She received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998. Her recent research focused on community and ethnic identity formation on the Internet. In addition, she also studied the effects of computer-mediated communication on high school students' learning ability and their teachers' teaching practices. Her research areas include race, ethnicity, Asian American studies, communication and media studies, transnational and diaspora studies, and gender. <eignaci@luc.edu>