Research

INTERESTS

Community-Based Learning; Feminist Pedagogies; Participatory Action Research Methodologies; Critical Public Health.

BOOKS

Yep, K.S. (2009). Outside the paint : the racial and gender politics of basketball in San Francisco’s chinatown , 1930- 1950 . Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Yep, L. and Yep, K. S.  (2008). Dragon’s child: the story of Angel Island. New York : Harper Collins.

PEER- REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES

Yep, K. S. (2018) “You ARE worth something”: feminist and community-driven palliative care among Asian immigrant and refugee women elders. Journal of Healthcare, Science, and the Humanities 7(2), 42-52.

Yep, K.S. (2015). Reimagining diversity work: multigenerational learning, adult immigrants, and dialogical community-based learning.  Metropolitan Universities 25(3), 47 – 67.

Yep, K. S., Zhao, T, Pang, S., Wang, C., & Wang, P.. (2014). The revised naturalization exam and Chinese immigrants in the United States: key issues for social workers. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 23(4), 271- 288.

Yep, K.S. (2012). Peddling sport as ‘post-racial’: racial triangulation and the distortion of Blackness, Chineseness, and Native Americanness in professional basketball. Ethnic and Racial Studies 35 (6), 971-987.

Yep, K.S. (2010). Playing rough and tough: Chinese American women basketball players in the 1930s and 1940s. Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 31(2), 123 – 141.

Yep, K.S. (2010). For what you see as just: Paulo Freire and Asian American Studies in community-based learning. Journal for Civic Commitment 16(1), 1 – 10.

Yep, K. (1994). The power of collective voice: community mobilization campaigns around anti-Asian violence. Asian American Policy Review 4, 33 – 63.

ESSAYS IN ACADEMIC JOURNALS

Yep, K. S. (2017) “There was more for all of us”: Intergenerational dialogues and a grassroots framework for mental health.” Asian American Literary Review: Open In Emergency- Special Issue on Asian American Mental Health. Edited by Mimi Khuc and Lawrence Minh-Davis. 

Yep, K.S. (2017) “Mash potatoes, lop cheung, and nuclear testing: Placing the culture of health in the context of the culture of historical trauma” in Examining Ethical and Other Implications for a Culture of Health in the Context of the Deep South: Proceedings, National Center for Bioethics in Research and Healthcare and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 59 – 68.

Yep, K.S. (2012).  Linsanity and centering sports in Asian American Studies and Pacific Islander Studies.  Amerasia Journal 38(3), 133-137.

Yep, K.S. (2007). Intellectual praxes and the politics of analyzing sport.  Sociology of Sport Journal 24(1) (2007):111-118.

ESSAYS IN BOOKS

Yep, K.S. (forthcoming 2023) Qi Gong and (re)centering the body in community engagement as an anti-racist pedagogy. In Anti-Racist Community Engagement: Principles and Practices, edited by Santana, C., Ward. E et. al. Campus Compact, Stylus Publishing.  

Yep, K.S. (2018). “We built up our knowledge together and because it was shared:” Asian American Studies and recasting the civic in civic engagement. In Handbook of Service-Learning for Social Justice, edited by Darren E. Lund, Wiley Press.

Yep, K.S. & Mitchell, T.D. (2017). Decolonizing community engagement: reimagining service-learning through an ethnic studies lens. In Cambridge Handbook for Service Learning and Community Engagement, edited by Dolgon, C., Eatman, T. & Mitchell, T.D., Cambridge University Press.

Yep, K. S. (2012). The power of collective expression: college students and immigrant women learning together. In Women’s Lives (6th edition), edited by Kirk, G. & Okazawa-Rey, M. 579-584. London: Mayfield Publishing.

Yep, K.S. (2011). To reform or to empower?: Asian American Studies and social justice service-learning. In Democratic Dilemmas of Service-Learning: Curricular Strategies for Success, edited by Cress, C. & Donahue, D., 157 – 166. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

Yep, K. S. (2011). Why are you so mad?: mediating racial conflict in service-learning classrooms. In Democratic Dilemmas of Service-Learning: Curricular Strategies for Success, edited by Cress, C. & Donahue, D, 110 – 118. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP

Yep, K.S. (2023) Reimagining safety after a mass shooting. Lions Roar.

Yep, K. S. & Espinoza, S. (2021) Migrant children are being sheltered at Pomona’s Fairplex. It’s not the first time the fairgrounds has housed detainees. The Los Angeles Times.

Yep, K.S. (2020) “The knowledge we carry: what my paw-paw showed me about healing justice”  in Folding Chair magazine.

Yep, K. S. (2012) ” Consuming Jeremy Lin: centering race in professional basketball.” Temple University Press Blog.

Lee, D.,  Duch Ferriera, S, Paogofie, S., Quoc, L.  Stinson, J., Talitonu, C., Uipi, S.,  Hwang Colligan, S.,  with Yep, K.S. (2012). “API women, faith, action: fourteen oral histories of Asian Pacific Islander women and their faith-based activism” Funded by California Council of Humanities.

Yep, K.S. (2005). “Asian Americans and sport” Essay. Asian Pacific American History Collective, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American History Program Web Site.

SELECT PROJECTS

• Qi Gong, Mental Health and Health Equity (2017 to the present) 

Qi Gong is an ancient and contemporary knowledge system and practice rooted in traditional Chinese medicine. Popular education curriculum to benefit mental health in the face of factors such as chronic stress, major life changes, historical trauma, and systemic inequities.

• Advisory Group – (2018) Your Path To Our Health  digital stories project – Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Building a Culture of Health is the vision of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, focused on addressing one of the most pervasive challenges of our time: improving health for all. A Culture of Health places well-being at the center of every aspect of life. It’s a culture in which communities flourish and individuals thrive. A culture that enables everyone in our diverse society to lead healthier lives, now and for generations to come. To mobilize this vision, we developed a new framework for working differently to improve health for all. Building a Culture of Health is a movement taking on one of the most pervasive challenges of our time: improving the health and well-being of everyone in America. 

Select digital stories from the project:

Kit’s Path: Fun and fitness in a parking lot  (Monterey Park, CA) 6m

Tomas’s Path: Immigrant fathers and sons communicate on the soccer field (Buncombe County, NC) 6m

Charlie’s Path: Rediscovering the healing power of horses (Fort Peck Indian Reservation, MT) 6m

Ava’s Path: Every little girl should be able to wear a tutu (South Los Angeles, CA) 8m

SELECT HONORS/AWARDS

EnviroLab Asia China Clinic: Henry Luce Foundation. Mental Health, Qi Gong, and College Students. Role: Lead undergraduate research lab of five students (Lam & Yep). (2022)

Visiting Scholar, Mindful Awareness Research Center of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles (2021)

Project Pericles – Mellon Foundation Faculty Leader (2021)

Frederick P. Lenz Residential Fellow in Buddhism and American Culture & Values at Naropa University, Naropa University (2020)

Faculty Diversity Mentor Award, Claremont Colleges which “honors faculty members who provide consistent and meaningful support and encouragement to historically underrepresented students, staff or colleagues.” (2020)