Rachel U. Mun, a University of North Texas professor, has been awarded the 2017 National Association for Gifted Children Dissertation Award.

Mun, an assistant professor and program steward for the master’s concentration in gifted and talented education in the College of Education, won with a shortened version of her dissertation, titled, “Parental expectations for Asian Americans who entered college early: Influences on their academic and career decision-making.”

She will give a special session on her work at the National Association for Gifted Children conference in November.

“It is a great honor and privilege to receive this dissertation award,” said Mun. “I am humbled to have placed first knowing there were many qualified applicants.”

Mun describes her research as an intersection between gifted education, mental health and immigrant issues. For the last five years, her research has focused on social and emotional development, immigrants and culturally responsible practices, parental influences, career decision-making and educational access for special populations of gifted learners using primarily mixed and qualitative methods. Most recently, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Research on Gifted Education at the University of Connecticut, conducting research on identifying and serving traditionally underrepresented gifted learners.