SURF L&S: Student Spotlight
Lark (they/them)
Spring '25
Sociology & Art Practice
Lark (they/them) is one of our SURF L&S participants and is currently double majoring in sociology and art practice. During their time in the program, they researched how Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) ballroom communities negotiate their racial and cultural identities regarding gender performances within the predominantly Black and Latine ballroom history and context. Lark is interested in the ways that gender is racialized so that the larger society can reimagine gendered structures, performances, and ways of being.
What was your research question and how is it personal to you?
My research question was: how do AAPI ballroom communities negotiate their racial and cultural identities regarding gender performances within the predominantly Black and Latine ballroom history and context? My family immigrated from Taiwan and Japan—landing in rural areas of the U.S. and bouncing between trailer parks and farms in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Kansas, and Maine. I grew up Taiwanese American, but often felt disconnected from my Asian American identity and culture as my parents assimilated and I grew up in a predominantly white area. I found it difficult to reconcile and understand my transness and queerness along with an Asianness that I didn’t relate to or connect with—but that others perceived me as. Transnormativity and trans representations in the media made me feel I could only be trans if I was invested in white culture and white beauty standards. Now, after exploring ballroom culture in the Bay Area, this project has opened me to connect with communities that are creating and expressing alternative and freeing gendered realities, specific to their racialized experiences.
What are the larger implications of your research topic?
Understanding how Asian Americans—who experience gendered realities and stereotypes differently than their Black and Latine peers—navigate ballroom culture will help us understand how gender is both racialized and performative and could push us towards radical queer futures and the reimagining of gendered ways of being.
What was the biggest challenge you confronted doing research?
Historically, studies on trans people have been exploitative. In this sense, a challenge has been developing a methodology outside of traditional ways of doing research in order to center trans experiences, as well as different ways of expression and storytelling outside of basic interview methods.
What aspect of the SURF L&S program did you value the most or find the most rewarding?
I enjoyed the community of SURF participants and getting to learn about other people’s projects in related, and sometimes very different fields! I talked to people doing mathematics research, biology research, and child development research.
How did participating in the SURF program help you grow?
Academically, it allowed me to fully focus and devote my time and energy to a personal research project which you often don’t get the time to do amongst work, school, and other commitments. I was able to read a lot of literature on my topic and learned a lot about queer and trans theory.
Want to learn more about SURF L&S? Attend our info sessions:
- Tues 12/10, 10-11AM | 3401 Dwinelle
- Thurs 12/12, 11AM-12PM | Zoom
- Wed 1/15, 10-11AM | Zoom
- Thurs 1/16, 11AM-12PM | Zoom
- Tues 1/21, 10:30-11:30AM | Dwinelle
- Wed 1/22, 11AM-12PM | Dwinelle