Dr Sylvia Ang is Lecturer in Sociology. Her research with migrants in and from Asia is interested in the production and experiences of inequalities, focusing on ethnic relations, class, gender, mobilities and decolonisation. Her work has contributed to international and national debates on how ethnicity, class, gender and nationality shape Asian migrants’ lives. She engages with different research methods including in-depth interviews, ethnography, and digital ethnography.

Prior to this position, she was Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (ADI), Deakin University. From 2018 to 2020, she was Postdoctoral Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. She completed a Doctor of Philosophy at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne.

Sylvia has published in high-quality refereed journals including the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies and Mobilities. These outputs have advanced perspectives in migration studies, ethnic and racial studies, and studies on diasporas, co-ethnicity, intersectionality, postcolonialism and decolonisation. Her monograph, Contesting Chineseness: Nationality, Class, Gender and new Chinese migrants (Amsterdam University Press) was awarded the Raewyn Connell Prize for best first book in 2024.

She recently led an evaluation of a skills assessment program for international Vocational and Education Training (VET) students who have graduated with Australian qualifications, funded by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. She is currently working on several research projects, including on the role of class in shaping migrants' lives, decentering migration studies and attitudes towards the 'west' among returned Chinese graduates from ‘western’ universities.

Currently supervising these topics:
- asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia
- feminism in China
- international graduates' employability in Australia

Keen to supervise these topics: 
- diasporas
- temporary and/or labour migrants
- working-class and/or middle-class migrants 
- gender and migration
- international students
- ethnic relations, including racialization and racism
- postcolonialism or decolonisation
- migrants in or from Asia