Ai Binh T. Ho

Ai Binh T. Ho was an ACLS Leading Edge Fellow. She focuses on the "Innovations in Childcare Access and Affordability in the United States" project at the Better Life Lab (New America). Ho will bring her experience as an interviewer and storyteller to explore the many experiences seeking, providing, and paying for childcare in the U.S. She also aims to research and surface the solutions that would help those least able to find child care that works for them in the current market system.

Ho earned a BA from Kenyon College and an MA and a PhD in English from the University of Michigan. Her dissertation “The Right to Pain and the Limits of Testimony” prioritizes the stories of Vietnamese war survivors—their language, frame of reference, unique vision, and particular demands. She firmly believes that storytellers offer critical knowledge for social transformation. She calls attention to the care needs of refugee/immigrant and other marginalized families as an expert in Asian American studies, disability studies, and critical refugee studies.

A Vietnamese immigrant, Ho, has fond memories of the beach and rice paddy fields. But she now calls the Tucson desert home, where she enjoys hiking with her partner and their two children.