Contact Information

Office Location Office Phone Department Fax Email Mailing Address

Bartlett Hall 73 413-577-0710 413-545-1500 Women’s Studies Dept. 208 Bartlett Hall Univ. of MA, Amherst Amherst, MA 01003-0530

Educational Background

• Doctor of Philosophy, Sociology, New York University, 2001
  
  Dissertation: "Manicuring Identities: Race, Gender, and Class in New York City Korean-Owned Nail Salons"
  This ethnographic study explores the social construction of race, gender and class in service interactions in ethnic small businesses by examining relations between Korean female owners and workers and their racially diverse customers in New York City nail salons. It describes and analyzes the practices of how language, body, and emotions are managed and how these actions shape identities and inter-group relations in the interpersonal settings of the post-industrial economy.
  
  
• Master of Arts, Sociology, New York University, New York University, 1996
• Bachelors of Arts, Social Studies, Radcliffe College, Harvard University, 1988

Research Interests

• Social Construction of Race, Gender and Class
• Sociology of the Body
• Emotional Labor and Service Interactions
• Immigrant Women’s Work
• Asian American Communities
• Relations between Korean Americans and African Americans
• Ethnography

Courses Taught

Women’s Studies, UMass Amherst, Amherst, MA	"Introduction to Women's Studies" (Women's Studies 187) "Critical Perspectives in Women's Studies" (Women's Studies 201) "Asian American Women: Gender, Race, and Immigration" (Women's Studies 295B) "Feminist Research Methods" (Women's Studies 691B)
Sociology, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA	"Introduction to Sociology" "Sociology of the Body" "Introduction to Statistics"
Sociology, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY	"Asian American Women" "Sociological Perspectives" "Sociology of the Body"
Sociology, Barnard College, New York, NY	"Asian Americans in the Ethnographic and Literary Imagination" "Research Seminar On Asian American Life" "Junior Colloquium"
Sociology, New York University, New York, NY	"Race and Ethnicity" "Immigration" "Law and Society" "Protest, Revolt, and Revolution" "Introduction to Sociology"

Recent Publications & Presentations

• Quoted in New York Magazine, "A Stranger’s Touch: An Inside Look at the Spa Industry" magazine article, written by Emily Nussbaum, November 25, 2007.
  
  
• Kang, Miliann and Katherine Jones. 2007. "Why Do People Get Tattoos?" Contexts 6:1:42-47.
  
  
• "Manicuring Intimacies: Inequality and Resistance in Asian-Owned Nail Salons," presented at the Intimate Labors: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Domestic, Care, and Sex Work conference, October 4-6, 2007 in Santa Barbara, CA.
  
  
• "Work-Family Issues for Second Generation Asian American Women," presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian American Studies, April 7, 2007 in New York, NY.
  
  
• "Work and Mothering: Practices and Identities of Second Generation Asian American Women,” presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, March 17, 2007 in Philadelphia, PA.
  
  
• Invited Speaker, "Manicuring Immigrants: Asian Women in New York City Nail Salons," talk given at Michigan State University, February 26, 2007.
  
  
• Kang, Miliann. 2006. Book Review of Cross-Border Marriages: Gender and Mobility in Transnational Asia, by Nicole Constable, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Contemporary Sociology, 35:1: 25-26.
  
  
• "Hooked on Nails: Competing Constructions of Beauty by Black and White Women," presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August 16, 2006, Montreal, Quebec.
  
  
• "Asian American Women Writers: Subjectivity and the Politics of Language," co-authored with Juliette Lee, presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian American Studies, April 2005, in Los Angeles, CA.
  
  
• Kang, Miliann. 2005. "Inequality in Domestic Service" in Marybeth C. Stalp and Julie Childers, eds. Teaching Sociological Concepts and the Sociology of Gender, American Sociological Association.
  
  
• "Gender and Ethnic Niche Formation: Korean Immigrant Women in the Nail Salon Industry" (co-authored with Eunju Lee), presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August 2004 in San Francisco, CA.
  
  
• Panelist, "Women's Academic Career Trajectories," summer meeting of Sociologists for Women in Society, August 2004 in Philadelphia, PA.
  
  
• Panel Organizer and Presenter, "Feminist Research Methods in Asian American Studies," annual meeting of the Association for Asian American Studies, March 2004, in Boston, MA.
  
  
• Kang, Miliann. 2003. "The Managed Hand: The Commercialization of Bodies and Emotions in Korean Immigrant-Owned Nail Salons." Gender and Society 17:820-839.
  • Reprinted in Feminist Frontiers VII, edited by Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier, and Leila Rupp, New York: McGraw-Hill (2006).
  • Reprinted in Sociological Odyssey: Contemporary Readings in Introductory Sociology, edited by Peter and Patti Adler, Stamford, CT: Thomson Wadsworth (2007).
  • Reprinted in Workplace/Women's Place: An Anthology, edited by Paula J. Dubeck and Dana Dunn, Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing (2006).
  • Revised and Reprinted as "Korean Immigrant Women’s Work in the Nail Salon Industry: Gender, Race and Class in the Service Sector," in Kim, Ilpyong (Ed.). Korean Americans: Past, Present and Future. Elizabeth, NJ: HollyM International (2004).
• Panelist, "Teaching Workshop: Reflective Practice in Class," organized by Susan Walzer, at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August 15-18, 2003, Atlanta, GA.
  
  
• Kang, Miliann. 2000. "Researching One’s Own: Negotiating Co-Ethnicity in the Field," in Martin Manalansan, Ed. Cultural Compass: Ethnographic Explorations of Asian America, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
  
  
• Kang, Miliann. 1997. "Manicuring Race, Gender, and Class: Service Interactions in New York City Korean Nail Salons," Race, Gender, and Class. 4:3:143-164.

Scholarly Grants, Awards, & Activities

• American Association of University Women Post-doctoral Fellowship (2006-2007).
• Lilly Teaching Fellowship, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2005-2006)
• Co-chair, "When Academic Issues Become Personal," professional development workshop at the winter meeting of Sociologists for Women in Society, January 2004 in Albuquerque, NM.
• Research Fellow (co-principal investigator with C.N. Le), Institute for Asian American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston (2004-2005)
• Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Article Award, American Sociological Association’s Section on Race, Gender and Class (2004).
• Fellow, Five College Center for Crossroads in the Study of the Americas (2004).

• Cheryl Allyn Miller Award for Research on Women and Work, awarded annually by the Sociologists for Women in Society (2000)
• Rose Laub Coser Dissertation Award (Honorable Mention), Eastern Sociological Society (1998)
• Peter Ohm Scholarship, (Alternate), Korea Society (1998)
• International Migration Program Minority Summer Dissertation Fellowship, Social Science Research Council (1997)
• New York University Dean’s Summer Fellowship for Preliminary Ph.D. Research (1996)

• Elected as the Graduate Student Representative of the Asia and Asian America section of the American Sociological Association (1998).

• Founded and coordinated the Asian Pacific American Student Support Program at New York University’s Student Advising Center and received a President’s Service Award for Programming (1996-1997)
• Served on the Board of Directors of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, New York City, advocating for and outreaching to Asian women workers and victims of bias-related crimes (1992-1994)
• Legislative Coordinator, North American Coalition For Human Rights In Korea, Washington D.C. (1990-1992)