Our free Asia Program Fall Lecture Series continues with a presentation by Tamber Hilton, Resettlement Program Manager, Refugee Focus, Tucson, AZ: “Working with Refugees in Thailand and the U.S.: A WSU Asian Studies Graduate’s Experience and Perspective. (Tue, Oct. 11, 4:30-6 pm, TODD 276, free and open to the public!
Tamber graduated from WSU in 2006 with a double major in Asian Studies and Political Science. A Boren Scholarship recipient, she worked until April 2016 in Thailand assisting refugees who had fled there from their countries of origin in hopes of accessing third-country resettlement as a durable solution to their displacement. Tamber first worked for the US Resettlement Support Center, operated by an NGO called the International Rescue Committee. There, she managed interpreter services to ensure that refugees who did not speak English could access US resettlement on an equal footing with those who did. After that, she started a Master of Studies in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford in order to gain the knowledge necessary to work as a legal advocate for Asylum Access Thailand. At Asylum Access, she advocated for individual refugees before the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, submitting statements and briefs in support of their applications for protection. Her discussion will explore the US refugee resettlement program and the refugee experience, as witnessed during her experience in Thailand and through working with newly resettled refugees in Arizona. For more information, please visit the WSU Asia Program website libarts.wsu.edu/asia/, or contact the Asia Program Director Dr. Lydia Gerber asia@wsu.edu; phone 509 335-7425.
