Hardeep Dhillon completed her doctorate in History with a secondary in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGS) at Harvard University. Her dissertation examined the global development of U.S. immigration and border controls through the lens of Asian exclusion at the turn of the twentieth century. Hardeep’s multi-sited research across four continents was supported by the Fulbright Program, American Society of Legal History, American Historical Association, and multiple research centers at Harvard University. Her larger research interests include histories of law, mobility, empire, racial capitalism, and settler colonialism.
Hardeep has supervised an array of undergraduate theses and research projects in these fields of study while serving as academic counsel to Asian American, South Asian, and women’s organizations. Her teaching and supervision was recognized with outstanding distinction by Harvard University, and Hardeep served as the Stephen A. Walsh History Prize Instructor in the History Department in Fall 2020.
At present, Hardeep serves on the Academic Council at South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), as academic counsel to Asian American filmmakers, artists, and writers working on immigration and border issues, and is learning to bridge the divide between her academic research and more public-facing work.
