Living liminally: how Korean women cope with the rise of anti-Asian violence in the United States as racialized, gendered, and liminal beings.

This study examines how Korean women living in the United States, who do not primarily identify as Asian American, navigate their racial and gender identities in response to targeted violence against Asian women, notably the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings. Through in-depth interviews, the research highlights these women's experiences of liminality—existing between cultural, legal, and racial categories—and their use of strategies such as disidentification and racial oscillation to cope with and resist imposed identities shaped by U.S.-centric racial paradigms. The findings reveal the inadequacy of monolithic Asian American frameworks to capture the complex, intersectional realities of these women, emphasizing their fluid identity negotiations amid systemic racialization and sexualization. This study contributes to broader discussions on race, gender, and belonging by illuminating the nuanced ways Korean immigrant women assert agency within liminal spaces in American society.