Professor Choi researches how race, ethnicity and culture fundamentally shape the development of minority and immigrant youth, a growing demographic in the US. She is interested in how these preteens and teens manage family and peer group pressures and wrestle with stereotypes, and how these pressure impact their mental health and academic performance.
Robert J. Chaskin is the McCormick Foundation Professor and Deputy Dean for Strategic Initiatives and holds the UNESCO Chair for Inclusive Urbanism at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. He leads the school’s international efforts. Professor Chaskin, along with colleagues at the Department of Applied Social Sciences at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), designed an exchange program that serves as a platform for students from both schools to learn from one another. The program focuses on the challenges of urbanization and migration and now also includes students and faculty from Peking University as part of the recently launched Tripartite Collaboration for Advancing Social Work in China.
Professor Ma currently teaches at the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration. She is a cultural and medical anthropologist and a scholar of disability studies. Her work in general examines how cultural, politico-economic, and technological factors shape the design and implementation of social policies, and how national policies and global development initiatives in turn impact health in/equity, vulnerability, and rights, with a focus on contemporary China.