Document Type

Honors Thesis

Major

History, English

Advisor(s)

Rosalie Purvis

Committee Members

Melissa Ladenheim, Johanna Richlin

Graduation Year

May 2025

Publication Date

8-2025

Abstract

How to Reinvent a Bloodline: My Experiences as a Third-Generation Immigrant is an auto-ethnography about my identity in a world of ever-changing ideas of acceptance. This work encapsulates the multitude of feelings that can be experienced as a third-generation citizen in the United States, leaving those who see themselves as such lost and unsure of where they came from and where they fit in. Not only is it an auto-ethnography gathering certain experiences I have had as a third-generation citizen, but it is also an exploration of craft and the creative process, and a deeper analysis of how third-generation citizens outside of myself interact with the borders they cross. My story is but one of many that can be shared, yet it stands on its own as a unique testament to what it means to live in a world of intersecting identities, beliefs, and existences. No one else can share my story but me. How to Reinvent a Bloodline is not about redoing what has been experienced, but clearing the way for future generations to understand that despite feeling loss of something you may have never known, you are never alone in that feeling. Being a third-generation citizen is just one part of the mosaic.

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