Oanh Nguyen is from Portland, Oregon. Her undergraduate work was done at the University of Oregon. After graduating with a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science, she moved to Bangkok, Thailand. There, working in both the urban setting and in an immigration detention center, she provided legal representation to urban refugees seeking international protection via the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She is currently seeking a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Minnesota with a particular focus on human rights in Southeast Asia. Her interests include: rule of law, migration, and labor.