Nam Kim awarded Luce grant for “Exploring Cultural Divides and Limbo: Wartime Refugee Displacement and Resilience” project.

Dr. Nam C. Kim (Professor, Department of Anthropology) will be serving as PI for a project generously funded by the Henry Luce Foundation in partnership with the Guam Philharmonic Foundation, the University of Guam, and the Micronesian Area Research Center. The two-year project is concerned with the experiences of refugees during and after war, addressing questions of flight, trauma, risk, and resilience. Specifically, it will engage public audiences by raising awareness and generating knowledge about the role of institutions and communities in Guam (Guåhan) in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Using anthropological approaches, the project will examine aspects of “Operation New Life” (ONL) and Guam’s critical role in the reception of over 110,000 refugees fleeing 1975’s collapse of South Vietnam.

The project website including links to lectures, interviews, materials, and more can be found here: https://www.onlguam.org/

Their team is especially interested to hear from all communities with anything to share about the ONL experience, whether the experiences and knowledge are direct or indirect. Feel free to contact the them via email info@guamphilharmonic.org or over the phone at 1-844-487-4364, ext. 2 if you would like to learn more about the project, have information to share, and/or would like to be notified when public events are scheduled.