PARTICIPANTS
Participants of GHI
Participants in 2021 CHCI-GHI Migration, Logistics and Unequal Citizens in Contemporary Global Context have been selected after a rigorous review process. Their research reflects not only the geographical range but also the diversity of fields, experiences as well as research projects represented in the applications. Participants’ research focuses span different regions around Asia, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, North America and particularly raise the urgent problematics concerning the core issues of the GHI.
Allouache, Yannis-Adam
National University of Singapore
Title of Research – Investigating the infrastructures, precarities and employment journeys of Indonesian migrants in Taiwan
Yannis-Adam Allouache is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore and a Visiting Research Student in the Department of Geography at National Taiwan University. He is also a recipient of the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Taiwan Fellowship. His PhD thesis explores the infrastructures of labour migration shaping the employment journeys of Indonesian migrants across places in Taiwan. He is interested to get in touch with anyone working on similar issues at yallouache@u.nus.edu.
Campanioni, Chris 
CUNY Graduate Center, Manhattan, NY.
Title of Research – Documenting Disappearance: How Migrants Re-Write the Script of Self-Representation as a Form of Mobility.
Chris Campanioni is the son of immigrants from Cuba and Poland and the author of six books, including A and B and Also Nothing (Otis Books|Seismicity Editions, 2020), a re-writing of Henry James’s The American and Gertrude Stein’s “Americans” which merges theory, fiction, and autobiography. Recent work has appeared in Ambit, Nat. Brut, Poetry International, M/C: Media & Culture, the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, and the Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, and has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese. His selected poetry was awarded an Academy of American Poets College Prize in 2013, his novel Going Down was named Best First Book at the 2014 International Latino Book Awards, and his hybrid piece “This body’s long (& I’m still loading)” was adapted as an official selection of the Canadian International Film Festival in 2017. He teaches at Pace University and Baruch College and is a Provost Fellow at The Graduate Center/CUNY, where he works on the convergence between migration and media studies. His research on facial recognition and migration has been presented in 2019 at MIT’s Media In Transition 10, the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the Centre for Media & Celebrity Studies, the & Now Festival of Innovative Writing, the International Migration Conference, and the Migrant States of Exception.
Choy-Gomez, Jorge 
The University of Texas, Austin
Title of Research – Humanitarian Violence Care and Bureaucracy for Migrants and Refugees in Mexico’s Southern Border
For 10 years, I have been working on international migration in the southern border of Mexico. First, as a bachelor and master’s student, with Honduran migrants who resides in the Soconusco region of Chiapas and who emigrated for various reasons. I continued my career at Mexico’s southern border as a research assistant in several academic projects that investigated the reasons why Central Americans emigrate and why they have stayed more and more in that region. In addition, I worked as a public officer in Chiapa’s government immigration institutions and later in an NGO that monitors detention centres on the southern border. I have also been an external consultant for agencies such as UNDP, IOM and UNHCR. Currently, I am a PhD student at the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies of the University of Texas at Austin. My areas of speciality are central American migration, anthropology of bureaucracy, feminist geopolitics, care and violence.
Cmielewski, Cecelia 
Western Sydney University, Australia
Title of Research – Conviviality, Creative Expression and Inter-Culturality.
Cecelia Cmielewski was awarded her doctorate from Western Sydney University through the Institute of Culture and Society in 2018. Her research interests address inclusion in the creative sectors with a focus on the relationship between creative production and multicultural policies. Her thesis researches the relationship between the experiences and practices of artists of non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) and key arts policies through a consideration of the roles of creative and organizational leadership. Cecelia is a Research Officer on the ARC Discovery Project “UNESCO and The Making of Global Cultural Policy: Culture, Economy, Development”. She was the project manager and contributing researcher on the ARC-funded project “Recalibrating Culture”, and was a principal investigator on the ARC-funded “Large Screens and Transnational Public Sphere”. She held senior roles at the Australia Council, the Federal Government’s arts funding and advisory agency between 1998 and 2011. She is also a curator, most recently curating metanarratives for ISEA2015 in the UAE. She holds an MBA (University of Adelaide), Bachelor of Design (University of South Australia) and a Bachelor of Arts (Flinders University).
Del Bono, Andrea 
Independent Research, PhD
Title of Research – Analysing Chinese Migration to Prato (Italy) and the Construction of the ‘Creative’ District in the City.
