Journalist Shares Stories on Campus and in the Community
Image by Tory Germann
04/11/2017
By David Perry
Noy Thrupkaew arrived in Lowell with more questions than answers.
It is what she does. As a journalist, she asks questions and bores away at the truth. What she finds, she shares. Her reports are spread worldwide across the pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The American Prospect and other publications, challenging the notion of justice.
Mostly, she has written of human trafficking and labor exploitation. Modern slavery, less obvious without the chains, is just as insidious in its implications for a society, she says.
Thrupkaew is the university鈥檚 2017 Greeley Scholar for Peace Studies, the latest among a group of distinguished advocates for peace and social justice to spend time on campus and in the community. She arrived from her home in Los Angeles on April 1, just in time for winter鈥檚 last sputter. She will be on campus throughout the month.
Thrupkaew says she was 鈥渇labbergasted鈥� when she learned she was selected as this year鈥檚 peace scholar, following the likes of John Prendergast, Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini and Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee.
Image by Tory Germann
鈥淚 was so surprised that I was asked,鈥� Thrupkaew recalls. 鈥淚鈥檝e seen the stature of the people who were here before. I write about people like them.鈥�
As this year鈥檚 Greeley Scholar, she is sharing the stories of her subjects, bringing to life the narratives of those who survive trafficking exploitation. Human trafficking isn鈥檛 just sex work, she says 鈥� that鈥檚 only 22 percent of the reported cases. Most trafficking happens to people stuck in low-wage service industry jobs, such as working in hotels, laboring on farms or taking care of other people鈥檚 children.
Thrupkaew is fascinated with Lowell, its industrial history and its legacy as a haven for immigrants.
鈥淚鈥檓 excited to learn more about the city. There are a lot of stories I鈥檓 working on, and one of them involves Lowell.鈥�
The story she refers to is about approximately 200 women who lived in Cambodian refugee camps who have developed psychosomatic vision problems. Some of them now live in the Lowell area.
鈥淭hey can鈥檛 see, but there is nothing physically wrong with their eyes,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 fascinating.鈥�
She plans to speak with a Lowell-based psychiatrist, Devon Hinton, who has reported the cases.
Born in Illinois (鈥渢hus the name Noy,鈥� she points out), Thrupkaew is a 1992 graduate of Phillips Academy. Following her magna cum laude graduation from Brown University in 1996 (in comparative literature and religious studies), Thrupkaew moved to Somerville, where she worked at Sojourner: the Women鈥檚 Forum, a feminist newspaper.
鈥淭here were some formative years in New England,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o being back in the area is nostalgic and new at the same time.鈥�
Thrupkaew has always been interested in social justice, writing extensively about it during her time as a fellow at The American Prospect, as a Pew International Journalism Fellow and as a Fulbright Fellow. She began investigating human trafficking when she learned a childhood nanny was a trafficking survivor. She describes the experience in a .
In all of her reporting, she strives to show the humanity of her subjects 鈥� to give voice to their stories.
鈥淭he notion that if you鈥檙e not in chains, you鈥檙e free is misleading,鈥� she says. 鈥淛ust because it isn鈥檛 chattel slavery now doesn鈥檛 mean it isn鈥檛 happening. We need to talk about the problem and talk about the people involved. I talk about people really at the forefront of the movement. Survivors shouldn鈥檛 be trotted out just to show their wounds. They are people, not just bodies.鈥