Van C. Tran

Graduate Student in Sociology and Social Policy

Biographical Note

A summa cum laude graduate of Hunter College of CUNY, Van majored in Sociology while working full-time at a local hardware store on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. As an undergraduate, he wrote his honor thesis on the assimilation experience of Tibetan refugees in New York City under the advising of Philip Kasinitz. At Harvard, Van is currently a PhD candidate in Sociology and Social Policy and a doctoral fellow in the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy. His research broadly focuses on the socioeconomic, civic and political incorporation of post-1965 immigrants and their children, as well as its implications for the future of ethnic and racial inequality in the U.S. in the century ahead.

His eclectic academic interests in immigration, race and ethnic relations, class and culture, civic and political participation, social inequality and public policy originate both from his personal experience as a political refugee and his scholarly attempt to understand the major demographic, political and social transformations of the American society as a result of post-1965 immigration. Specifically, his previous and current research has explored the incorporation of the Hispanic/Latino population, local and national influences on attitudes towards immigrants, cultural and structural causes and consequences of inequality in New York and Los Angeles, as well as how increasing ethnic/racial diversity might affect neighborhood local processes in Boston.

Van has been actively engaged in both graduate and undergraduate education at Harvard. He coordinated the Migration and Immigrant Incorporation Workshop, an interdisciplinary forum that brought together graduate students and faculty members in the Greater Boston area to circulate works-in-progress in order to elicit feedback and suggestions for improving scholarly work. He also co-organized the national graduate student conference on "Embracing Diversity: Latino Immigration and the Transformation of American Society" and the 12th annual Aage Sorensen Memorial Conference on "New Frontiers in Research on Inequality and Social Exclusion". In 2008, he was the graduate student representative for the International Migration section of the American Sociological Association. Over the years at Lowell House of Harvard College, Van has served as a Resident Tutor and a Sophomore Adviser, chaired the Race Relations and Diversity Committee and the Graduate School Advising Committee, as well as served on the Fellowships Advising Committee. He has also been appointed the Senior Staff Tutor for the Senior Common Room since 2007.

Van's academic research has been generously supported by the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the National Science Foundation Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences Grant, and the National Institute of Mental Health Career Opportunities in Research, Education and Training Fellowship, among others.

09/04/2009

Research Interests

Immigration, ethnic and racial diversity
Civic and political participation
Class, culture and social inequality
Urban poverty and public policy
Qualitative and quantitative methods

Previous Degrees

A.M., Sociology, Harvard University
B.A., Sociology, Hunter College of CUNY

Suggested Links

Contact

617-493-3026 (Phone)
617-496-5794 (FAX)

Wiener Center for Social Policy
79 JFK Street, Taubman 429
Cambridge, MA 02138

Office Hours

S 5:00 - 6:00
W 3:00 - 6:00 and by appt