Quinton Huang

Quinton Huang

Quinton is a first-year MA student in the Department of History at UBC. He hails from what is now known as Kitimat, British Columbia (which is part of the unceded, ancestral, and traditional territory of the Haisla Nation) and grew up partly in Vancouver. 

Quinton’s primary research focus is the social and political history of squatter settlements in early postwar Hong Kong, and how they fit into broader trends of migration, urbanization, and informal community formation throughout East and Southeast Asia during the 20th century. Relatedly, he is interested in the history of port cities, maritime communities, and grassroots internationalism throughout East and Southeast Asia. 

Prior to joining UBC, he had previously worked in higher education in Vietnam, teaching English at Can Tho University and working on advancement at Fulbright University Vietnam. In addition, he was a Junior Research Scholar at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, where he helped develop research projects and publications on non-state diplomacies, transnational civil society, regional cooperation, and local media coverage in the Asia-Pacific. He has co-presented this research in several forums, including the Canada Asia-Pacific Policy Project at Thompson Rivers University, and in a co-authored article in the Hague Journal of Diplomacy. 

Outside of academic and policy work, Quinton has a passion for gardening, cooking, and browsing used bookstores. He is also an avid learner of languages, currently working on Vietnamese and Korean.