• Royce Fellowship
Sarath
S. Suong

Award Year 

2024
Refugee Rhode Island: Transnational Movement Archive of Southeast Asian Deportation

Throughout the Trump administration, the deportation of Southeast Asian refugees increased by 400%, and these trends have continued through the Biden presidency. My project focuses on the deportation crisis by asking how transnational movement mobilization is critical to building power for communities suffering from a broken immigration system and imperialist U.S. foreign policy. This research excavates the experiences of Rhode Island community members impacted by deportation from 2016 to the present. My project blends scholarly literature on transnational social movements with critical refugee studies, and employs comics as a political tool for mobilization and popular education. Lastly, this project will provide healing and hope to the deportees, their families, and community organizers.


I will be completing my Ethnic Studies degree in December of 2024 with a focus on Southeast Asian refugee resettlement, resilience, and resistance. I was born in Khao I Dang refugee camp in Thailand, raised in Revere, Massachusetts, and grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. I have a deep and personal commitment to supporting anti-capitalist, abolitionist community organizing and movement building against state violence.