Min Zhou is Professor of Sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

 at the University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Los Angeles

The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

 (UCLA) and is the founding chair of the University's Department of Asian American Studies. Professor Zhou has worked with Carl L. Bankston

Carl L. Bankston

Carl L. Bankston III is an American sociologist and author. He is best known for his work on immigration to the United States, particularly on the adaptation of Vietnamese American immigrants, and for his work on ethnicity, social capital, sociology of religion and the sociology of...

 to expand the definition of social capital

Social capital

Social capital is a sociological concept, which refers to connections within and between social networks. The concept of social capital highlights the value of social relations and the role of cooperation and confidence to get collective or economic results. The term social capital is frequently...

 to not only include the resources held by individuals or groups, but also the processes of social interaction leading to constructive outcomes. This work and redefinition has helped spur the modern understanding of social capital and its interplay between power groups.

Professor Zhou's other sociological insights have been primarily within the fields of immigrant life and ethnic assimilation

Cultural assimilation

Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...

, particularly focused on the Asian American

Asian American

Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...

 community. She has authored or co-authored two noted books spotlighting various sociological aspects of immigrant life - Chinatown

Chinatown

A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...

: The Socioeconomic Potential of an Urban Enclave (Temple University Press, 1992) and Growing Up American

Growing Up American

Growing Up American: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States, by Min Zhou and Carl L. Bankston III is one of the most influential books on the Vietnamese American experience. Published in 1998 by the Russell Sage Foundation, it is widely used in college classes on international...

: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States (Russell Sage Foundation Press, 1998). Professor Zhou was also the coeditor of Contemporary Asian America (New York University Press, 2000) and Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity (Rutledge, 2004).