I am an independent researcher currently based in Italy. My academic background is in Chinese language studies and my research interests include cultural geography, urban studies and methods for cultural research. I received my PhD from the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, where I have worked on a thesis titled ‘Chinese and Italian Place Brands in Contemporary Sydney: Assembling Ethnicity and/in the City’ – which explored the process of branding ethnicity in two inner-city precincts of the Australian metropolis. After the end of my PhD, I have been involved in several projects of community development in the city of Prato (Italy), which is home to a large number of Chinese migrants mostly employed in the local textile industry; here, I have developed my current research project, which looks at the application of the master plan for the city and its attempts to create a ‘creative district’ in a contested urban area, which has progressively become a symbolic centre for Chinese entrepreneurs in Prato. I am co-author of the book Chinatown Unbound: Trans-Asian Urbanism in the Age of China (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).
Hlongwa, Lungani 
National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan
Title of Research – Conceptualizing the Maritime Silk Road Initiative Through the Lens of Sea Power
Lungani Hlongwa is currently a PhD student at the Institute for Social Research and Cultural Studies at National Chiao Tung University. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Military Science from Stellenbosch University where he majored in Military Strategy and Nautical Science. He served four years in the South African Navy as a combat officer under training. His current research interests lie in the rise of China’s sea power and its impact on Africa. More specifically, his research focuses on how maritime logistics manifest itself as power and how it intersects with the military element. Currently, he is working collaboratively with four other PhD students on a project called Conflict, Justice and Decolonization.
Indrianto, Antonius Maria 
Mahidol University, Thailand.
Title of Research – Negotiating Identities and Gender Roles: The Left Behind Father and Migrant Mothers of Kuripan Village, Central Java, Indonesia.
Anton obtained his Bachelor degree in Communication Studies from Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia and holds a Master of International Community Development from Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. Between 2015 and 2017, He has been part of the research project with several Organizations, National and International. He is now studying for Ph.D. program in Demography at Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR), Mahidol University, Thailand.
Jang, Stella 
The Australian National University
Title of Research – Dreams, and Agency: The Journey of Filipino Migrant Wives in Korea
Stella Jang is a postdoctoral researcher at The Australian National University. Her research focuses on Filipino wives in South Korea. The Korean state and society expect migrant wives to focus on having children who they raise with Korean cultural values. Immigration, migrant education and welfare policies encourage migrant wives to accumulate knowledge of the Korean language and culture while reinforcing husband dominance in marital relationships and promoting Confucian patriarchal values. Stella’s research explores how Filipino wives satisfy their personal dreams and ambitions while negotiating pressure to fulfill the Korean state’s expectations of migrant wives.
Stella has worked with diverse UN organizations. Her latest role was with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Indonesia as an Advocacy and Communication Advisor promoting reproductive rights for vulnerable women. Her research has also explored how the Korean government and communities monitor migrant wives and influence their fertility decisions. Stella strongly believes that women’s basic rights must be protected by the state and communities.
Jawad Shahab, Mohammad
Mahidol University, Thailand.
Title of Research – Assessing the Socio-economic and Psychological Situations of Return Migration in Afghanistan (A case study from Kabul city).
Mr. Mohammad Jawad Shahab is a PhD student at Mahidol University, Institute of Population and Social Research (IPSR). He received his BSc in Statistics from Kabul University of Afghanistan and his MA in economics and management from the Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany in 2013. He is working as an assistant professor at faculty of economic in Kabul University since 2007. Besides his affiliation as an assistant professor, he is working as UNFPA academic program coordinator in Kabul University since 2016 and was involved in Afghanistan Comprehensive Migration Policy draft in 2018.
Aslam Abd Jalil
The University of Queensland
Title of Research -Rohingya Refugee Livelihood Strategies in Malaysia: Challenges and Opportunities
Aslam Abd Jalil is a PhD candidate at The University of Queensland. He has a background in anthropology, public policy and business studies and is combining these three fields in researching the issue of refugee work rights in Malaysia. Aslam is also actively involved in refugee rights advocacy both in Malaysia and Australia. He has volunteered with organisations such as the UNHCR and Amnesty International. To advocate for policy changes, Aslam regularly engages with policymakers on the issues of migration and has submitted and presented policy papers to the Malaysian Government and the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur.
Khan, Marina 
Western Sydney University, Australia
Title of Research – Mapping Migrancies: Analysing Infrastructural Encounters through Migration Trajectories
I am a Higher Degree Research candidate from the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. I completed my Master of Research in 2017 prior to which I graduated from a Bachelor of Social Science with majors in Urban Studies. My Masters’ research titled ‘’Contested Ground’: Network Governance in the Australian Migration Industry’ explored lived experiences of professionals working in the Australian migration industry and was recently published in International Migration. My PhD project titled ‘Mapping Migrancies’ is an exploration of skilled migrants encounters’ with migration processes, and how these interactions shape their migration experience. I use a mixed-methods approach, using a combination of big-data analysis and in-depth explorative interviews with skilled migrants in Australia and Canada. Apart from the PhD, I host a research podcast called Blabcoats at Western Sydney University. I am also a Postgraduate committee representative for The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).
