Kurt W. Kuehne is a UW-Madison Sociology PhD candidate focusing on international labor migration, precarity, gender, urban sociology, and social marginalization.
His dissertation project examines the conditions of South Asian manual workers and Southeast Asian domestic workers in Singapore, describing a long history of ‘social distancing’ between ordinary citizens and the low-wage, non-citizen workers who comprise over a quarter of Singapore’s resident workforce. Kurt uses comparative methods to analyze how migrant populations are forced into gendered employment configurations—including distinct forms of social boundary-making and control, debt financing models, employment legislation, and labor dispute systems.
He holds an A.B. in Politics from Princeton University and an M.A. in Southeast Asian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research has been supported by UW graduate research fellowships, the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of State, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, American Institute of Bangladesh Studies, the 4W Initiative and Women’s Philanthropy Council, and various research centers.