This dissertation explored how South Asian American youth from diverse ethnic, religious, and social class backgrounds negotiate identity conflicts. Much of social science research cites the context of privilege assigned by the “model minority” stereotype as the commonly accepted perception of South Asians in the United States. Discrimination associated with the events of 9/11, however, challenge this view in positioning South Asians as racial and religious minorities associated with terrorism and distrust. Furthermore, the contexts of higher education contribute to these clashing contexts by instituting ethnic student organizations that support particular versions of identity practices. These multiple conflicts require South Asian American youth to negotiate or manage their identity practices in specific ways. The aim of this dissertation, thus, was to explore how college-aged South Asian American youth negotiate identity conflicts within these multiple contexts.

The key research questions guiding this study were (1) What particular conflicts do South Asian American youth experience in practicing their identities? and (2) How do these youth negotiate these conflicts? (3) How does a practice-based framework extend previous claims of identity as static and unchanging? In order to gather a broader understanding of South Asian American youth identity practices, eighteen 2^nd generation South Asian American youth between 18-22 years of age from a public and a private university in New York City engaged in an open-ended semi-structured interview based on constructing “identity maps” and discussing an article documenting the rise of hate crimes after 9/11. Discursive analysis, specifically, positioning techniques were used to analyze how youth constructed their selves and their worlds through talk.

Findings from this study demonstrate that South Asian American youth construct identity conflicts and negotiations in contradictory ways. The multiple orientations to “model minority”, post 9/11 discrimination, and multiculturalism ideologies suggest that South Asian American identity is not a unitary concept but rather shifts and changes according to immediate and broader social contexts. The research design and the findings from this study contribute to emerging psychological literature that defines identity as a dynamic process rather than a static entity of individuals.