Sonia Liu

Sonia Liu is a fourth-year student at UCLA, double-majoring in Public Affairs and Asian American Studies. Sonia is directing research focused on documenting the lived-experiences of 1st- and 2nd- generation Indonesian Americans post-May 1998 Riots through Oral History to mark the 25th anniversary of this tragedy that displaced many Chinese Indonesians across the globe. This research seeks to enshrine Indonesian American experiences into the history of Asian America and broader immigration and refugee studies while analyzing the social and political factors that influence “silence” in Indonesian American families–such as intergenerational trauma. Outside of research, Sonia is passionate about uplifting the Southeast Asian community as the president of the Association of Indonesian Americans at UCLA and involving herself in education retention projects on campus for the Southeast Asian community, such as the Southeast Asian Campus Learning, Education, and Retention project (SEACLEAR) and SEA Admit Weekend (SAW). She also works to educate her fellow peers on the importance of maintaining trauma-informed spaces as a Peer Educator for the Campus Assault Resources and Education Center at UCLA.