Bama Athreya discusses East Asian political issues from three perspectives: government policy, academic analysis, and personal experience. She worked as a U.S. Embassy official in Indonesia from 1992 to 1994. Later, she returned to Indonesia to live and work with factory workers while doing field research toward a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology.

She eventually joined the AFL-CIO as Field Office Director in Cambodia, where she ran trade union education programs for the country's first independent unions. Ms. Athreya is now the Executive Director at the International Labor Rights Forum in Washington, D.C., where she does research and advocacy work on the social impacts of global trade, and directs a new project on China.

Topics covered

• Workers Rights in Cambodia, Indonesia, and China
• Social Impacts of Global Trade
• Cocoa and Cotton Industry and Child Labor
• Working Women's Rights

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Bama, please contact her at bama.athreya [at] ilrf [dot] org or (202) 247-4100.