The Expert is an academic researcher and independent consultant whose expertise ranges from the study of Vietnamese and South East Asian socio-political issues to global labour exploitation and migrant workers' rights.
The Expert is an academic researcher and independent consultant whose expertise ranges from the study of Vietnamese socio-political issues to global labour exploitation and migrant workers' rights.
His extensive knowledge pertaining to Vietnam and other South East Asian countries includes political, legal cultural and social expertise, in particular regarding victims of human trafficking and modern slavery, ethnic and religious minorities, environmental and political activists, and the exploitation of migrant workers.
Given his fieldwork in rural, mountainous regions of Vietnam, he is highly knowledgeable of issues surrounding high-risk populations, including minoritised and marginalised ethnic communities, poor rural workers, and societally stigmatised groups.
He is in the final stages of his PhD (University of Zurich) in marginality and commodity chains in Vietnam. The Expert read English at Oxford University and holds an MA in Social Anthropology from SOAS, University of London, and a certificate in Vietnamese language from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Vietnam.
He has taught undergraduate and post-graduate degree courses in anthropology in such areas as witchcraft, sorcery and spirit possession in sub-Saharan Africa, global human rights and international development.
He has coordinated international research programmes across South East Asia in collaboration with academics and NGO workers from several South East Asian countries.
As an expert on labour exploitation and migrant workers' rights in the UK, The Expert has researched the challenges affecting migrant workers from Asia and Europe and undertaken comparative study of labour migration law in different jurisdictions.
‘Nature’s Gift or Unstable Commodity? Dealing with Marginality in the Vietnamese Star Anise Commodity Chain’ (Panel presentation and research paper, EuroSEAS, Berlin 2019. Abstract at https://euroseas2019.org/program/panels/spicy-dis- connections-routes-values-and-imaginaries )
Changing The Narrative: A New Conversation Between the Citizen and State with Paul Buddery and Atif Shafiq (London: The Staff College / The RSA, 2016). Available online at https://www.thersa.org/globalassets/pdfs/reports/changing-the- narrative-report.pdf
‘Connecting the Dots’, RSA Journal, Issue 4 2015 (2015). Available: https://www.thersa.org/blog/2016/01/connecting- the-dots
Community Capital: The Value Of Connected Communities (London: The RSA, 2015). Available: https://www.thersa.org/globalassets/pdfs/reports/rsaj3718-connected-communities-report_web.pdf
Cranford Stronger Together with David Yates (London: Democratic Services, London Borough of Hounslow 2015). Available: http://democraticservices.hounslow.gov.uk/documents/s115121/Cranford%20Stronger%20Together%20project%20-%20Final%20Report%20not%20for%20printing.pdf