The Asian Studies Department is Proud of Our Alumna
Department of Asian Studies alumna Jessica Austin is currently living in Phnom Penh thanks to a generous Fulbright Student Research Grant.
Alumna Jessica Austin
I fought for and was awarded scholarship support to attend a liberal arts university that became a space of tumultuous transformation and afforded me time to journey to Yunnan Province, China and four countries in Southeast Asia. More scholarship support led me to attend University of Hawai’i in Manoa Valley, Honolulu, a journey that has deeply shaped my consciousness and all aspects of my future. I recently ended a two year period living in Melbourne, Australia, and now I live in Phnom Penh thanks to a generous and hard-won Fulbright Student Research Grant.
This place is home for the many continuing and various projects of my past, present, and future. You’ll find information and posts about the oral history project I’m working on in Cambodia, as well as posts that touch on topics from previous and hopefully future projects related to social justice, community education, cultural studies, and writing.
I travel often and enjoy getting heady about ontology of the traveler, whatever that means, and you’ll find many of my travel theories here. Moving around has a jarring effect that impacts my sense of place, self, and relationships, and I find myself exploring that through poetry, fiction, and sometimes photography.