Khatharya Um is a political scientist and senior lecturer in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She directs the Peace and Conflict Studies program at Berkeley and is affiliated with the Center for Human Rights and the Center for Race and Gender Studies. His research focuses on Southeast Asia, genocide, memory, forced migration, and social justice issues concerning vulnerable populations in the United States. She is one of the founding members of the "emerging field" of Critical Refugee Studies. Author of "From the Land of Shadows" (New York University Press, 2015), and co-director with Sofia Gaspar of the book "Southeast Asian Migration" (Sussex Academic Press, 2015), she has also published several articles on social issues and policies in South-East Asia, on the Cambodian diaspora and memorial policies as well as on exile.