Biography

Patricia Nguyen is an artist, educator, and scholar born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Nguyen earned her Ph.D. in Performance Studies at Northwestern University and currently an assistant professor in American Studies at the University of Virginia. She is also a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow for New Americans. Her research and performance work examines critical refugee studies, political economy, forced migration, oral histories, inherited trauma, torture, and nation building in the United States and Vietnam. She has published work in Women Studies Quarterly, Women and Performance, AmerAsia, Journal of Asian American Studies, Harvard Kennedy School's Asian American Policy Review, The Funambulist, and The Methuen Drama Anthology of Modern Asian Plays edited by Siyuan Liu and Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. 

Patricia has over 20 years experience working in arts education, community development, and human rights in the United States and Vietnam. She has facilitated trainings and workshops with The Fulbright Program, American Center at the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, Jane Addams Hull House, Christina Noble Foundation, Social Workers Association in Vietnam, Vietnamese American Young Leadership Association in New Orleans (VAYLA‐NO), Asian Human Services, and 96 Acres on issues ranging from forced migration, mental health, youth empowerment, and language access.

As a performance artist, she has performed at the Nha San Collective in Vietnam, Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, Jane Addams Hull House, Oberlin College, Northwestern University, University of Massachusetts Boston, Links Hall, Prague Quadrennial, Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Chile, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Milwaukee Art Museum, and Contemporary Arts Network. She is co-founder and executive director of Axis Lab, a community centered art, food, and design studio based in Uptown, Chicago that focuses on inclusive and equitable development for the Southeast Asian community. In recent news, she is an award-winning designer for the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial Project, part of a historic reparations ordinance.

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