Dr. Amanda Flaim will speak on “Statelessness as State-Making,” drawing from her extensive research on the problems and paradoxes of human rights policy—particularly statelessness, citizenship, human trafficking, and the global expansion of rights to education and birth registration. Her current projects examine the risk of trafficking among Cambodian and Burmese men and boys in Thailand’s fishing industry, as well as the causes and consequences of statelessness in Thailand and Nepal.
Professor Flaim has consulted for multiple NGOs and United Nations agencies, including designing and leading two of the largest country-level surveys of stateless populations ever conducted. Prior to joining James Madison College, she served as a Postdoctoral Associate and Human Rights Fellow at Duke University.
This lecture is part of the Kennedy Center's fall 2025 lecture series, "The Future of Citizenship."