Dr. Saera Khan
Saera is professor of psychology at USF. She is also the faculty facilitator of the 2024-25 Faculty Learning Community, Exploring the Unique Histories and Common Identities of APIMEDA Communities. This month, we sat down with Saera to learn more about her journey as a social psychologist and her work with the AAPI Center!
Connect with Saera: Faculty Page
Tell us about your background, research interests, and how you arrived at USF:
Before USF, I was an assistant professor at a university in the Pacific Northwest. My husband and I wanted to find a city that offered both the diversity and shared values we were looking for—a place where we could cultivate a sense of belonging for ourselves and our kids.
My parents are immigrants from India. Some of my siblings were born in India, and others of us were born in the United States. When you grow up as one of the few people of your background around you, you develop skills in being an observer and you are attuned to how people treat you according to your social categories. Those observations led to curiosities about why and how people form different judgments on the basis of theirs and your social categories. That led to me studying and becoming a social psychologist. I study how people make judgments about others, and the consequential impact of such judgments, like stereotypes, about your group memberships.
When I arrived at USF, I recognized the unique potential of our campus community. I attended Loyola University Chicago as an undergraduate and was Jesuit-educated. I missed some of the key values and pillars of Jesuit education after leaving that environment. One aspect I enjoy at USF is the opportunity to integrate our shared values for the common good in our classes, and connect these ideals with the learning content. This approach allows students to think holistically, without compartmentalization. Our purpose here is to not just acquire knowledge but to deepen our understanding of the world and who we are in this context.
What does identifying as AAPI mean to you?
I don’t place much importance on labels, though I recognize they serve as broad frameworks for understanding. I have a consistent view of myself, but I understand that others' perceptions of me are often shaped by the social categories most relevant to them in a given context—at least until they come to know me on a more personal level. In part, these experiences are why I became a social psychologist.
At the same time, we have shared histories; when I meet Asian Americans with families who immigrated within the last two generations I find many shared experiences. It’s likely we can connect on having experienced the dislocation of migration and have not had many opportunities to talk about it. We also share a deep pride in heritage and family traditions and also may not have had opportunities to openly celebrate or talk about them. Growing up, not being perceived as “mainstream” gives you vulnerabilities and builds resilience. No matter which particular country of origin, many Asian Americans have a mutual understanding of inclusion and exclusion in selectively being seen as invisible, foreign, exotic, and having their struggles minimized.
Part of the Asian American experience involves being targeted or perceived as a threat—this reality has been especially true for people of South Asian and Middle Eastern descent post 9/11. Since the onset of the pandemic, more groups have been targeted and characterized as dangerous or threatening. Unfortunately, this shared experience of stigma unites us as well, as many Asian American communities have witnessed how their societal characterization shifted rapidly based on current events. This precarious position underscores the importance of understanding how others perceive us and how we see ourselves in solidarity. To truly address the complexities of Asian American identities, we must adopt a contextual lens, recognizing that while we are not a monolithic group, we share common experiences of marginalization.
What do you hope our Faculty Learning Community and AANAPISI can bring to campus?
In our FLC, I am excited for the opportunity to work with different faculty in exploring the breadth of diversity within what is traditionally considered “AAPI”. When I worked with Dr. Christine Yeh in planning this year’s FLC, we decided to call the group “APIMEDA” to highlight a few groups that can be easily overlooked, namely Middle Eastern and Desi Americans. After all, “Asian American” is a huge umbrella and does not purposefully overlook groups. Our intention was to highlight these groups and help us explore more around their differences and commonalities with groups that are not typically associated.
With the AANAPISI grant, I hope for more open conversations and dialogue about how we embrace this idea of our AANAPISI designation—how we can better serve our students. College is a time for self-exploration, and figuring out who we are. If our students can find a greater sense of belonging and understanding of their many different identities, then I think we’ve done our job. We can offer “tangible solutions,” but we can also offer a way to think about ourselves as an institution with this vision. Our designation represents our commitment to the university community, and that matters.
I value the faculty, staff, and students at USF for their curiosity and engagement with what I describe as "shared experiences and values." At the same time, I admire their openness to embracing our unique histories and individual visions of the common good, without perceiving these differences as a threat.
What is something you want others to know about AAPI communities?
I’m amazed by the global embrace of artistic creativity and massive influence from Asian countries. We’ve been able to see more recently that Asian countries have different forms of art that are extremely relevant and are now trending globally. For instance, the Korean Wave (as highlighted by exhibitions like the Asian Art Museum’s Hallyu!), Bollywood and Indian cinema, and Japanese fashion have all gained significant traction worldwide. I hope people are inspired by the extraordinary creativity emerging from Asian artists—whether authors, designers, filmmakers, choreographers, or others. Their work is fresh, dynamic, and deeply exciting. It’s incredibly inspiring to see!