Faculty Profile
James Huynh, PhD, MA, MPH
- Assistant Professor, Health Management and Policy
Dr. Huynh is a transdisciplinary public health researcher whose work engages the fields
of health equity/health justice, Asian American and Vietnamese American studies, social
movement studies, and queer and feminist studies. He brings queer and feminist theoretical
lenses into public health research to investigate how LGBTQ communities of color sustain
their everyday lives and well-being amid social and political death-making conditions
(i.e., racial capitalism, patriarchy, and heterosexism). Dr. Huynh actively collaborates
with queer and trans of color and anti-racist community-based organizations to explore
how their activism and social movements can influence health policy.
Dr. Huynh serves as the Research Committee Co-Chair for Viet Rainbow of Orange County (VROC), a grassroots organization that builds community and mobilizes intergenerationally primarily with LGBTQ+ Vietnamese Americans and their loved ones through research, education, and advocacy. He was formerly a Health Policy Research Scholar, a fellowship funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a Fulbright U.S. Fellow.
Dr. Huynh serves as the Research Committee Co-Chair for Viet Rainbow of Orange County (VROC), a grassroots organization that builds community and mobilizes intergenerationally primarily with LGBTQ+ Vietnamese Americans and their loved ones through research, education, and advocacy. He was formerly a Health Policy Research Scholar, a fellowship funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a Fulbright U.S. Fellow.
- PhD, Community Health Sciences with graduate concentration in Gender Studies, UCLA, 2024
- MA, Asian American Studies, UCLA, 2019
- MPH, Community Health Sciences, UCLA, 2019
- BA, Human Biology, Stanford University, 2015
Key Research Interests:
Health equity, critical public health, social movements, Asian American communities, queer and trans of color critiques, family and kinship, social network analysis, ethnography and mixed methods.
Dr. Huynh's program of research seeks to achieve a culture of health for LGBTQ communities of color by focusing on determinants of life through three interrelated areas of research: (1) community-engaged research with LGBTQ Asian American social movements; (2) effects of intersectional oppression on mental health; and (3) queer and feminist of color theoretical approaches in mixed methods public health and health policy.
Current Major Project:
Sustaining Kin: Queer and Trans Vietnamese American Organizing, Care, and Health in Orange County: Dr. Huynh examines how LGBTQ Vietnamese American communities sustain their health via social movements in Orange County, which houses the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam. This project extends the minority stress model, a popular framework in LGBTQ health research, by integrating it with queer and trans of color critique theories to explicitly center how the political economy, racial capitalism, and heterosexist patriarchy shape the health of minoritized people.Using statistical social network analysis and collaborative ethnography, Dr. Huynh makes a novel contribution by integrating these two methodologies to explicitly measure the effects of social relationships alongside rich, long-term qualitative data.
Health equity, critical public health, social movements, Asian American communities, queer and trans of color critiques, family and kinship, social network analysis, ethnography and mixed methods.
Dr. Huynh's program of research seeks to achieve a culture of health for LGBTQ communities of color by focusing on determinants of life through three interrelated areas of research: (1) community-engaged research with LGBTQ Asian American social movements; (2) effects of intersectional oppression on mental health; and (3) queer and feminist of color theoretical approaches in mixed methods public health and health policy.
Current Major Project:
Sustaining Kin: Queer and Trans Vietnamese American Organizing, Care, and Health in Orange County: Dr. Huynh examines how LGBTQ Vietnamese American communities sustain their health via social movements in Orange County, which houses the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam. This project extends the minority stress model, a popular framework in LGBTQ health research, by integrating it with queer and trans of color critique theories to explicitly center how the political economy, racial capitalism, and heterosexist patriarchy shape the health of minoritized people.Using statistical social network analysis and collaborative ethnography, Dr. Huynh makes a novel contribution by integrating these two methodologies to explicitly measure the effects of social relationships alongside rich, long-term qualitative data.
Huỳnh, J.†, Huỳnh, V.†, lê, m.†, Sy, S.† (2024). Toward a Politics of Care: Southeast Asian Refugee Organizing, Kinship, Care,
and Reunion. Health Promotion Practice. doi.org/10.1177/15248399231164411
Cross, R.I., Huỳnh, J., Bradford, N.J., Butler, B. 2023. Racialized Housing Discrimination and Population Health: A Systematic Review. Journal of Urban Health. doi: 10.1007/s11524-023-00725-y
Huynh, J.†, Chien, J.†, Nguyen, A.T., Honda, D., Cho, E., Xiong, M., Doan, T., Ngo, T.D. (2023). The mental health of young Asian Americans amid the rise of anti-Asian racism. Frontiers in Public Health. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.958517
Huynh, J. (2023). “Family Is the Beginning but Not the End”: Intergenerational LGBTQ Chosen Family, Social Support, and Health in a Vietnamese American Community Organization. Journal of Homosexuality, 1-23. doi:10.1080/00918369.2021.2018879
Amani, B., Cabral, A., Sharif, M.Z., Huynh, J., Skrine-Jeffers, K., Baptista, S., McAndrew, B., Bradford, N.J., de la Rocha, P., Ford, C.L. (2022). Integrated Methods for Applying CRT to Qualitative COVID Equity Research. Ethnicity & Disease, 32(3), 243-256.doi:10.18865/ed.32.3.243
Nham, K & Huỳnh, J. (2020). Contagious Heathens: Exploring Racialization of COVID-19 and Asians through Stop AAPI Hate Incident Reports. AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community, 17(1 & 2).
Cross, R.I., Huỳnh, J., Bradford, N.J., Butler, B. 2023. Racialized Housing Discrimination and Population Health: A Systematic Review. Journal of Urban Health. doi: 10.1007/s11524-023-00725-y
Huynh, J.†, Chien, J.†, Nguyen, A.T., Honda, D., Cho, E., Xiong, M., Doan, T., Ngo, T.D. (2023). The mental health of young Asian Americans amid the rise of anti-Asian racism. Frontiers in Public Health. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.958517
Huynh, J. (2023). “Family Is the Beginning but Not the End”: Intergenerational LGBTQ Chosen Family, Social Support, and Health in a Vietnamese American Community Organization. Journal of Homosexuality, 1-23. doi:10.1080/00918369.
Amani, B., Cabral, A., Sharif, M.Z., Huynh, J., Skrine-Jeffers, K., Baptista, S., McAndrew, B., Bradford, N.J., de la Rocha, P., Ford, C.L. (2022). Integrated Methods for Applying CRT to Qualitative COVID Equity Research. Ethnicity & Disease, 32(3), 243-256.doi:10.18865/ed.32.3.
Nham, K & Huỳnh, J. (2020). Contagious Heathens: Exploring Racialization of COVID-19 and Asians through Stop AAPI Hate Incident Reports. AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community, 17(1 & 2).
Areas of Expertise: Health Equity, LGBT Health