Laura Ng

Assistant Professor

Offices, Departments, or Centers: Anthropology , East Asian Studies ,

Laura W. Ng is a historical archaeologist with a research focus on the archaeology of transpacific migration and Asian diasporic communities. Since 2017, she has been conducting archaeological research on late nineteenth and early twentieth century Chinese migration and the transpacific circulation of people, goods, and ideas between home villages in Taishan County (Hoisan), Guangdong, China and two Chinese diaspora sites in the Southern California: San Bernardino Chinatown and Riverside Chinatown. Other recent projects include 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.

Education and Degrees

Ph.D. Anthropology, Stanford University, 2021
M.A. Historical Archaeology, University of Massachusetts Boston, 2014
B.A. Anthropology, University of California San Diego, 2008

Selected Publications

Fong, Kelly N., Laura W. Ng, Jocelyn Lee, Veronica L. Peterson, and Barbara L. Voss. 2022. “Race and Racism in Archaeologies of Chinese American Communities.” Annual Review of Anthropology, October.

Ng, Laura W. 2020. “Between South China and Southern California: The Formation of Transnational Chinese Communities” in Chinese Diaspora Archaeology in North America, edited by Chelsea Rose and J. Ryan Kennedy. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.

Voss, Barbara L., J. Ryan Kennedy, Tan Jinhua, and Laura W. Ng. 2018. The Archaeology of Home: Qiaoxiang and Non-State Actors in the Archaeology of the Chinese Diaspora. American Antiquity 83(3):407-426.