Researcher, BBR
PhD, Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin. Researcher at Bureau of Business Research (BBR).
Kara studies race and gender inequality in paid and unpaid labor. Her dissertation is on the development of racialized masculinity among U.S. born Asian American men working in professional occupations. She is also a co-survey lead for the AAPI COVID-19 Project, studying the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the work, health, and relationships of AAPI communities. She has also studied the way gender and race shapes the work experiences of graduates in chemistry and chemical engineering during the first five years after graduation. She has published in the Journal of Asian American Studies, Michigan Family Review, and the Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity.
At IC2, Kara uses focus groups and surveys to train undergraduates and writes research reports and manuscripts with large state government agencies, private corporations, and academic researchers in multi-site research grants on the human dimensions of organizations, labor exploitation, and quality of life in rural Texas communities. Kara’s research at IC2 has given her opportunities to enhance her quantitative skills and programming skills with data analysis software. She has also been able to extend her labor research into labor exploitation in low-wage labor and economic development in rural communities. Her future research endeavors include publishing her book manuscript, Optimized: Racial Economics of Cultural Strategies, and starting a second stream of research into racial inequality in health care and medical technologies. Before coming to UT Austin, Kara was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, graduated with a BA in Sociology and English from Tufts University, and a MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago.