Patricia Nguyen

Patricia Nguyen is an Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of Virginia. She is a scholar, artist, and educator whose work bridges performance studies, public policy, and political philosophy to address histories of violence and advocate for abolitionist futures.

• Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University

Her research explores intersections between the military and prison industrial complex, forced migration, oral histories, inherited trauma, torture, and nation-building in the U.S. and Southeast Asia. Through embodied research, performance, and community collaborations like Axis Lab, she investigates migration, incarceration, borders, and war.

Dr. Nguyen has received prestigious honors, including a Fulbright Fellowship and a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship. She has performed internationally and co-founded cây, a reintegration program for human trafficking survivors in Vietnam.