Diasporic Logistics and the Afterlives of Empire

Project Summary:

This project draws on archival research and semi-structured interviews to map the logistical landscapes that make southeast Asian diasporic life possible in post-1975 Hong Kong. It focuses on two figures that have historically built and sustained such landscapes: the Vietnamese boat person and the migrant domestic worker. It asks: how have these figures turned to logistics as a strategy for surviving and making do in a world structured by the violent logics of transpacific imperialism and racial capitalism? And how might such examples of diasporic logistics help us think relationally across seemingly distinct geographies of Southeast Asian migration and refuge?

Deliverables:

a literature review or a data analysis report

Preferred discipline(s):

Social Sciences

Project Essential Skills:

• Some experience or interest in working with/alongside Asian diasporic communities, either in North America or in Asia.
• Some experience or interest in conducting archival research
• A familiarity with relevant work (on domestic work, global care chains, labour migration,
  gendered organizing, logistics/infrastructure and so on) in human geography and
  Asian/Asian diaspora studies
• Good close reading and analytical skills

Other Selection Criteria (if any):

Some measure of fluency in Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Bahasa would be ideal, but not essential

Details of supervision arrangements:

Students are required to meet their project supervisors at least three times for progress update. The progress meetings are expected to conduct in person.