” The Sociological Quarterly, 64(3): 387-403.
Villavicencio, Adrianna, Chandler Patton Miranda, Jia-Lin Liu, and Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng. 2021. “‘What’s Going to Happen to Us?’ Cultivating Alliances with Immigrant Families in an Adverse Political Climate.” Harvard Educational Review, 91(1): 293-318.
Liu, Jia-Lin, Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, Bela Rex-Kiss, Gretchen Lord, and Julia Jean-Francois. 2018. “Parents Beyond Oceans: A Social Group Work Curriculum for Chinese Immigrant Parents.” Social Work with Groups, 41(4): 291-305.
Cherng, Hua-Yu Sebastian and Jia-Lin Liu. 2017. “Academic Social Influences and Student Expectations: The Case of Second-Generation Asian Americans.” Asian American Journal of Psychology. 8(1):16-30.
MANUSCRIPTS IN PREPARATION
Liu, Jia-Lin. "What kind of ending will you give us?: The power of positionality in ethnographic research with transnational Chinese immigrant families.”
Liu, Jia-Lin. “After Class I Just Leave: How US Schools can be Sites of Connection for Children of Undocumented and Mixed-Status Chinese Immigrant Families."
HONORS, AWARDS, AND FELLOWSHIPS
2024-2025 CSULA Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Assigned Time Award
2024-2025 CSULA Exceptional Levels of Service Award
2023 NYU Steinhardt's Outstanding Dissertation Award
2020 AAUW American Dissertation Fellowship
2020 Global Dissertation Fellowship, NYU Shanghai
2018-2019 Global Research Institute at NYU Shanghai
2018 International Chinese Sociological Association Travel Award, ICSA
2018 Steinhardt Doctoral Student Travel Fund, NYU
2016-2020 Shearwater Grant, International Education, NYU
2015-2019 Steinhardt Doctoral Funding Fellowship, NYU
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Advanced Social Work Research (CSULA: Graduate level)
Community Organizing (CSULA: Undergraduate Level)
Culturally Competent Social Work Practice (CSULA: Undergraduate Level)
Diversity and Intersectionality in Social Work (CSULA: Undergraduate Level)
Institutional Racism to Cultural Competency (CSULA: Undergraduate Level)
Practice with Groups (CSULA: Undergraduate Level)
Introduction to Global Education (NYU: Undergraduate Level)
PAPER PRESENTATIONS
Liu, Jia-Lin, “ ‘After Class I Just Leave’: How US Schooling is Disconnecting for Undocumented Chinese Youth.” Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Montreal, Canada (August 2024)
Liu, Jia-Lin, “ ‘What kind of ending will you give us?’: The power of positionality in ethnographic research with transnational Chinese immigrant families.” Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Montreal, Canada (August 2024)
Liu, Jia-Lin, "US Legal Status Ultimately Matters: How Families of Undocumented Chinese Immigrants fare in China." Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA (August 2023).
Liu, Jia-Lin, "Understanding legal status and pathways among Undocumented Chinese Immigrants." Annual meeting of the Association of Asian American Studies, Long Beach, CA (April 2023).
Liu, Jia-Lin, “Examining Illegality: Chinese immigrants’ pathways to becoming undocumented in the US.” Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Los Angeles, CA (August 2022).
Liu, Jia-Lin, “It Was Never About Education: How the concept of educational meritocracy is complicated through class origins, immigration, and acculturation for Undocumented Chinese immigrants.” Annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA (April 2022, virtual).
Liu, Jia-Lin. "Not About Education: How the concept of educational meritocracy is complicated for undocumented Chinese immigrants." Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, IL (August 2021, virtual).
Liu, Jia-Lin. "'I was sacrificed and now I am sacrificing her': Expectations for women to save face in Undocumented and Mixed-Status Chinese Immigrant Families." Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA (August 2020, virtual).
Liu, Jia-Lin and Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, “Saving Face: A Mismatch in Educational Cultural Capital among Undocumented Chinese Immigrants in the US.” Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York, NY (August 2019).
Liu, Jia-Lin and Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, “Saving Face: A Mismatch in Educational Cultural Capital among Undocumented Chinese Immigrants in the US.” Annual meeting of the International Chinese Sociological Association, New York, NY (August 2019).
Liu, Jia-Lin and Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, “Saving Face and the Educational Consequences of Children in Undocumented and Mixed-Status Chinese Families.” Annual meeting of the Comparative International Education Society, San Francisco, CA (April 2019).
Liu, Jia-Lin and Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, “The Role of Saving Face in Immigration Stories of Undocumented Chinese Families.” Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA (August 2018).
Liu, Jia-Lin and Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, “The Role of Saving Face in Immigration Stories of Undocumented Chinese Families.” Annual meeting of the Comparative International Education Society, Mexico City, Mexico (March 2018).
Liu, Jia-Lin and Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, “Saving Face and the Road to being Undocumented for Chinese immigrants in the US.” Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Montreal, Canada (August 2017).
Liu, Jia-Lin and Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, “Saving Face and the Road to being Undocumented for Chinese immigrants in the US.” Annual meeting of the Comparative International Education Society, Atlanta, GA (March 2017).
Cherng, Hua-Yu Sebastian and Jia-Lin Liu, “Academic Networks and Expectations: the Paradox of Second-Generation Asian American.” Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Seattle, WA (August 2016).
INVITED TALKS
“Beyond Remittances: how face drives immigration stories of undocumented and mixed-status Chinese immigrant families.” Global Sociology (Undergraduate level course), Dr. Yang Gao, Assistant Professor, Furman University (February 2024).
"The Search for the American Dream among Chinese Americans." Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, Taiwan Fund for Children & Families Global Immersion Certificate Program, University of Southern California (May, 2023).
