Laura Ng

Laura W. Ng is a historical archaeologist with a research focus on the archaeology of transpacific migration and Asian diasporic communities. She conducts archaeological research on late nineteenth and early twentieth century Chinese migration and the transpacific circulation of people, goods, and ideas between Chinese diaspora sites and home villages in Taishan County (Hoisan), Guangdong, China. She is currently examining agricultural landscapes created by Chinese vegetable farmers and collaborating with Dr. Dudley Gardner on the archaeology of the Evanston and Rock Springs Chinatowns in Wyoming. The latter was the site of the 1885 Rock Springs Chinese Massacre. Follow our artifact cataloging progress on the Evanston Chinatown blog: https://buriedchinatowns.sites.grinnell.edu/

Previous projects include the archaeology of transnational linkages between the San Bernardino Chinatown and Riverside Chinatown in Inland Southern California and the Gom Benn village cluster in Hoisan County, co-directing the Cangdong Village Project, which was the first archaeological investigation of a home village in Guangdong Province, and providing research support for the Chinese Railroad Workers of North America Project at Stanford University. She has also helped lead community archaeology projects at Manzanar National Historic Site, a National Park Service unit that preserves the story of the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.