United States of America

When your kitchen is on fire, you wouldn’t want a passcode-protected fire extinguisher, wrapped in triple-sealed packaging, sitting in your garage. Delays in applying your tools can be fatal. With the COVID-19 pandemic rupturing the basic fabric of the global economy, shops around the corner are closing down, and millions of people are starting to […]

After decades of languishing as one of the nation’s least effective public education systems, New Mexico is making significant strides toward becoming a model for public education. Visionary leadership from Governor Lujan Grisham has resulted in significant investments in New Mexico’s chronically underfunded public schools, with state policymakers increasing spending on public education by approximately […]

5980 miles. That’s the distance between Shishmaref, Alaska and Boston, Massachusetts. That’s about the same distance from Boston to Mongolia. The cost to send a letter from one point to the other? 55 cents. The same cost to send a letter from Boston to Cambridge. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented economic and financial […]

What happens when a piece of a puzzle is lost? Can one still complete the puzzle? What about losing ten pieces? How many pieces can be lost until the puzzle can no longer be assembled? The U.S. immigration system is a complex puzzle that dictates the social, political, and economic integration of immigrants into American […]

Two deadly epidemics threaten the lives of Americans. Both have cost too many of us our loved ones, imposed relentless burdens on our healthcare professionals, and affected all communities, while disproportionately harming communities of color.  The first is a global threat that originated in nature and will take all the scientific prowess and ingenuity we […]

Diet-related diseases are the leading cause of death in the United States. Poor diet is associated with ailments such as heart disease, cancer, and Type 2 diabetes, which together kill nearly 678,000 Americans annually — a number that far exceeds current projected deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S.[i] Having worked in both the farming and […]

In 2008, freshman Senator Barack Obama defied the odds to win the Democratic nomination for president against former first lady and two-term Senator Hillary Clinton. When the time came for Obama to select his vice presidential candidate, it was speculated he would choose Clinton. Choosing a former competitor who came runner up in the primary […]

American democracy is increasingly more like a Homeowners Association (HOA) than the participatory and empowering system to which we should aspire. Property owners control decision making over the community by virtue of their wealth, excluding those unable to access property and pushing aside those with insufficient resources to participate. What’s more, the whims of long-passed […]

While international students are chasing their dreams at colleges across the nation, visa requirements are forcing their spouses to put theirs on hold. It’s 2:30 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. At a bustling café in Cambridge, a group is sipping coffee, sharing cakes – and discussing strategies to stay busy. They’re not retirees (their […]

Marginalized patient populations in the United States use emergency rooms at disproportionately higher rates than the average patient population. This high rate of utilization is due largely to a lack of accessible alternative options rather than an actual increased need of critical care. In other words, patients who are young, people of color, and have […]

This piece was published in the 29th print volume of the Asian American Policy Review. This blurring of boundaries in all forms is what makes Southeast Asia, as a whole, “queer.” And this is our gift that we can share with the world. For we were queer before the word existed. Abstract Many queer Asian Americans […]

INTERVIEW OF J.R. KUO This piece was published in the 29th print volume of the Asian American Policy Review. Our parents, immigrants, they left the country because they want a better life for themselves and for their kids. They have been in survival mode. Their whole life they don’t have the luxury to talk about mental […]