Thao P. Pham

PhD Candidate, Education Policy Studies · University of Wisconsin–Madison

I am a PhD candidate in Education Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. My research examines educational inequality across space and time, asking why achievement gaps persist and how they are (re)produced.

I work at the intersection of quantitative history, spatial analysis, and causal inference.

• First, my research uses spatial econometrics and Bayesian methods to examine how Confucian institutional legacies shape educational investment and attainment across Vietnamese provinces.
• Second, I study Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, and Hmong communities in the United States, England, and France — populations that education data routinely collapses into a single “Asian American” or “Asian” category — asking how Confucian heritage and refugee experience jointly shape educational trajectories across national contexts.

Before Madison, I studied Public Policy at Indiana University Bloomington and Economics at the University of Manchester, UK.

CV

My CV is available here.

Research

My publications and works in progress are listed here.

Teaching

Courses and teaching materials.

Writing

I write about belonging and becoming — as a researcher, a learner, a person still in the middle of things. This is where I keep what I carry: movies, songs, life lessons, and whatever else refuses to forget.

Read at Pandora Noise →

Selected awards & fellowships

• Amy Ling Yellow Light Award for Creative Endeavor and Scholarship, Asian American Studies Program, UW–Madison
• Best Student Paper Award, Vietnam-America Association for Public Affairs and Policy
• Runner-up, Waging Peace in Vietnam Student Essay Award

Contact

• Email: tppham@wisc.edu
• Google Scholar: profile
• Twitter / X: @Pandora_Noise
• Website: pandoranoise.com