Sophie Chauhan (UCL) - 2022-23 Students

Dis/Assembling White Racial Power: Asian-white Mixedness and the Regeneration of Race

Characterisations of post-racial mixedness and economically thriving Asian-ness significantly shape
Western thinking about the future of race. This two-part thesis argues that, where these categories
converge, ‘Asian-white mixedness’ holds a vital stake in the growth or decline of white racial power.
Section one analyses the cultural production of Asian-white mixedness to demonstrate its
entanglement in whiteness. Section two presents a comparative ethnography to assess how
(mixed-race) Asian activists in Melbourne and NYC instead pursue anti-racist agendas. Overall, this
interdisciplinary, transnational and intersectional study explores how those made covertly complicit
in white racial power can become active agents in its undoing.

Primary supervisor: Dr Xine Yao, UCL
Secondary supervisor: Dr Victoria Redclift, UCL