bio
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bio -
Kaitlyn Eri Lee
“air-ee” | she/they
Kaitlyn Eri Lee is a first-generation Asian American and a child of Japanese and Korean immigrants. Growing up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, she is a proud Midwesterner and daughter of the Chicagoland area. She is an incoming graduate student at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Kinesiology. Her research interests lie at the intersection of sport studies and Asian American studies, where she aims to explore the experiences of Asian diaspora athletes in mainstream, conventional institutions of sport. Rooted in her life context as a former elite athlete, she is interested in the ways in which historical legacies of sporting institutions impact the ways in which systems of power are experienced by athletes with marginalized identities. She will be joining the University of Minnesota as a DOVE Fellow, through the Graduate School Diversity Office.
Prior to being in Minneapolis, Eri spent 6 years at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, where she was first an undergraduate student in sociology, then the program coordinator of the Asian American Center on campus.
interests and hobbies
At Northeastern University (2018 - 2024), Eri was a staff member for the Asian American Center on campus, creating spaces for cultural celebration and relationship building rooted in Asian American community values. As a student, she was a student leader with the Social Justice Resource Center on campus, serving as the co-director of Students Advancing Intersectional Dreams. With SAID, she had the privilege of working in true intersectional coalition-building spaces where she was introduced to the power of community and collective liberation. The lessons learned from these spaces are knowledge she carries into everyday life.
In a previous life, Eri was a competitive synchronized figure skater. She began skating for the Chicago Jazz Synchronized Skating Teams in 2006, later joining the Haydenettes based in Lexington, Massachusetts in 2017. As a Haydenette, Eri represented Team USA in domestic and international competitions. While she no longer skates competitively, she still enjoys sharing her love for skating through coaching. She currently the Assistant Coach of the Northernettes juvenile team.
She is also an avid sports fan, from the NFL to the Olympics, and appreciates the culture, fashion, politics, and emotions that make being a fan interesting and fun. As someone who grew to love the NBA in Boston, she loves rooting for the Celtics.