What Immigration Flags About Hyphenated-American Identity | Elaijah Lapay | TEDxDuke

Using his personal background with and experience studying flags, Elaijah Lapay will frame flags as a powerful tool to display and discuss culture, identity, and belonging, showcasing in particular the importance flags bring to American immigrants, children of American immigrants, and those marginalized, seeking to belong. Elaijah Lapay (he/him) is an undergraduate senior at Duke University pursuing an individualized bachelor’s degree titled “Migrant Health and Healthcare: Access and Application.” Parallel to his studies and engagement with immigrant communities in Durham and North Carolina, Elaijah has cultivated his passion for flags toward investment into vexillology, the academic study of flags. Elaijah wrote and has instructed for much of his own undergraduate studies an undergraduate half-credit course titled “Symbols of Nationalism: The Power and Danger of Flags.” Both Elaijah’s work in immigrant health and vexillology are rooted in his personal experiences caused by living as the child of Filipino immigrants in the American South, his experiences seeking and studying belonging, and his desire to channel his experiences into perspective shifts in how to improve health, well-being, and understanding of both first and second generation Americans. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx