EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE U.S.: AN INTERSECTIONAL APPROACH TO A NORTH KOREAN REFUGEE WOMAN’S IDENTITIES, AND EXPERIENCES

This dissertation examines everyday experiences of a North Korean refugee woman in the U.S., centering her narratives as sites of critique, resistance, and meaning-making. Grounded in Critical Refugee Studies, Asian American Studies, and Critical Intercultural Communication and framed by intersectionality, it explores how interlocking structures of power shape and are shaped by her life. Rather than focusing solely on trauma or assimilation, this study highlights her digital storytelling, faith, and mutual aid practices as acts of survival, dignity, and moral agency. Using a qualitative, narrative inquiry approach grounded in critical reflexivity, it thematically analyzes her stories to reveal how she navigates racialization, gendered labor, intraethnic hierarchies, and diasporic belonging within Cold War legacies and U.S. imperialism. The findings challenge dominant humanitarian narratives of refugeehood and foreground her agency. This work contributes to justice-oriented understandings of refugee subjectivity and expands critical conversations in intercultural communication, refugee studies, and Asian American studies.