Matthew Venker

Matthew Venker is a legal anthropologist studying race, citizenship, and migration in Burma (Myanmar) and among the Burmese diaspora. He uses historic, ethnographic, and visual studies methods to understand intersectional experiences of law and litigation. His current research focuses on the experience of irregular migrants leaving Burma in the wake of the nation's 2021 military coup. He has published on the racial and gendered legacies of colonial litigation, particularly among ethnic Chinese in Burma.

Matthew has fifteen years' experience working in East and Southeast Asia, including China, Thailand, and Myanmar. He has conducted research in Myanmar since 2017. He earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2023.