Dr. Y Thien Nguyen

Assistant Professor

Y Thien Nguyen specializes in the study of modern Vietnam and Vietnamese refugee experiences. His work examines the ideological, political, and institutional connectivity between the Republic of Vietnam and Vietnamese America. He received his PhD in Sociology from Northwestern University and previously served as a Teaching Fellow in South East Asian History at the University of Leeds, UK and a Research Associate for the US-Vietnam Research Center at the University of Oregon. He is currently completing his book manuscript entitled Diasporic Legacies: The Making and Remaking of Vietnamese Anticommunism (Hawaii University Press, forthcoming). Beyond his immediate academic duties, Dr. Nguyen also serves on the Board of Director for the US-Vietnam Research Center and offers consulting and grant writing services to Vietnamese American non-profit organizations.

Peer-Reviewed Journals

“(Re)making the South Vietnamese Past in America.” Journal of Asian American Studies. 21, no.1 (2018): 65-103. https://doi.org/10.1353/jaas.2018.00032

Peer-Reviewed Chapters

“Understanding the Historical Foundations of Vietnamese American Conservatism,” in Politics of the Multiracial Conservatism, ed. by Daniel Martinez HoSang and Joseph Lowndes. New York University Press, forthcoming 2024.

“Anticommunist Nationalism in the Vietnamese Diaspora,” in Routledge Handbook of Asian Diaspora and Nationalism, ed. by Ajaya K. Sahoo. Routledge, forthcoming 2024.

“Legacies and Diasporic Connectivity: Dialogues and Future Directions of Vietnamese and Vietnamese American Studies,” in Toward a Framework for Vietnamese American Studies: History, Community, and Memory, ed. by Linda Ho Peche, Alex Thai Vo and Tuong Vu. Temple University Press, 2023.

“When State Propaganda Becomes Social Knowledge,” in Building a Republican Nation in Vietnam, 1920-1963, ed. by Nu-Anh Tran and Tuong Vu. University of Hawaii Press & Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute, 2022.

Book Reviews

Review of Vietnam: A War Not a Country by Ron Eyerman, Todd Madigan, and Magnus Ring. H-Diplo. (July 17, 2024). https://hdiplo.org/to/E577

“Vietnamese Refugees, Political Agency, and U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Vietnam,” Roundtable Feature, Review of After Saigon’s Fall: Refugees and US-Vietnamese Relations, 1975-2000 by Amanda Demmer. Texas National Security Review. 6(4): 127-132 (October 17, 2023). http://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/4884