Research

Erica is a Texas Storyscapes Community Fellow with the Institute for Diversity and Civic Life. She is currently working on a long-term project about the history of Asian immigrants in the Mexico-U.S. borderlands.

Trained in feminist cultural studies, Erica's research is interdisciplinary and centers race and class in analyses of popular culture. Her dissertation, titled “The Umami Era: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Food,” studies and critiques how Asian Americans become visible and consumable through food culture in mainstream U.S. media.

She has two academic publications: “Upscaling Authenticity: Asian American Food Gentrification in Chinatown” in Eating (More) Asian America (NYU Press), and “Recipes for Messiness” in Verge: Global Asias (UMN Press). She has presented her work at the American Studies Association and Asian American Studies Association national conferences, and at the Asian American Pacific Islander History meeting, held at The Huntington Library.
 

Writing

Erica studied journalism at New York University and interned at various publications, including W Magazine, NBC Universal, and The Huffington Post where she became a regular blogger. Her piece “Fat for an Asian, Flat for a Latina,” earned the attention of NPR’s Latino USA. This piece has also been assigned as suggested reading in an Asian American Studies course at NYU. Erica has gone on to work as a theatre critic, a writer-in-residence for UC Irvine’s School of Humanities, and a freelance writer for Latina magazine. She believes in the power of storytelling to create personal and community knowledge and hopes to write non-academic books one day.

COMMUNICATIONS

Erica is a communications specialist with over a decade’s worth of experience working in media and nonprofit communications. She uses her communications expertise to create tools for social change, political advocacy, and community organizing. Specializing in narrative change and cultural organizing, she develops narrative power for historically disenfranchised communities. She has held positions at mass media organizations; international news sites; grassroots, state-wide, and national non-profit organizations; and at institutions of higher education.

Teaching

Erica is trained in the Humanities Pedagogical Certificate Program, which emphasizes Humanities-centered education, inclusive course design, feminist pedagogy, and active learning. She has worked as a teaching assistant and lecturer for the departments of Asian American Studies and Gender & Sexuality Studies at UC Irvine. Her courses are social justice oriented and focus on intersectional feminist praxis, Ethnic Studies curricula, and coalitional politics. She has guest lectured at UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, and Franklin & Marshall College.

CONSULTING

Erica is a communications coach with technical assistance and mentorship expertise in social justice and advocacy, having worked with workers centers and CBOs. She has also worked as a media consultant for Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, and as a capacity-building and course development consultant for the Asian American Pacific Islander Health Forum. If you are interested in working with her, please fill out the “Contact Me” form below.