Talk with René Flores of the University of Chicago

Abstract
This talk explores the structural and cultural factors shaping Korean adoption and the evolution of Korean adoptee activism.Intergenerational ethnic attrition— when individuals do not identify with their ancestors’ ethnicities—remains poorly understood. Sociological frameworks offer competing predictions about its prevalence among U.S. Hispanics and Asians. While Classic Assimilation Theory anticipates ethnic identities to fade across generations, racialization perspectives suggest that non-Europeans will experience little attrition due to enduring racism. In contrast, racialized assimilation predicts significant within-group variation in identification driven by traits like phenotype. To assess which theory best predicts the identity choices of Hispanic and Asian descendants, we conducted a nationally representative survey of 5,800 U.S. adults with detailed family histories.

Bio

René D. Flores is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago. Flores’ research interests are in the fields of international migration, race and ethnicity, and social stratification. His research explores the emergence of social boundaries around immigrants and racial minorities across the world as well as how these boundaries contribute to the reproduction of ethnic-based social inequality. His work has appeared in American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Social Forces, and Social Problems, among others. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the American Sociological Association, the Paul Merage Foundation, and others. Flores earned a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy from Princeton University in 2014.