Dian Yu
Undergraduate Fellow, 2025-26
Government
Dian Yu is a recipient of a 2025 CAPS Undergraduate Summer Thesis Research Grant. Dian’s proposed thesis is entitled, “Belonging and Ballots: How Social Networks Shape Asian American Politics.”
Proposal synopsis: Asian American immigrants are the fastest-growing group of eligible voters, yet existing literature fails to adequately capture how they form partisan identities. My research examines how social networks, particularly ties with US-born/foreign-born individuals, shape first and second generation Asian American partisanship. Through interviews in Houston and quantitative analysis of NAAS data, I investigate how immigrant status/ethnnoracial identity and social contexts influence partisanship.