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Social Justice in Community: "When Immigration Became Illegal..." with Nikita Viswasam

Co-presented with the Prince George's County Office of Human Rights and the University of Maryland

The Social Justice in Community series brings human rights scholars into conversation about how their work illuminates human rights struggles around us today and what we can do about those struggles.

How does human rights research impact our communities? How does scholarship on human rights violations or issues of social justice have any meaning in our day to day lives? And what is being discussed, studied, and thought about in universities today? Join the Prince George’s County Office of Human Rights, the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System, and the University of Maryland for the new series "Social Justice in Community," as we bring human rights scholars into conversation about how their work illuminates human rights struggles around us today and what we can do about those struggles. Featuring different scholars from the University of Maryland across a variety of disciplines, from African American Studies to Sociology to Criminology and Criminal Justice to Economics to Government and Politics to Anthropology to Hearing and Speech Sciences and more, this series brings exciting new voices to the Prince George’s County community and offers us all fresh ways to engage.

On February 22, 2024, Nikita Viswasam presents, "When Immigration Became Illegal: Race, Labor, and Asian America."

Nikita Viswasam is a PhD student in the Sociology Department focusing on social inequalities, with research interests in immigration, social determinants of health in the U.S., urban sociology, qualitative methodologies, mixed methods, and community-engaged/participatory research.  Prior to UMD, Nikita worked as research staff at the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins School of of Public Health, working on data capacity-building, implementation science and research studies with governmental, NGO and community stakeholders on HIV health outcomes and determinants at the individual, community, and policy-level among marginalized populations globally, with a population focus on sex workers and regional focus in Southern Africa.

Nikita got her Bachelors of Science in Neuroscience and Global Health at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, and her Masters of Science in Public Health in International Health at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Passionate about making research and data accessible to all, she has also worked as a public health information designer translating data and technical policy information to visual graphics, and as a printmaking artist. Nikita grew up mostly in Houston, TX but has spent the last six years living in Baltimore, MD.