Date of Award
5-1-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. in Sociology
First Advisor
Minjoo Oh
Second Advisor
Amy D. McDowell
Third Advisor
James M. Thomas
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
This qualitative study examines the role of food within community tactics for mobilization and negotiation. In order to do so, this study employs a mixed-methods approach of semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and archival analysis, to answer questions around how participants subvert historically racialized narratives around Vietnamese immigrant’s labor, family, and identity. Specifically, how do Vietnamese American women in Memphis use food labor to negotiate racialized immigrant identities and mobilize cultural and community power within the constraints of gendered expectations, class position, and racial stereotypes? Furthermore, this research focuses on Vietnamese women’s positionality, centering women chefs and community leaders as the primary population of this study. By doing so, this study highlights the extraordinary labor undergone by Vietnamese American women to negotiate cultural expression through food. The findings of this study are broadly captured within the themes reinstating and redefining. Women in this study are able to reinstate the presence of their culture by utilizing their unrecognized cultural capital of food as a framework for creating public celebrations of culture, inter-community gatherings, and a demand for Vietnamese restaurants. Additionally, these women are able to leverage their success in reinstating Vietnamese culture into the dominant culture by redefining previous, racialized assumptions of what it means to be a Vietnamese American immigrant.
Recommended Citation
Freimanis, Alana, "“CON ĂN CƠM CHƯA?” (“Have You Eaten Yet?”): Foodways, Identity, and Generational Place-Making for Vietnamese Women in Memphis" (2026). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 8818.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/8818