Victoria Thuylinh Pham(she/her)
PhD Candidate · Department of History · Northwestern University, IL
Victoria Thuylinh Pham (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in history at Northwestern University and a dedicated community organizer both on campus and with the refugee/immigrant population in Uptown, Illinois. Continuously seeking ways to engage with students and the public humanities at large, Pham remains committed to implementing programs and facilitating dialogues about contemporary issues that affect our communities, encouraging critical reflection and examination upon structural inequity, globalism, and migration.
Her dissertation, “Disrupting Notions of Refugeehood,” employs an interdisciplinary lens in examining the precarity of the Vietnamese refugee figure and the nuances of its configuration geopolitically.
Pham’s work has been generously supported by funding venues such as the Comparative Race and Diaspora Cluster, Council for Race and Ethnic Studies, Asian American Studies Program, Alice Kaplan Institute, and Chabraja Center for Historical Studies.
Education
- Sept. 2021–Present
- PhD Candidate, History, Northwestern University (advisor, Dr. Ji-Yeon Yuh). Major Field: Global Migration, Refugee Resettlement and Settler Colonialism. Minor Field: Gender and Sexuality. Specialized Field: Asian American Studies.
- June 2021
- BA, History and Literature/Writing, University of California, San Diego. Honors History Thesis with Highest Distinction (advisor, Dr. Simeon Man). Honors Literature Thesis with Highest Distinction (advisor, Dr. Erin Suzuki).
Research
“Disrupting Notions of Refugeehood”
My dissertation, “Disrupting Notions of Refugeehood,” elucidates the nuanced global processes that compel Vietnamese refugee resettlement through intersecting and constitutive factors of race, class, and gender. In order to interrogate the circumstances and policies that have shaped such migration, beginning in the Vietnam War and continuing to the contemporary moment, my work analyzes the migrant/refugee figure as a politicized embodiment of the construction of citizenship and borders, while also attending to how nation-states and global dynamics produce such political boundaries.
Yet my work furthermore sheds light onto the complexity of migration categories themselves and how they serve as political containers. The Vietnamese refugees I examine at times reject the “refugee” classification or deliberately seek it, yet fail to have the state recognize them as such. By highlighting the voices and narratives of how diverse Vietnamese diasporic groups contend with their resettlement globally, I aim to disrupt normative conventions of migratory classifications and their temporal attachment by emphasizing the nuanced lived experiences of disparate Vietnamese communities.
Research Interests
- U.S. militarism and empire
- Race and ethnicity
- Settler colonialism
- Asian diaspora
- Global refugee history
- Oral history
- Queer theory
Select Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- “Indigeneity and Statelessness: The Montagnards of Greensboro,” Radical History Review, Special Issue: Unsettling Homelands: Radical Histories of the (Ethno)Nation-State (2028). Invited for full paper submission.
- “Agent Orange: Biopolitics, Monstrosity, and Silencing of the Refugee Figure,” American Quarterly, Special Issue: Heredity (2027). Invited for full paper submission.
- “Aloha Refugees: Vietnamese Resettlement and Militarization in Hawai‘i,” Critical Ethnic Studies, 10:1 (2026). Forthcoming.
Creative Writing
- “this is for mẹ: Jackfruit,” diaCRITICS, April 2026. – Read at diacritics.org
Teaching
| Term | Role | Course |
|---|---|---|
| WTR/SPR 2027 | Instructor of Record | INTL ST 395: The Refugee in Global Discourse |
| Summer 2026 | Co-Instructor of Record | Exploring the Liberal Arts for Summer Bridge |
| Winter 2026 | Instructor of Record | CFS 393: Field Studies in the Modern Workplace |
| Spring 2025 | Teaching Assistant | AS AM 247: Asian Americans and Pop Culture |
| Winter 2025 | Teaching Assistant | AS AM 276: Asian American Comics |
| Fall 2024 | Teaching Assistant | AS AM 210: Intro to Asian American Studies |
| Winter 2023 | Teaching Assistant | AS AM 214: Asian American History |
| Fall 2022 | Teaching Assistant | HIST 300: Global History of Refugees |
Community & Organizing
Facilitator and Consultant for “VAI Roots,” Vietnamese Association of Illinois, 2022–Present. Facilitate in-person workshops and webinars on topics of interest to the Vietnamese community in Chicago such as refugee resettlement, mutual aid, and history of Uptown.
Awards & Funding
- 2026 – International Studies Interdisciplinary Graduate Assistantship at Northwestern
- 2026 – Chabraja Center for Historical Studies Summer Public History Fellowship ($3,000)
- 2025 – Chicago Field Studies Interdisciplinary Graduate Assistantship at Northwestern
- 2025 – Council for Race and Ethnic Studies at Northwestern Research Grant ($1,500)
- 2025 – Asian American Studies Program at Northwestern Research Grant ($1,500)
- 2025 – Community Leadership Award from the Vietnamese Association of Illinois
- 2024 – Asian American Studies Interdisciplinary Graduate Assistantship at Northwestern
- 2024 – Comparative Race and Diaspora Cluster Research Grant ($1,000)
- 2024 – Alice Kaplan Public Humanities Practicum Fellowship
- 2023 – Alseth Fund Summer Language Grant for Vietnamese ($2,500)
- 2023 – Chabraja Center for Historical Studies Summer Public History Fellowship ($3,000)
- 2022 – Alseth Fund Summer Language Grant for Vietnamese ($2,000)
- 2021 – Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Celebration Essay Contest ($1,000)
Affiliations & Service
- 2025–Present – Chair, History Graduate Teaching Committee, Northwestern
- 2025–Present – Graduate Teaching Fellow at Searle Center, Northwestern
- 2025–Present – Graduate Associate for the Residential College of Cultural and Community Studies, Northwestern
- 2021–Present – Mellon Fellow in Comparative Race and Diaspora, Northwestern
- 2020–2021 – Chair, Asian & Pacific-Islander Student Alliance, UCSD
- 2020–2021 – Co-President, API for the Arts and Humanities, UCSD
- 2020–2021 – Board Member, Student Promoted Access Center for Education and Service, UCSD
- 2020–2021 – Undergraduate Student Body Representative, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Council, UCSD
- 2019–2020 – Chief of Staff of Associated Students’ Office of DEI, UCSD
- 2019–2021 – Vice President Internal, It’s On Us, UCSD
Talks
- April 2025 – “Vietnamese Repatriates: The Forgotten Exiles of the Vietnam War,” Association for Asian American Studies, The Westin Seaport Hotel, Boston.
- April 2024 – “Fort Indiantown Gap: A Site of Contingency,” Association for Asian American Studies, Grand Sheraton Hotel, Seattle.
- Nov. 2022 – “Oral Histories: A Site of Remembrance and Identity Formation,” PAMLA, University of California, Los Angeles, Luskin Conference Center.