Research Bio
My teaching and research interests center around refugees and other forcibly displaced communities and their incorporation experiences. My specialization is Southeast Asian studies and Southeast Asian diaspora studies, genocide studies and post conflict trauma, reconciliation, memory works, and national healing. My teaching and research is also community based and policy oriented, with a special focus on equity and inclusion of linguistic and cultural minorities.
Research Expertise and Interest
education, memory, Southeast Asian Studies, Asian American histories and communities, Southeast Asian diaspora, refugees, international migration, transnational and diaspora studies, genocide studies
In the News
How the Pandemic Impacted the Asian American Diaspora
Five years after COVID-19, Berkeley researchers are documenting the human story of its global toll on specific communities within that very diverse racial category.
Khatharya Um Receives Major Prize in Asian Studies
The Fukuoka Prize honors the outstanding work of individuals, groups and organizations in preserving and creating the unique and diverse cultures of Asia.
Berkeley ‘Refugee Scholar’ Khatharya Um Shares Her Story to Empower Students
For many Southeast Asian refugees, the current violence in Afghanistan and Ukraine is like an instant replay of a painful history that few can forget. If little is taught about the Vietnam War — a misnomer, because the war was not confined to Vietnam — even less is known about Cambodia and the U.S. intentional destruction of that country to secure a supposedly honorable exit from Vietnam in April 1975.
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