I am a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My broad expertise is in international migration, racial and ethnic studies, global and transnational sociology, ethnography, and service learning methods.
I recently defended my dissertation, titled “Ambivalent Diasporics: High-Skilled ‘Return’ Migration and Social Change in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam”. This study follows the family, friendship, and work lives of high-skilled ‘return’ migrants in long-term jobs in Vietnam, their parents’ ancestral homeland, and how the migrants’ presence is changing global firms and international nongovernmental organizations, media/arts and entertainment industries based there.
My participant observation fieldwork and semi-structured interviews took place in 2004, 2008, and 2010 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Many aspects of my social biography involve international and regional migration. I live in the area surrounding Madison, Wisconsin. I was born in Vietnam and grew up in California. My BA degree is from UC Berkeley, and my MA is from the University of Melbourne, Australia, where I was a Fulbright Fellow.
During Fall 2013, I am Lecturer of Sociology 357: Methods of Inquiry.
Contact:
Mytoan Nguyen-Akbar
Sociology Department
University of Wisconsin-Madison
8128 William H. Sewell Social Sciences Building
1180 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1393
email: mnguyen@ssc.wisc.edu