Kihika, Maureen 
Simon Fraser University, Canada
Title of Research – Canada’s Multicultural Immigration Policy: A Structural Logistical Constraint for Black African Immigrant Care Workers
I completed my PhD in sociology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada in 2019. My dissertation research examined the experiences of racialized Black African immigrant caregivers, exploring how labour market encounters shape peoples meaning-making processes and identity constructions. My research and teaching interests are in the areas of race, immigration, labour market processes, globalization and the global political economy, identity, diaspora populations, critical race scholarship and intersectionality frameworks. Specifically, I am interested in the politics of mobility and how social categories of difference shape identity migration, citizenship and belonging. I’m currently a lecturer at the Sociology & Anthropology Department at Simon Fraser University.
Linh, Dinh Phuong
Vietnam National University, Hanoi
Title of Research – Female Migrant Workers as Housekeepers in Hanoi: Patterns of Vulnerability
My name is Dinh Phuong Linh. I hold my MSc in Health and Social Care at the University of Huddersfield, UK and my PhD is in Sociology at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University. I am currently working as a lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology, USSH, VNU. My research interests include social security, health and gender studies. I have substantial experiences with research design as well as data collection and analysis. I have been involved in several kinds of research funded by national and international funders, such as NAFOSTED; TOYOTA Foundation (Japan)… as well as consultancy for INGO such as CARE, PLAN, SNV… With my new research interest in logistic and migration, I would like to discover the unequal citizenship of immigrant correlating with the gender aspect.
Liu, Jiaqi 
University of California, San Diego
Title of Research – Emigrant Membership and State Sovereignty in China
Jiaqi Liu is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of California, San Diego, studying the political sociology of international migration with a regional focus on East Asia. His research is located at the critical juncture between migration, refugee, and citizenship politics. In particular, he examines how non-democratic states in the Global South regulate transborder membership, both voluntary and forced, in the age of migration. Prior to UC San Diego, he was funded by the Eiffel Scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action (cum laude) at Sciences Po Paris, specializing in the refugee regime of European Union. He also holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Arizona and a Bachelor of Law degree from the Ocean University of China. He has provided pro bono legal assistance to numerous refugees from South Asia and Latin America and worked for international organizations such as the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and the Office of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Narayan, Pallavi 
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Title – Shadow Lives Migrants and Precarity in Turkish and Indian Fiction
Pallavi Narayan holds a PhD in literature from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. She has worked in higher education and publishing in Singapore and India for several years, with universities such as Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University, Penguin Random House India, Pan Macmillan India and Routledge India. She was a participant in the CHCI-Mellon Global Humanities Institute 2019 on Challenges of Translation in Santiago, Chile, and has started translating poetry from the Spanish. She was named Frankfurt Fellow 2018 and represented Singapore’s publishing industry at the prestigious fellowship awarded by the Frankfurt Book Fair. She is working on an academic book manuscript based on her doctoral dissertation on Orhan Pamuk and everyday architecture in Istanbul. She is a published poet and an artist specializing in cityscapes in watercolour.
Okunade, Samuel Kehinde 
University of Pretoria, South Africa
Title of Research – Dynamics, Challenges and Way out of Human Trafficking scourge in West Africa
My name is Samuel Kehinde Okunade. I hold a doctorate degree in Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I research on borders and youth out-migration in Africa. I am interested in thinking about ways in which social and ethnic cleavages in border communities could be used for economic integration and social cohesion rather than a perpetual source of conflict in Africa. Equally, I am committed to being a voice for inhabitants of border communities who have a history of marginalization and perpetual neglect by the government. For the youth, I am enthusiastic to finding a way to dissuade the culture of irregular migration which has proven to be a dangerous and fruitless adventure. The preceding has formed the basis of my writings. As a young scholar, I have published articles which can be accessed online while some are currently under review..
Parhusip, Jonathan S.
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Title of Research – Emerging Migrant Space and Grassroots Activism in Taiwan Fishing Port
Jonathan S. Parhusip is a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies (SRCS), National Yang-Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. His research interests include the politics of migration, logistical chain of Indonesia-Taiwan migration industry, and migrant fishermen in the distant water fishing vessels. His Ph.D. research explores the employment practices of migrant fishers in Taiwan fishing industry and grassroots activism of migrant fishers in Taiwan.
