معرفی
Ann Ngoc Tran is a 2025-2026 UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), affiliated with the Department of Asian Languages & Cultures and Asian American Studies. She specializes in Asian American Studies, the Vietnam Wars, and 20th-century U.S. history, with a focus on forced migrations and refugee studies.
- Educational background includes a B.A. in History and English from Texas Christian University and a Ph.D. in American Studies & Ethnicity from the University of Southern California (USC).
Tran’s research explores the material histories of refugee movements in the South China Sea, emphasizing imperial warfare, sovereign violence, and catastrophe post-Vietnam War. Her dissertation-to-book project, The Ark is Already Gone: A History of Boat Refugee Non-Arrival, redefines refugee narratives through the lens of 'non-arrival,' analyzing displacement, shipwrecks, and statelessness.
Her publications span topics like refugee consumerism, Cold War material culture, and maritime migration. She utilizes digital humanities tools such as ArcGIS mapping to visualize Vietnamese refugee diaspora routes and contributes to encyclopedic works like The SAGE Encyclopedia for Refugee Studies.
- Scientific awards include the AAUW Dissertation Fellowship, USC-Mellon Humanities in the Digital World Fellowship, and the Raymond J. Cunningham Prize from the American Historical Association.
Tran’s work intersects with race and ethnicity studies, Southeast Asian Studies, and critical analyses of humanitarianism. She maintains active collaborations with academic mentors, including Thu-Huong Nguyen-Vo at UCLA, and is a vocal advocate for rethinking state-centric refugee narratives.
