Naoko Sunai | Global Migration Processes

Naoko Sunai

Naoko Sunai

Naoko Sunai is a doctoral candidate at the Université Laval Department of Geography. As part of her research, she analyzes the international migration of Vietnamese people from a gender-oriented sociological perspective. More specifically, her work looks at the relationship between the East Asian migration system and the personal experiences of Vietnamese female migrant workers, and on their life paths. With a diverse background beyond the academic life—she has also worked as a journalist, a writer and a photographer—she was able to study the situation of Japan’s female migrant workers and housekeepers from various angles. She received a Canada Research Chair in Global Migration Processes grant to pursue her doctoral work in Geographical Sciences at the Université Laval Department of Geography.

Photographic contribution

Michel Huneault is a documentary photographer and visual artist. Before devoting himself entirely to photography starting in 2008, he worked for more than ten years in international development. He holds an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a Rotary Peace Fellow, focusing on the role of collective memory in the aftermath of large-scale trauma. First in Berkeley and then in New York, he was a student and assistant to photographer Gilles Peress of the Magnum agency. Today, Michel Huneault is still interested in development, trauma, migration and other complex geographic realities, including the impacts of climate change. In 2016, he was awarded the Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship to continue his research on migration issues. In 2018, ROXHAM, his visual and sound project on the passage of asylum seekers from the United States to Canada was adapted into virtual reality by the National Film Board of Canada.