Degree Pursued: MPH

Anticipated Degree Year: 2027

Committee Chair/Advisor: -

Discipline: Public Health

Research Countries: Indonesia, Timor-Leste

Degree Pursued: MPA

Anticipated Degree Year: 2027

Committee Chair/Advisor: Laurie Miller

Discipline: Public Policy

Research Countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand

Degree Pursued: MPS

Anticipated Degree Year: 2026

Committee Chair/Advisor: -

Discipline: Global Development

Research Countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Vietnam

Degree Pursued: MA

Anticipated Degree Year: 2027

Committee Chair/Advisor: Shaoling Ma

Discipline: Asian Studies

Primary Countries: Cambodia, Las, Myanmar, Vietnam

Research Interests: Cultural capital flow, Chinese-Cambodian interaction, creative industries

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: 2030

Committee Chair/Advisor: Eli Friedman

Discipline: Industrial & Labor Relations

Primary Countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore

Research Interests: Labor and technology

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: -

Committee Chair/Advisor: Juno Parreñas

Discipline: Anthropology

Primary Countries: Thailand

Research Interests: How Karen communities in Northern Thailand understand their socioecological entanglements and how they translate those understandings in their encounters with the state, NGOs and tourists

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: 2026

Committee Chair/Advisor: Chiara Formichi

Discipline: Asian Studies

Primary Countries: Indonesia, Japan

Research Interests: Urbanism, Architecture, Technology, Diplomacy, Japan–Southeast Asia Relations, Transpacific Studies

Yichen Wang studies how migrants’ social connections—both offline and online—shape well-being and health in new environments. Her work examines how digital use transfers into emotional fulfillment, the role of social networks, and the protective power of social support. By linking social relationships to mental and physical health, she provides insights into cultivating belonging and resilience in migrant communities.

Waleska Solorzano is a PhD candidate in Latin American studies. Her interdisciplinary research revolves around questions of aesthetics, domestic culture, migration, ontology, oral histories and testimonies, and the politics of representation. She examines how desires for familial belonging and the spatial dynamics of community-building proliferate within Venezuela and the diaspora through contemporary artistic practices and productions. 

Vicente Mata’s research examines how broader geopolitical trends in which humanitarianism is co-opted by state and political interests, has historically and contemporarily, shaped political discourse on immigration and restrictive anti-immigrant policies at the U.S.-Mexico border.