Rhacel Parreñas is a professor of American Civilization at Brown University. She received her Ph.D. in ethnic studies and B.A. in peace and conflict studies from the University of California—Berkeley. She has previously taught at the University of California—Davis, University of Wisconsin—Madison, and was a distinguished visiting professor at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo. Parreñas’ work is focused on women, globalization, family and migration. Her research on Filipino migration is motivated by her personal background — her parents came to the United States as political refugees. She has written three books in addition to more than 30 journal articles, review essays, and book chapters. Her work has been have been translated into five languages.
Her fieldwork for her book Trafficked included working at a Yakuza-owned Japanese nightclub for three months to gather research.