William Westerman

William Westerman is currently a lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program teaching a course entitled “Refugees, Immigrants, and Social Justice.” Prior to this he was director of the Cambodian American Heritage Museum and Killing Fields Memorial in Chicago. A graduate of Harvard University with a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania, he has worked throughout his career with immigrant and refugee communities in museums, arts and social service organizations including the New York Foundation for the Arts, the International Institute of New Jersey, and the Philadelphia Folklore Project. He served as the Executive Director of the Historical Society of Plainfield (N.J.) and the Drake House Museum. He curated the exhibit “Fly to Freedom: The Art of the Golden Venture Refugees” at the Museum of the Chinese in the Americas and six other sites including the Smithsonian Institution. As a human rights activist, he works extensively on the issue of imprisonment of asylum seekers worldwide.