The University of Utah has a rich research history. Thanks to its students, faculty, staff and shareholders, research at the U will only continue to grow, bringing innovations and discoveries to our society.
With this in mind, the Office of the Vice President for Research (VPR) and Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) are showcasing different researchers to spotlight our university’s studies and potential breakthroughs. Here are some of the U’s Research Groundbreakers.
Dr. Annie Isabel Fukushima – Featured and interviewed for Hulu’s ‘Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal’ – Episode 8, ‘The Ghosts of Chinatown’
Dr. Annie Isabel Fukushima was featured and interviewed for the Hulu special “Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal” – Episode 8, “The Ghosts of Chinatown” produced by the Duplass Brothers and directed by Dolly Li.
Fukushima served as an expert witness for a criminal case in 2012. Discussion of the case appeared in her award-winning book, Migrant Crossings: Witnessing Human trafficking in the U.S. (Stanford University Press, 2019), which received the American Sociological Association’s Book Award on Asia America. The Ghosts of Chinatown is based on a legal case of People of the State of California Plaintiff v. Tam, Liu, Wu, and Zeng. The complicated case involved elders being scammed and also tapped into a community’s belief system about ghosts and ghost marriages.
As part of the societal impact of her research as an ethnic studies scholar, Dr. Fukushima has offered her expertise for criminal, civil, and immigration cases. Her expertise in racialized and gender-based violence is nationally recognized. “We oftentimes think of research and the furtherance of knowledge in scholarly publications, grant implementation, and as pedagogues in the classroom,” said Fukushima. “However, the scholar’s impact is so wide and how we further knowledge can even shape policy, law, and the courtroom.”
In this particular case, it was one where immigration, criminalization, and quasi-human trafficking cohered. Over a decade later, the case was covered on Hulu because the use of ghosts to facilitate scams has re-emerged.
Check out the full-length groundbreakers here.
Annie Isabel Fukushima 