"What is happening in the Social Work Classroom? An AAPI Instructor's Thoughts and Experiences at CSULA" Conversations on Race: From Discussion to Practice hosted by the Southern California's 37th Annual Joint Field Symposium (March 2023).
“Beyond Model Minority: Saving Face and Downward Mobility among Transnational Undocumented and Mixed-Status Chinese Families.” Introduction to Qualitative Analysis in Comparative Education (Graduate level course), Dr. Elisabeth King, Associate Professor, New York University (November, 2019).
“Success Beyond Education: Transnational Fuzhounese families.” Department of Social Work (Undergraduate and Graduate level course), National Taiwan University (May, 2019).
“Success Beyond Education: Transnational Fuzhounese Families.” Department of Sociology (Undergraduate level course), National Cheng-Chi University (May, 2019)
“Qualitative Methods: Interviewing & Ethnography.” Department of Psychology Research Seminar (Undergraduate and Graduate level course), Fujian Normal University (May, 2019).
“Chinese Immigrants/Americans & the American Dream.” Department of Psychology Seminar (Undergraduate level course), Yango University (April, 2019).
“Saving Face: A Mismatch in Educational Cultural Capital among Undocumented Chinese Immigrants in the US.” Department of Psychology Seminar (Undergraduate and Graduate level course), Fujian Normal University (January, 2019).
“Chinese Americans, Undocumented Chinese Immigrants & the American Dream.” Introduction to Sociology of Education (Undergraduate level course), Dr. Yi-lin Chiang, Assistant Professor, National Chengchi University (December, 2018).
“Chinese Americans and the American Dream.” Education and the American Dream: Historical Perspectives (Undergraduate level course), Noah Kippley-Ogman, Adjunct Instructor, New York University (November, 2018).
“Families Beyond Borders: Transnational Immigration Stories of Undocumented and Mixed-Status Chinese Families.” Introduction to Qualitative Analysis in Comparative Education (Graduate level course), Dr. Elisabeth King, Associate Professor, New York University (September, 2018).
“Chinese Immigrant Families in New York City.” Queens County Family Court, Cultural Competency & Asian Communities Workshop hosted by the Disproportionate Minority Representation Committee, Queens, NY (May, 2018).
“Cultural Competence in the Asian Community”, Kings County Family Court, Cultural Competency & Asian Communities Workshop hosted by the Disproportionate Minority Representation Committee, Brooklyn, NY (November, 2018).
“The Pathway to Becoming Undocumented: Chinese Immigrants in NYC & Their Educational Decisions.” Adolescent Learners in Urban Contexts (Graduate level course), Amy Karwoski, Adjunct Instructor, New York University (April, 2017)
“Working with Chinese immigrants in Sunset Park, Brooklyn” Advocacy in Social Work Practice(Graduate level course), Dr. Barbara Levy Simon, professor, Columbia School of Social Work (April, 2015).
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Cross Campus Mental Health Alliance at CSULA
Principal Investigator, Los Angeles, CA (August 2024 – Present)
Collaborating with Dr. Osmara Reyes-Osario (Director of Counseling and Psychological Services) and school of social work students to launch programmatic and research efforts to help enhance mental health literacy among the students at CSULA
The Teach for Humanity Institute
Collaborator, National (June 2023 – Present)
Collaborating with PI Dr. Onnie Rogers, Dr. Velma McBride Murrey, and Dr. Niobe Way on “Cultivating Just and Human Principles, Practices, and Policies in Education Systems” by developing and evaluating the feasibility of the Teach for Humanity Institute (THI) as a co-learning center for educators and practitioners; project aims to be funded by external funding sources in the near future
William T. Grant Foundation & The Research Alliance for New York City Schools
Graduate Researcher, New York, NY (September 2019 - May 2022)
Assisting PI Dr. Reva Jaffe-Walter, Dr. Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, and Dr. Adriana Villavicencio on “Improving the Experiences and Outcomes of Immigrant Youth: An Examination of the Internationals Network for Public Schools” by conducting focus groups and data analysis
New York University (NYU) Institute for Human Development and Social Change,
Graduate Researcher, New York, NY (May 2018 – August 2018)
Assisted PI Dr. Sumie Okazaki on “College Access and Persistence among Urban Asian American Students” by conducting in-depth interviews of Asian American high school and university students
Project on Immigration and Higher Education,
Graduate Researcher, New York, NY (November 2017 - November 2018)
Assisted PI Dr. Amy Hsin and PI Dr. Sofya Aptekar on their William T. Grant Foundation funded “Immigration Status and Higher Education: Evidence from a Large Urban University” by conducting in-depth interviews of Chinese immigrant university students
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Multinational Institute of American Studies at New York University
Program Officer, New York, NY (May 2017-August 2022)
Assisted PI Dr. Philip Hosay on the US Department of State’s Summer Program at NYU for selected global faculty in the Study of the United States Institute on US Culture and Values.
SCO – CENTER FOR FAMILY LIFE
Bilingual (Mandarin/English) Family Social Worker, Brooklyn, NY (March 2009 – July 2015)
Provided individual and family counseling and case management to immigrant families and facilitated immigrant parenting support groups.
F.E.G.S HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES SYSTEM,
WeCARE Temporary Case Manager, New York, NY (December 2008 – February 2009)
Addressed the medical/mental health/social work diagnosis and dispositions under public assistance from the organization’s medical professionals to welfare recipients’ who have health or mental health injuries that affect their functionality to work.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Educational Research Association
American Sociological Association
Association of Asian American Studies
Comparative and International Education Society
International Chinese Sociological Association
Society for Social Work and Research