Ho Thanh Tam
Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNUH)
Title of Research: The Migration Waves of Viet (Kinh) Ethnic to the Central Highlands (Vietnam) in the Twenty Century.
Ho Thanh Tam gained his Master of History at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH, Vietnam National University, Hanoi) in 2012 and then became a lecture on Vietnamese history at the Faculty of History (USSH) since 2013. From 2014 to 2018, he did his PhD degree in History with PhD thesis about the Religious policy of the Republic of Vietnam (1954–1975) which was highly evaluated by the Council of the USSH. He has several publications on national journal and papers presented at international conferences. From 2019 to present, he has cooperated with the Faculty of History, University California Riverside (US) to do some research on gender history and environmental history in Vietnam.
Qi, Li 
National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan
Title of Research – Passage between Socialism and Capitalism: Experiments of the Special Economic Zone in China
LI Qi, iliqi1994@gmail.com, Ph.D. student, Department of Social Research and Cultural Studies, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. Her research interests include Zone Studies, Urban-Rural Relation, Land Reform, and Economic Democracy Practice. She is also working on a documentary project about the Little Theatre Movement and community practices in post-war Taiwan.
Sharma, Poonam 
National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan
Title of Research – The Invisible ‘Politicized’ Roles of Bangladeshi and Nepali Migrants in North-East India and West-Bengal
Dr. Poonam Sharma is a Research scholar who received her Ph.D. from the Department of Social Research and Cultural Studies at National Chiao Tung University (Taiwan, R.O.C.) in June 2019. She holds a Master Degree with a major in sociology from the Institute of Sociology, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. Her central research area focuses on the phenomenon of ‘migration ‘of migrants/illegal immigrants as ‘unauthorized’ vote banks in South-Asian nations. Dr. Sharma is currently working at the broader aspect of migration and citizenship politics in a comparative study among India, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Her research area also covers the contemporary border politics and unequal policies regulated by modern nation-states, in administering a diverse population structure amidst a complex power struggle.
Tuohy, Brian 
University of California, Los Angeles
Title of Research – Mexican Chicago: Between Belonging and Exclusion
Brian Tuohy is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests include immigration, urban sociology, health, and qualitative methods. His current research investigates issues at the intersection of healthcare and immigration reform and his work has appeared in City & Community and Social Forces. He received his PhD from the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago in 2018, an MSt from the University of Oxford in 2010 as a Clarendon Scholar, and a BA in Psychology and Religion summa cum laude from the University of Rochester in 2007.
Verma, Monika 
National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan
Title of Research- The Plight of Refugees under a Secular Democracy: A glance of Rohingya Refugees in India
Monika Verma was born in Allahabad, India. She received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India in 2010 and 2014, respectively. Presently, she is a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. She is working on the Ph.D. project titled “the plight of refugees under the secular democracy: A case study of Rohingyas in India”. Her research interests are migration studies, refugee studies, border politics, international relations, defence and strategic studies, unequal citizenship and minority studies. She can be reached at moniletit@gmail.com
Wells, Jennifer
The George Washington University, Washington DC
Title of Research – “Fake News!”: Western Rhetoric, Genocide & Statelessness in Asia
Jennifer Wells is Assistant Professor of History & International Affairs at George Washington
University. She received her PhD in history from Brown University and a JD with a specialization in international law from the University of California. Her work focuses on the intersection of history, law, politics, society, and the state. Wells’s current research projects focus on refugees, war crimes, humanitarian law, and how non-state actors, rogue states, and ungoverned territories are financed through illicit international networks. Two current projects focus upon the globalization of migration crises and refugees, and the financing of terrorist networks through cultural property destruction and sale. To date, these projects have involved field research in Jordan, Lebanon, Thailand, and Myanmar. Wells has published on a wide range of issues that examine the intersection of history, law, politics, society, and the state, including refugee policy in the Middle East; international war crimes; terrorism and U.S.-U.K. extradition law; conflict and climate change; British judges and Chinese pirates in 19thcentury Hong Kong; local expertise in nation-building; and the coercive powers of the state.
In addition to these academic pursuits, Wells is an on-air contributor for the BBC and National Geographic Channel. She sits on the board of Genocide Watch and the International Alliance to End Genocide and speaks about these issues to the diplomatic community in Washington, DC. She has worked for Amnesty International and clerked for the U.S. Federal Courts in the Northern District of California.