Dr. Kari Smalkoski is an assistant professor in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies and Asian American Studies. Her current book project, American Dream Disrupted: Reframing Narratives on Asian American youth, gender, and inequality in schools, is a multi-sited ethnography that examines the impact of gender, race, and sports on Hmong American youth. Dr. Smalkoski is co-founder and co-director of Minnesota Youth Story Squad. MYSS partners with Twin Cities public schools and prioritizes a justice and activist focused media making curriculum that amplifies the voices of youth through digital storytelling. She is currently principal investigator and co-principal investigator on local, national, and federal grants including MN Transform, a higher education initiative that engages anti-colonial and racial justice work through the public humanities at the University of Minnesota and across the state of Minnesota.

Specialties
Open Close

Specialties

  • Gender, race, and sports
  • Masculinity and youth
  • Girlhood studies
  • Critical refugee studies
  • Education and political economy
  • Feminist analysis of family
  • Ethnographic research methods
  • Community Engaged partnerships